𝑳𝒐𝒖𝒗𝒆

                                    

                                          
I walked along the sidewalk, keeping away from the road as unknown cars filtered by. I caught a couple of weird stares from passerbys, but they minded their own business and I minded my own. I did this much too often to be afraid of the dark, but I was worried about the creatures lurking behind the screen of bushes bordering the treeline of the woods. 
I told my mom, who was cooking dinner at home, that I was going out for a walk and I'd be back around ten or eleven. Mom insisted I eat something before I go, so I shoved a granola bar into my pocket and darted out of the house before she couple complain. I wasn't big on meals. I ate snacks every so often, and I knew that was unhealthy but I'd throw up if I shoveled food down my mouth the way my dad does. It just sickened me. 
I passed by some of the almost identical white and blue houses along Sowell Street, peering into their windows so try and catch a glimpse of what they were doing. The Harbury family was eating dinner at the table, the elderly couple in 345 were watching an old western, and judging by the shadows on the curtain at house 935 the new neighbors were getting up to a bit of fun. I felt wretched watching, so I picked up my pace until the sound faded into the distance.
It was strange how eerie the town looked at night. I always felt anxious walking along the cracked, crumbling sidewalk but not because I was afraid of the dark, I was afraid of people. Even in a town as small as ours there were still creeps. It was because of those statistics, like one out of every three people were gay? Well apparently 1 out of every 59 people were pedophiles, and there were a few hundred people in my town. The thought made me shiver. Thankfully I was almost an adult though, so I hopefully I wouldn't be of interest to any creeps wandering these streets at night.
My shoes flattened the weeds choking the sidewalk, their spindly stems poking out of the cracks. I don't think this sidewalk had ever been weeded before. Someone just sprayed it and waited for the dead weeds to blow away or regrow. I might try to clean up, but if I wasn't going to be thanked for it or applauded, then what was the point? If people were just going to get used to my hard work and take it for granted then I wouldn't do it anyways. I wondered if that was why I hadn't found anything I wanted to do yet, because I needed some type of compensation. Whatever. I'd figure it out eventually.
Right now, I just wanted to forget about stupid college and go for a short walk in the woods. I love the sound of dead leaves crunching underfoot and night birds tittering in the trees above me. It was so relaxing when you forgot the fear of being eaten alive by bears or wolves or something. Luckily, there aren't any wolves in this part. Or at least, there shouldn't be.
I also wanted to go into the forest because I had heard construction going on for nearly a week now, and it'd been interrupting my nightly routine. I was curious to see what they were building, and why. I was worried they were tearing down a bunch of trees to build this huge thing, whatever it was. My parents had been complaining about it for ages now. I wanted to know what it was so badly, but Jamie and Adam were both scared of getting in trouble. I expected more from Adam.
I pressed my hand against the trunk of a tree and craned my neck to see deeper into the darkness. A lone owl called out, making me jump. I held a hand to my chest, waiting for my heart to calm down. I'd always wanted a pet owl. They were so interesting, and so strange. Nocturnal, carnivorous, flexible, and their legs were like half their body length. Seriously, look up owl legs. It's some weird ass shit. I stepped over the screen of bushes, and my foot came down on a stick. It snapped loudly, and the noise echoed throughout the woods. I jumped, and waited to see if anything happened. A crow cawed in the tree above me, its shiny black feathers blending into the dark sky.
I started walking, weaving around the trees as I made my way towards the sound of rumbling engines. The people working on the construction deep in the woods seemed to work twenty-four seven, which made my mom suspect there was something illegal going on, like unpaid workers or something. That just made me even more curious to see what was happening over there. Jamie asked me to give her a full report when I got back (Adam agreed, but he said only if I got back). 
There was a rustling in the bushes around me, and I whirled around. Two yellow eyes peered at me from the shadows of the bush, and then disappeared. I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes at the plants. Had I imagined it? Probably. I was most likely just a little on edge. Walking in the woods at ungodly hours of the night tended to do that to a person. I heard a sharp bark, and jumped. Clutching my hand to my chest I turned again, but there was nothing there. I swear I heard something this time. 
"Hello?" I called softly.
Nothing.
I shook my head in annoyance. I was imagining things. I remembered all those Disney movies, like Snow White, where it looked like the trees were reaching out with gnarly fingers to wrap around your throat and pull you into the thorn-coated darkness. Maybe Adam was right, I was kind of dramatic. I set my jaw in determination and kept heading towards the sound of engines. I was here to see what the possibly illegal operation looked like, and that was it. It'd been going on for a week, non-stop. Twenty four seven exactly. 
I tried to step lightly over the heavy brush beneath me, trying not to make too much noise. I didn't want to disturb any of the birds or woodland creatures in the woods, just out of my line of sight, that hadn't already been disturbed by the sound of construction. I used to take a book out here to keep track of every animal I saw. When I was a kid, and everyone else was trying so hard to be old around me, I was on my own in the forests for hours on end. I saw birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels, even coyotes on occasion. There were very few dangerous creatures, and I had seen a rabid animal only once. A coyote, with a huge gash on the side of its face. I climbed a tree and waited there, crying, until the coyote dropped dead from exhaustion. It jumped at the tree until it collapsed in a heap, unable to move anymore. There were huge gashes in the tree trunk from where its claws had repeatedly scratched at the bark. The coyote's feet and half of the tree were covered in its blood. 
I was thinking of the horrendous sight now, as I looked around. I didn't remember where it had happened, just that I had been pretty fair away from the neighborhood and no one had heard me screaming for help. My dad came out later and burned the coyote in a big bonfire by the river. Then a couple of the men in town went out searching for anymore rabid animals. They didn't find anymore, and assumed the coyote had eaten the rabid animal that infected it and now the cycle was over.
Crack,a twig snapped behind me. 
I turned, expecting to see nothing again, but gleaming from the roots of a tree were two big yellow eyes. They were a shade of brilliant gold, and watched me intently. They seemed to bore a hole into my soul. 
"Hello..." I murmured. The eyes were canine, like a young coyote hiding in a burrow, or maybe a fox. "It's okay, I won't hurt... you..." I trailed off as the thing trotted out of from its hiding spot. Shiny gray fur, a bushy tail, and a long muzzle. It was a young puppy, one ear bent over itself. A wolf.