Chapter 5

I felt a finger jab into my back and I attempted to squirm away from it. This finger was particular insistent though. Well perhaps not so much the finger as the person it belonged to. Murmuring profanities I scotched farther and farther across the bed away from the finger as it followed me the mattress. Eventually I ran out of bed though. With a thump, I feel to the cold, hard, wooden floor of my bedroom. Squeezing my brown eyes shut as tight as I possibly could I hoped that Dad or Grandpa Billy hadn't heard anything. Dad particularly, he had astoundingly good hearing. But a few seconds just laying there still all wrapped up in the blankets and nothing but snores greeted my ears. Then she spoke.

"Let's go do something, Sadie."

I frowned, struggling to sit up in my cocoon of blankets and when I did finally manage to sit up I saw her bright green eyes shining at me over the now vacant mattress between us. Glaring at her (which really should have had more effect on her then it did because I knew that I must have given one of her my best glares yet) I hissed, "You do realize we're in the middle of small town Washington, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you should also realize there's nothing to be done here."

She frowned, mulling that comment over in her mind, before replying, "We'll find something to do."

"How about going back to sleep?"

"Fine, stay here, but I'm going regardless."

I ignored her not taking her seriously until I heard the click of her heels as she made for the window. Still convinced she wouldn't do it I continued to lay there until I heard her noisily slid the broken window open and the June air poured into the room. "What the hell Sarah?"

"Bye!"

I bolted up to see her climbing out the window with a surprising amount of grace for someone in heels. Rolling my eyes, I wiggled out of my comfortable blanket cocoon and followed her out in my sweat pants and baggy sweater. Of course when I got outside I noted that she was fully dressed which could only mean she'd been planning this. Damn her. She didn't seemed to be bothered by the fact that I was still shooting her looks that clearly expressed my none too pleasant feelings for her right now. In fact, she was grinning. Sometimes she was insufferable. I grumbled under my breath as I felt her grab me by the arm and start to pull me in whatever direction she seemed to feel was a good direction. "Do you even know where we're going?" I demanded.

"No," she replied simply, obviously not bothered by the fact. In fact, she looked as though she was about ready to start skipping at any given moment.

I let her lead me wherever it was that she thought we were going, too tired to fight it. What good would it really have done anyway? When Sarah set her mind on something, Sarah set her mind on it. For someone as bubbly and ladylike as her she was potentially the most willful person I'd ever met. And Dad said I was stubborn. Obviously he hadn't spent enough time around Sarah. It wasn't until I felt my feet sinking into the cool sand that I realized not only were we at the beach, but that I'd completely forgotten shoes. Way to go me.

"Sarah, what are we doing here?" I whined, like the sixteen year old girl that I was.

"Whatever we want. We have the whole beach to ourselves, Sadie!"

"And that's exciting how? The water's cold, I'm hungry, and you have way too much energy for the middle of the night."

She rolled her eyes at me, "You're such a downer."

And it was at that moment that a great howling noise, like the kind you would expect to hear from a wolf baying at the moon only a thousand times intensified echoed out more the forest and onto the beach. I spun around at that very moment to see a dark shape, more of blur than anything else due to the speed at which it moved through the trees behind us, coming this way. Instinctively I grabbed hold of Sarah's arm and pulled her along, the both of us half-stumbling, half-running through the sand as we made our way for the cliffs above the beach. I didn't dare look over my shoulder to see if it was still headed this way. Why couldn't chases ever take place on nice, solid surfaces like a track? That certainly would have made things better. And shoes should be a requirement before any scary dark shapes started chasing you. Sarah and I continued to scramble for the only bit of safety we might have been able to find. The ground rose higher and higher taking us with it towards the top of the cliffs which were frequently dove off of as source of entertainment. I felt the cold, unfeeling rock beneath me as me continued to run, hard as we could. I could hear Sarah's breathing beside me as we neared the top.

And there we were, at the top, the salty ocean air tugging at our hair, pulling at our clothes with so much force I'm surprised it didn't pull us off the cliff and into the ocean below. Sarah's green eyes desperately searched around for something, anything, but all that she found was the stormy night sky above us and the ocean below us, its waves licking at the bottom of the rocks like a waiting vulture. The dark shape, silver in color I realized, came closer with each second. What was it? As I stared at what was more than likely going to be the death of me I realized it bore a great resemblance to a wolf only more like a bear in size. What was it? I would probably never have the answer to that question. Stepping in front of Sarah as it joined us on the top of the cliff, I closed my eyes as it let out a growl. So this was the end.

Author's note: I know it's been forever since I've updated and I hope that some people are still willing to follow this. I lost my muse there for awhile, but now that I'm getting over this really nasty cold it seems to be coming back so hopefully there'll be more to come soon. Hope you're enjoying this!