Arrival

The first chapter of the story, "Night Watch", which I hope to turn into a series!

He finally arrived. After sitting in the car for hours, he was finally there. Turning off the engine and stepping out of his car, Alex Perez took in a deep breath of the country air and shuddered. Alex wasn’t very fond of the country air. He was so use to the city air of New York where he owned and founded his own investigation company, Perez Industries. Alex was a tall, well built man. He had short black hair and always wore a suit. His current age of twenty-five and his amazing business skills have made him a big legend in New York for such a young business owner and founder.

Slipping on his favorite pair of black glasses, he took a quick glance at his beautiful black mustang, smiled, and headed for a big house that sat in the middle of nowhere in the great state of West Virginia. Alex walked up the wooded stairs and knocked gently on the front door. The house was mostly made of wood from trees around the forest. Alex knew his grandparents loved nature, so when his grandfather built the place, he had to be careful not to destroy many trees.

There was a scrambling at the door and then standing in the door frame was his Grandmother, Sally Perez.

“Alexander! It’s so good to see you, dear,” she said sweetly.

Alex smiled at his grandmother and gave her a hug, “It’s good to see you too, Grandma.”

She chuckled a little, “I’m surprised someone as famous and business-like as you would still call me Grandma.”

Alex laughed a little too, “I haven’t changed, Grandma, don’t worry.”

“Good,” she said, letting him go, “So what brings you all the way out to Martinsburg?”

“What, can’t a guy visit his own grandparents?” Alex said sarcastically, smiling and sitting on the couch.

“I suppose so,” she said, chuckling again while heading into the kitchen. He suddenly heard the sound of something boiling.

Alex looked around, noticing something was missing, “Where’s Grandpa?”

“He’s at the hardware store right now. He shouldn’t be gone very long,” she said.

Alex nodded, looking around the room. The house had about three floors last he could remember.

Looking to his right, he saw their large television. Alex had to laugh at the television. Even though they lived out in the middle of nowhere, they still have some really nice things.

Then, something caught his eye. He noticed something sitting on top of the television. He got up and walked over to the TV and picked up the object.

It was some kind of model. On the left side showed a small figure that resembled a wolf and on the other side resembled a human with long nails and sharp teeth. In the middle of them was a vine that separated the two creatures and sitting on it, was the moon. The side of the moon that face the human creature was darkened while the side with the wolf is still bright.

“Oh, I see you’ve found that,” his grandmother said, walking in with a tray that had a plate of bacon and eggs on it. Alex looked over at the clock on the wall that read 9 o’clock am.

Wow, didn’t know it was that early, thought Alex.

“Here, take this tray and I’ll tell you about this statue,” she said, handing Alex the tray and taking the statue from him. Alex sat on the couch and his grandmother pulled up a chair from the kitchen and sat in front of him.

“There’s a very interesting story behind this model,” she said, turning it over in her hands.

“What’s the story?” Alex asked, stabbing his fork into his eggs.

She suddenly stopped turning the statue, just staring at it. Alex hadn’t noticed until he realized she hadn’t spoken in almost two minutes.

“Grandma?” Alex said, waving his hand in her face.

She snapped out of her trance at once, her face lighting up.

“Alex, I think there’s something I need to show you.”

Alex cocked his head over slightly, a little confused.

“We’ll leave as soon as your done eating,” she said, getting up and putting the chair away. Alex watched her walk into the hallway that lead to her bedroom, still confused. But he didn’t argue.

Once he was finished, Alex and his Grandmother headed toward the car.

“No, I prefer to walk, if you don’t mind,” she said, standing away from the car.

Alex nodded, locked his car, and began to walk with his grandmother. One thing he never understood, was how fast she was able to walk at her old age. Sometimes when Alex visited and they went on walks together, he had a hard time keeping up with her.

That was the problem now, too. He had to almost jog to keep up with her pace. They began walking through the woods. Alex wasn’t use to being around this many trees. He stared at the dark green moss and leaves, the way the vines wrapped around the trees so beautifully.

After walking for almost an hour, they finally broke through the last bit of trees. On the edge of the forest was a small town. They walked along a narrow path. While walking, people who were passing by were saying hello in the most polite way Alex had ever seen.

Even Sheriff Costello stopped us to say hello.

“Hello, Mrs. Perez. Lovely day today, isn’t it?” Sheriff Costello asked, smiling politely at her.

“Yes, it is,” she replied.

He nodded and smiled. Then, he looked at Alex. His face suddenly went very pale. His smile vanished and he looked nervous now.

“Umm, whose this?” he asked, still trying to keep his voice polite.

“This is my Grandson. You may remember him from last time he was here.”

“Oh yes, now I remember,” Sheriff said, the color in his face returning and smiling again, “Yeah I haven’t seen you a while. How’ve you been?”

“Good, still working on the business,” Alex said.

Sheriff nodded and looked at his watch.

“Well, I’d best be on my way. It was good seeing you both,” he said and he shook Alex’s hand, tipped his hat at his Grandmother, and left. It looked more to Alex like he bowed to her though.

Once the Sheriff was gone, they began walking again. More people said hello and greeted them before his Grandmother stopped dead outside a building.

“This is where I need to show you,” she said, smiling at her Grandson. As she walked up to the building door, Alex read the giant sign next to the stairwell:

Martinsburg Museum

All the history, myths, and legends of the small town of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Alex looked up at the museum, walked up the stairs where his Grandmother waited, and walked inside.

Author's Note

Please ignore any errors! Let me know what you think! Thanks!

Reviews

[Dupree]

Lil bro since when are people around here THAT nice? It's great, could have been a bit more descriptive... Like when they're in the forest describe the smell of it. Something like that would really be good..