Chapter Three

Chapter 3

“Have you seen this rain? It’s insane! It was sunny ten minutes ago!” Lili yelled to Becky as she saw her friend near the end of the street. When Becky didn't turn, Lili yelled louder, and began jogging towards her. After about two minutes of frantic yelling and jogging, Lili began to sprint. When she got to about halfway down the street, Lili slowed. The person at the bottom of the street wasn't Becky.

The person stood in a very feminine way, but Becky always stood with her arms crossed. This person stood with one hand on her hip, her foot in a dig, and her other hand by her side.

Standing still now, Lili squinted through the rain, trying to get a better view of this girl. Her eyes widened with horror.

The girl was cloaked, and had begun walking towards her.

The panic and adrenaline came almost instantly, and instead of watching bewildered like she had before, she kicked into a sprint in the opposite direction.

Heading towards the woods, Lili soon realised, was possibly not the brightest idea she’d ever head.

If she ran in to the woods, nobody would know where she was. The woods were totally desolate, surrounding her house and one other. Unfortunately, the other house had no current residents. When she thought about it, Lili realised nobody had lived there in over seven years. Her mum wasn’t home and her dad was at work, so going back home and hiding was out of the question.

Changing course, Lili headed to the left, towards the school.

Risking a glance behind her, Lili saw the figure slowly gaining on her, one step at a time. If she sprinted for much longer, Lili’s legs would give out.

She dodged again, heading for a winding back road behind the local houses. Mind racing, an idea struck her.

If she did go through the woods, she could run straight through, coming out at the other side, right next to the school. It wasn’t smart �" but it was fast, and her last option.

The muscles in her leg straining, she willed them to keep her going as she came to the end of the road and went right towards the woods.

The memory came to her suddenly. There was another reason why she shouldn’t go in to the woods.

A bunch of kids a few years back had entered the woods on bikes, using the natural mounds of woods as jumps. One of the kids had gone missing, and nobody had seen him since. People spread all kinds of rumours about why he disappeared �" one of the more recent ones linked to werewolves.

In an attempt to comfort her, Lili decided that it was just some fairytale mothers made more interesting, so their children would stay away from the woods.Werewolves weren't real, but fragments of imagination, used to make the locals’ hunting stories more interesting.

If she ran for much longer, Lili’s legs truly would buckle. Panting for air now, Lili risked yet another quick glance backwards.

The figure was gone.

Slowing down, Lili turned and hunched over, gasping for air. After she regained the ability to breath, she began walking back the way she came, looking for the mysterious figure.

A sudden wave of realisation hit her �" hard. That figure, she thought. That figure, was in my dream. Last night. And it tried to kill me.

She fell to the ground, her head in her hands and her knees up high. Gently rocking back and forth, Lili tried to make sense of what had just happened.

A few moments ago, a figure who tried to kill her in a dream had chased her down three streets, and almost in to the woods. She’d never seen this figure before last night, but only really saw it today.

She wasn’t insane. There was no way she could be insane.

She lifted her head and looked at her hands. They were smeared in black stuff. Lili panicked, and then realised it was only her makeup. Crying silent tears, she looked towards the woods and watched, as the rain created a mist around the trees.