Chapter 1
The Beginning
I swung her legs over the side of the bed, placing my feet on the cold stone of the cabin floor. Walking quietly, I padded over to the window. It was cool out. The end of the summer winds were whispering of the winter to come. I took a deep, steadying breath and let it out shakily. I'd had the dream again.
The moon was nearly full. Soon the woods would be alight with the soft glow that the moon always cast. The light breeze coming in through the window played with the ends of my hair. I closed her eyes and listened to the noises that formed the music of the night.
I knew that I really should go to bed as I needed to be up early for work the next day, but I was afraid that the dream would come back again. Turning my head, I glanced at the clock that was on the nightstand. 2:17 am. I had to be up in less than four hours.
It was almost always the same in the dream. I was needed somewhere. Something was calling to me, but I was unable to get to it. The dream always began with me walking through the woods. I was searching for something, but didn't know where to go. A voice would call out my name. I would turn to look at the person calling me, but before my eyes could fall upon them, I would wake up in a cold sweat.
These dreams were the very reason that I had moved into a cabin in the first place. It was a vain attempt to make them stop.
I thought that I might find some relief if I moved near the forest, but to my dismay the dreams had only gotten worse, and worse still, I no longer had the finances to move away. It seemed that nobody had wanted to buy the cabin, so the sellers were more than relieved when I bought it, and I knew that I would have the same trouble trying to sell it.
I sighed in exasperation. What had I done to deserve such torment every night? Finally giving up on my thoughts, I walked to the door of my bedroom and opened it, stepping out into the hall.
After I entered the kitchen, I pulled a cup out of the cabinet and filled it with water from the tap, drinking the cool liquid slowly. I sat down at the table, swishing the water around in the glass before me.
What should I do? Should I go back to sleep, or just sit here until I have to go to work? Usually I would go jogging, but it was still much too early to go out in the woods, when it was still very dark out.
The coming day didn't look very promising. It would be a very hard day at work. There were about fifty guests coming to the spa today, and since I was a masseuse my work would be cut out for me.
At times I wondered about my choices. My life had been difficult since I'd moved out at the age of seventeen. My life had not been TOO terrible, but I had felt smothered by my parents. They were always pushing me further than I could handle, and that was how a new problem developed for me.
Because of my parents saying I could do something, and my constantly failing at it, I had grown up with a severe lack of confidence. Not only that, but after all the stress of always failing, I'd also developed an ulcer.
It didn't hurt me constantly, but if I were to get too nervous, worried, stressed, or ate the wrong thing, it would ache terribly.
I laid my head upon the cool surface of the table and sighed, weary of my thoughts. Before I realized it, I had fallen asleep.
The light breeze picked up outside, lowering the temperature of everything it touched. Its whispers seemed to weave through the grass, calling out with their haunting songs. Winter's first frost crawled across the ground, its crystals like spiders, spreading out and scampering across the ground, sucking up heat with their greedy, icy claws.
The trees creaked and moaned at the abuse of the wind. I stirred, but did not wake, I did not realize that soon the mysteries of my dreams would unravel. Very soon, I would no longer be able to stand the calling.