Hello everyone – thanks for stopping: ) I belong to a
short story writing group on GoodReads and I’d like to share one of my darker paranormal short stories – not the usual for me, my preference is a lighter form of paranormal or supernatural to read and to write. It’s a real shorty😊
Enjoy…
Soren’s
Calling – word count 967
The tree, miles
inside the dense Michigan forest, billowed with majestic energy, same as it did
fifteen years ago. I’d sensed its power even then, at ten years old. Something
marked in my memory like a reoccurring dream called me back to this place.
I touched the
kaleidoscope of bark, reveling in its swirls of uneven texture, and swore it
shivered. Or was I vibrating to its high frequency? Excitement and exhaustion
sliced through me. “Hello, old friend,” I whispered.
A sudden heaviness
settled into my body and eyelids. I dropped my backpack and leaned against the
tree, bending until I rested on the ground. The
sketch book. I pulled it from the pack and thumbed through the pages of my
drawings. There he was. I want to see you
again.
My eyes closed of
their own volition, sending me into the darkness of deep sleep.
* * *
Breaking branches,
rustling leaves, and a thud on the ground next to me startled my mind to
consciousness. I jumped to my feet, the sketch book landing with Soren’s page
open. I glanced at it for a second before scanning the area and seeing nothing.
Then…he stood in front of me.
“Soren?”
His violet-rimmed
dark eyes studied me. He’d grown in stature, still long-limbed with clawed
hands and feet. His shoulder-length silver hair was drawn away from his
sculpted face by a couple slender braids. He sniffed the air and his mouth
opened showing long incisors.
“It’s me, Becca.” I
reached my hand toward him and he jerked back, snarling, the talons on his fingers
displayed in full. The hair across the nape of my neck snapped to attention,
reminding me of the graphic way he’d stopped a wolf from attacking us years ago.
Maybe this wasn’t
Soren. I lowered my gaze to the drawing at my feet. He stepped closer backing
me against the tree, his thin brows pinched together as he studied the drawing.
He looked back at me, wide-eyed, and planted his hands on both sides of my head.
Somehow, we fell inside the tree.
We plummeted into a
wind tunnel. His arms locked around me as he spun my body around until our
heads were up and our feet were down.
What the
heck just happened? I didn’t recall this part.
Warm shimmering light surrounded us, making the
violet color of his eyes opalescent as we free-fell in this make-shift elevator
of air.
“Becca,” he whispered and nuzzled my neck. “You
came back.”
My eyes moistened. “Soren, I’ve missed
you.” His earthy cocoa-spice scent doused
my olfactory in memories. The three days and nights we’d spent together, climbing
the tree, finding mushrooms, swimming in an icy pond, enjoying campfires…until
my parents found me wandering the forest alone.
We never went to that forest again for our
spring mushroom hunts.
All this time I thought the tree and Soren were
figments of a child’s wild imagination. I returned to the forest in hopes of
finding the tree, where I’d first fallen asleep so long ago. I lifted my head
away from Soren’s shoulder to study him closer. His face appeared more human.
The fangs had receded. His ears lost their pointed tips and his nose wasn’t so
snout-like.
The tunnel opened into a vast terrain of
vegetation, thistle huts, pools, gardens; a whole underground civilization. Our
descending slowed until our feet rested on solid ground.
“Where are we?” My focus went ballistic, attempting
to take in everything at once.
Soren tapped my chin, closing my mouth.
I laughed. “We didn’t come here as kids. I
would have remembered it, especially the trip down.”
“No. Our kind never brings humans here.” He
grabbed my hand.
No
humans? My stomach roiled and my knees shook then folded. The whole falling
through a tree into another world of beings wasn’t connecting inside my brain.
A living nightmare might work as not one human knew where I’d gone, too hard to
explain a child’s quest.
“Becca, you must stand, now, or everyone will
know.” He pulled me up and wrapped an arm around my waist. “We must hurry.”
I jerked to a stop. “I don’t understand. Why
did you bring me here?”
“Shhh. No scene. Come now.” His nostrils flared
and he eyed the gathering crowd. “Explain in a moment.”
A pack of wolves came to mind. My stomach flipped
a couple more times at their red eyes, flaring nostrils, and growing fangs and
claws.
Soren yanked me along a narrow grassy path, the
others followed on our heels. Their snarls and growls closed in. Soren lifted
me in his arms and ran toward a large round hut. He pushed through the
fabric-like doorway into a cool dimly lit room. Not one of the creatures
entered after us.
“They want to hurt me. Or eat me. Why did you
bring me here?”
He set me on my feet and motioned for me to sit
on the cot in the center of the room. Then he slid my sleeve above my wrist,
his fingertips touched two small scars. “Those are what called you back. I
marked you long ago, as you slept, with the intention of giving you another
that bonds. It is why we were attacked. Spring is our season to bond, no matter
what age, we bound our mate and when the age is ripe, like now, we mate for
life.”
“Instinct brought me here? You told me humans
aren’t allowed.” My heart beat into my ribs so hard my body moved to its pulse.
A mix of emotions swept through me in a shiver.
“There are no humans here, only our mates and
us.” His face morphed, fangs extended.
“No.” My voice a mere whisper as he pushed me
back and his fangs sank into my neck.
To see books by this author – check out author pages
below:
DK Davis BWL Publishing Inc. Author Page: http://bookswelove.net/authors/davis-dk-ya-paranormal/
S. Peters-Davis BWL Publishing Inc. Author Page – http://bookswelove.net/authors/peters-davis-s-suspense-paranormal/
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