ST Chapter 6 (and other stuff)

Sorry Mark, you were taking too long to read chapter 5, so I am posting chapter 6! ha I might even do chapter 7 today as well.. I really like chapter 7... heh

On another note, I don't know how much longer I can have two jobs.. I really am on the verge of just up and quitting my second job (despite the good reading/writing time I get in..heh), though sadly I don't think I would ever be that irresponsible.. sigh to being an adult.. But my cracks are starting to show at my first job, which I like a million times more, but I am not hitting my numbers, or barely hitting them.. I am so tired that I just don't care and just want to help the customer get on their way... Just a couple more days and I can talk to the store manager.. though the position that opened has already been filled from another store.. so stupid.. me and the other person are way more qualified, and why the f would you look at another store first?! makes me so angry!! So we will see if he has a time-frame... if it is longer then a month or so, then bye bye first job.. =( I just can't do two jobs anymore.. it is wearing me thin and I don't like not hitting my goals.. I am stressed to the point that I cry at everything.. sigh..

anyways.. on to chapter 6!

            As soon as I entered the trees, I felt the weight lift from my mind. Gone… he was finally gone. I found the nearest fern and started to dig a shallow grave underneath it. The bush was big enough to block from the sun when it rose, but the grave was just in case. I was exhausted once I had dug the grave so I lied down, covered as much of myself with dirt as possible and immediately fell asleep. I knew my body would wake me up when it needed to feed and when it was dark enough for me to be able to walk around.

            Twelve hours later I came out of my coma-like sleep. I was extremely weak and needed to feed, needing the strength to get me to the next town. First, though, I wanted to see where I was. I dug myself out of the dirt and walked for about a mile until I came to the tallest redwood in the area. I scaled the tree, as quickly as my weakened body would let me and soon came to the very top. I balanced on the tip of the tree and looked around me, realizing I had just come west of Tamrack. With some relief I saw I had not gone too far out of my way, I just had to make my way back east a little then head south so that I could get to Tramden. Even though I knew this was still fairly close, I needed somewhere to stay until I could regain my strength. I thought (wrongly) that Valentine would leave me alone since he had destroyed the last place I had been at.

            I jumped down, branch to branch until I reached the ground. Once there, I dampened all my other senses so that I could focus on the smells around me; it was time to feed. I started walking at a low crouch, not wanting to startle any prey. My favorites were the young deers; they were very easy to capture and they tasted so delicious, full of youth and energy. Finally, after walking for another mile, I smelled a young deer, two miles to my right. I turned walked silently in the direction of my prey. My throat clenched as I got closer, the thought of the taste of the young deer exciting me greatly. I had the deer in my sights after another minute and crouched even lower to the ground; I couldn’t  run the risk of the deer getting away. I walked as close to the deer as I could, but my excitement for my food made me forget to keep silent. The deer heard me and looked around, trying to spot me. I saw a split second before she even knew what she was going to do, that she was going to bolt. Before her front legs even had a chance to leave the ground, I was on her, digging in, tooth and nail (as the saying goes). Her life began to flow out of her and into my mouth as she tried once, weakly, to throw me and then completely stopped moving; I had drained her dry. That deer had given her life to give me my strength back and I now knew that I could make it to Tramden with no problems.

            I still kept to the trees for my trek to Tramden; I didn’t want to give Valentine easy access to me in case he came looking for me. I got to Tramden in just under a few hours, with the sun just barely starting to set. This was a town that reminded me of Tombstone; with stores to the left and right of one wide road down the middle, with everyone living in little apartments above the stores. I expected to see a lot of people milling about; this time of day being the busiest in towns like these, but it was completely empty and silent. It was a little eerie, but I didn’t want to go anywhere else, so I took my chances. I walked slowly down the middle of town, the sun hurting after just a few seconds. I didn’t want to run the risk of burning right in the middle of town, so I went into the first store I saw with an open door. I stood in the shade, letting my skin heal while I looked around the store. “Hello?” I heard their thoughts, but didn’t see any actual people. I heard some shuffling behind the counter in front of me, so I walked over to see about ten people huddling together, hiding behind it.

            “Um… hello? Are you guys OK? I was just passing through, needed a place to stay…”

            “Are you… him? The evil one?” A little boy asked, with tears running down his cheeks. A young girl, whom I knew was his sister after hearing her thoughts, grabbed him and frantically pulled him besides her, covering his mouth and looking at me with pure terror in her eyes.

            “The evil one? What’s that?” I could almost guess who it was, but I had to make sure they never found out that I knew. The group sighed audibly and I heard a jumble of their thoughts go through my head; thoughts of this “evil one” and of wondering who I was. An older woman pushed her way to the front of the crowd, and I knew that she was the important person in town.

            “The evil one… is a man we think. He has been comin’ to town these past 80 years. Ever since I was a little girl he has been terrorizin’ us, eatin’ our people right in front of us, showin’ his so called power to us. He even had his ‘protégé; come and select a few of us ‘lucky ones’ out for his taking. In fact…” She started to scrutinize my face so I clouded her mind, making me look different in her eyes. She shook her head, “Nah… nevahmin’. He was just here, threatin’ us, talkin’ ‘bout killin’ us and drinkin’ our blood or somethin’ like that. Thas why we’re all here, hidin’ from him. He hadn’t done nothin’ yet, just went on and on ‘bout what he could do to us, so we all ran. We heard ‘im talkin’ out there for a while, but no screams or nothin’ so I guess this time was all talk. And I guess he is gone now if he didn’t do nothin’ to you…” I shrugged and shook my head. “I didn’t see anything when I got here, the town was completely empty.”

The old woman grinned then, the frightening grin of an evil clown. I wasn’t about this little town, but I needed a day or two to rest up before I moved on. “Well then… name’s Priscilla. I run this town, if you wanna be stayin’ here, you go through me. How did you end up here anyways? And how come you ain’t got any stuff?”

            I realized with a start that I, in fact, didn’t have any stuff. I had left it all in Tamrack trying so desperately to get away from Valentine. “Oh… um… I am just a hunter and I move where the game is, so I go from town to town. I was out hunting a day ago; when I came back to my tent all my stuff was gone. Seems I got robbed.” I shrugged, “Luckily, I was close to this town so I walked about a mile to get here. I always keep my money in my pocket, so if I need money to rent a room, I have that.”  I nudged each of their minds so that they would believe me without question.

            The old woman still eyed me suspiciously, hesitating, as if she could feel my prying in her mind. All of a sudden the little boy spoke up; “He ain’t the evil one grandma! Let him stay!” The boy’s sister grabbed him again, angrily telling him to be quiet, that grandma would figure it out. The boy was staring at me so I winked at him and smiled. His face broke out into a huge grin and he giggled; his sister shushing him once more. Priscilla finally spoke; “Alright, you can stay.” I reached over to shake her hand, cringing as a sun ray hit my skin. I saw the little boy notice a trail of smoke raise from my hand where the sun hit, his eyes going wide, but I shook my head and winked again, hoping he wouldn’t speak up. Luckily for me, he kept quiet, winking back at me and I knew it was our little secret. I hoped for this boy’s sake, that Valentine would leave me and the town alone.