“Whatever it was, it wasn’t graceful” Blythe giggles.
Fiona looks from me to the dog which is a long-haired black lab or retriever, held back only by Aaiden’s hand grasping firmly on the dog’s scruff. It struggles hard against him, eyes fixated on me. “Do you have bacon in your pockets or something?” Fiona asks me.
Aaiden laughs then gets serious. “Wait, do you have bacon in your pockets? It’s not fair to hold out, Vi.”
“Har, har.” I walk carefully up to the animal and begin to pet its head, keeping my distance. It licks the air between its mouth and my face. It’s a beautiful dog, long dark hair. Its eyes are enchanting, incredibly unique. One is a grey-blue and one is green. I notice something else off too - it only has three legs. One of his back legs are missing, not even a nub visible. It hops a little in excitement on the one back leg. “Well, who are you?” A strange sense of déjà vu overcomes me. I feel like I knew this dog at some point or this moment has happened before. I know I would remember a three-legged dog, but it’s so sweet and I know this sweetness. Suddenly the dog’s enchanting eyes dart to its left. It turns back to whine at me in indecision, then yanks out of Aaiden’s grasp running off into the crowd.
“Looks like we found Violet’s first boyfriend from Concrete,” Aaiden jokes.
“Oh really,” I stand up, “How do you know it’s a boy?”
“I...saw...” He accentuates in a way that implies it’s a ridiculous question.
“Really, Aaiden, checking out a dog’s privates,” jokes Blythe. Aaiden glares at her.
As quick as the dog was in our thoughts, it left as we see a band has set up in a big emptied parking lot, and now there really is enough country music for everyone.
“Let’s go dance!” Blythe exclaims in the crowd. Before anyone can reply, she grabs my arm. I hold out my other hand and Fiona grabs me then Aaiden, and we all work our way to the dance floor/parking lot.
If I tune out the words, the music isn’t that bad to dance to. Blythe and I stick together while Fiona and Aaiden tear up the floor with their moves. My phone rings. I excuse myself from Blythe and head to a corner where I can plug one ear against the booming country twang. It’s Irene, excited to tell me she’s taking Ezra home and Dillon is tagging along. I can hear the boys in the background. I’m very glad that Ezra made a friend. Irene is just as happy that I’m still out with my friends; she tells me she’ll leave the front door unlocked for me.
Just as I hang up, I notice a pretty blonde girl staring at me. I smile politely then work my way back to keep dancing with the others. One thing about being a new face in a small town, everyone notices you.
Later I see the same blonde, at least I think it’s her, staring at me and whispering in the ear of her exact duplicate. Both the girls look the same - tall, white blonde hair, and wearing all black. I glance back at the apparent twins twice to make sure they really are looking at me before I decide to wave at them. They stop whispering and just watch me through the dancers. They aren’t glaring, but goose bumps form on the back of my neck and I shiver. The stare is so flat - like a cat watching something it could eat, but it’s too tired to move. It unnerves me. Someone brushes by my arm and I turn back to my friends to tell them about the girls, only they have moved on. Fiona is dancing with a boy I don’t recognize and Blythe is dancing with Aaiden on the other side of the dance area, too far to alert. I turn back to the girls and they are gone. Glancing around, I don’t see them again so I get caught back up in the music and continue to dance, trying to shrug off the strange feline-like twins.
It doesn’t take long for me to tire of dancing and decide it’s time to head back to the rental house. I weave through the crowd—they all gave me their numbers so I can just text them in the morning—finally cutting through a field on my left that heads down the hill.
“Hey!” Blythe’s unusually high-pitched voice trills through the noise.
Turning, I see her bouncing up and down waving her arm in the air while surrounded by people. It looks like a few men are surrounding her and giving her a rough time. I begin to make my way towards her, wondering how I will get through to her, when I notice Fiona’s red hair is just visible in the mess of people as she plows through two men to get to Blythe and pulls her out towards the grassy field. I run over to check on her; she’s breathing hard.
“Are you okay?” I ask. Fiona has her hand on the brunette’s shoulder and Aaiden is running over.
“Yeah,” she peeps breathlessly, “I saw you leaving and was just trying to catch up and get your attention.” She smiles. “We can’t risk letting you out of our sight, you might just leave again.”
Aaiden, Fiona, and I all groan at the same time. “I thought you were in trouble!” Fiona scolds.
“Sor-ry!” Blythe rolls her eyes. I just chuckle.
“It really did look like you were in trouble. Why don’t you guys come to my place? I can prove I’m not going anywhere.”
“Got any snacks?” Aaiden asks me.
“Uh, yeah. Between my cousin’s and my appetite, over half of our food is snacks.”
“Then I’m in!” He grins. I shake my head.
We continue down by the silos. Something catches my eye up on the top though. A fluid movement that shouldn’t be there. It’s dark and the top of the silos are about 100 feet up, but I swear I see two light eyes looking down on us. That couldn’t be right, no one could possibly get up there, there’s no ladder on the outside and no way in. I shiver for the second time tonight. Something about the eyes—if they are eyes—look familiar just like with the dog. I can’t place why. No one else sees it as we double back up hill; I keep turning my head back to make sure they are still staring, and in doing so I fall behind the others. In the moonlight I see a glimpse of a silhouette and whoever they are is very tall and wide, too wide. Too tall. It looks almost unearthly. My eyes widen taking in the fact that this is actually happening, there really is someone up there watching us. As if in response to my fright, the figure takes a step back into the shadows. The movement takes it out of sight and it disappears. I rush the group back to my place unnerved.
Irene left a pan of leftover taquitos in the fridge so I rewarm them in the oven while my friends sit in the living room.
“So, what would you guys be doing tonight if you hadn’t run into me?” I ask, joining them in the living room once the taquitos are warmed.
“Placating Fiona,” Blythe snarks.
Fiona immediately gets defensive. “That’s not fair, it’s not placating. If you guys don’t want to do it, you don’t have to.”
“Do what?” I ask.
“Wait, what does placating mean?” Aaiden leans forward and grabs a few taquitos to shove into his mouth.
Fiona rolls her eyes. “We were going to go to the graveyard tonight to connect with the spirit realm.”
“Uh what?” That stopped me. Fiona didn’t look the type to spend time in a graveyard and Blythe really didn’t seem the type.
“It’s Fiona’s new thing. She started working for the occult shop in town and now she thinks she’s got abilities,” Blythe says wiggling her fingers in the air.