Whispers of Change

A few months earlier

Quietly, the wind outside the window whistled, as though it were attempting to crawl inside. The glass was gently tapped by the gentle tapping of the neighboring tree branches.

Choosing my favorite show among all of them, I turned on Supernatural, Season Five.

As I swung my spoon around the mug of hot chocolate that kept my hands warm in this late-night weather, I whispered to myself, "God, why are they all so pretty?" Beacon Hills: Why did it have to be so darn cold all the time? I swear, it seemed to be that way all along.

After their customary brooding conversation, Sam and Dean planned their next hunt while driving in the Impala. They led such fascinating and exciting lives, but I doubt I could ever pull that off. Though absurd, the concept was incredibly alluring.

When the show ended, I turned off the TV and sat there sipping tiny sips of the chocolate-flavored beverage, wishing I had some marshmallows with it.

Like any other night, I tossed and turned all night long until I eventually reached for the remote control and something delicious to go with it. I've gotten really good at this routine over the past few months.

I had another sleepless night to add to my recent run of them. It felt like a long time since I'd slept through the entire night. The fact that I had to return to school the following day was the toughest part. Since it wasn't difficult enough to attempt to fall asleep,there, Same issues in the new year.

In addition, I doubt my teachers would have been too pleased if I had started dozing off in their classes on the first day back.

I hadn't yet experienced the full weight of senior work pressure, thank goodness, as I was only sixteen. There was nothing about it that I was looking forward to.

Leaning my legs over the edge of the bed, I let go of the blanket and placed the mug on the nightstand. Crouching down, I rubbed my eyes as my head dropped into my palms.

I let out a groan and got up, making my way to my overnight bag and going through my clothing in search of something warmer.

After removing my leggings and choosing to wear black sweatpants, I wore a navy blue jumper over my singlet and made my way to the bedroom door.

After entering the corridor, I turned right and proceeded to the door located two doors below the one I had been residing in. My gaze moved around the corridors, softly tapping against the wood.

In the middle of the night, I was always afraid of dark halls. Something seemed to be lurking around every corner. Alternatively, it might just be the overall gloom.

Like, you know, something right out of "The Shining"? I didn't want to see those strange twins when I turned around. At all.

But I wasn't going to wake Gina up with a loud noise the next night because she was working a late shift. I did my best to spare her unnecessary suffering because she had done so much for me.

A muffled voice called from the other side of the door, "Come in."

The light from the overhead lamp shone on Fenris's bedroom door as I pushed it open. After scanning the room for a while, I noticed the child performing some pull-ups on a bar he had fitted into the door frame of his bathroom several months prior. He fell to one knee, grinning toothily as he turned to face me.

With concern evident in his eyes, he said, "Hey, Rudina. You alright?" Not wishing to spoil his apparent happy mood, I grinned. I noticed his getting ready for the next day as I glanced around his room. Tightly strung on the bed was Fenris's lacrosse stick.

He was doing pull-ups because he was practicing to avoid getting benched again when he resumed lacrosse the following morning.

It was usually a little easier for me to fall asleep when I was at Fenris's place, instead of just calling Lee or Fenris. They are truly amazing friends; I can't think of many others that would answer the phone at two in the morning. I was whining that I was unable to sleep and dream normally.

They would both sit in their rooms while I sat in mine and talk to me until I was exhausted. They did that for me as they knew I would return the favor.

For as long as I could remember, Fenris, Lee, and I had been pals. Since they were my oldest pals, I intended to hang on to them for as long as I could. despite how obnoxious they occasionally become.

I shrugged, "It's just one of those nights, I guess." Slowly, my hair started to fall over my shouldersshrugged.becausehim. I grabbed all the hair strands in my hands and began braiding my hair to keep it out of my way. I pulled one of the many hair ties off of my wrist to twist around the end and hold everything together.

I used to be among those individuals who would always wear extra hair ties around their wrists. Although it may appear absurd to others, it had a very practical purpose; it was there in case I ever needed a hair tie. My mother finds it annoying since she doesn't think it looks tidy.

Fenris nodded, then went back to his bathroom to start brushing his teeth.

"Maybe your mother could take you to see someone. I'm pretty sure there are people who can help if you have trouble sleeping," he said before spitting into the sink.

I pointed out, letting go of the tie as I finished my hair, "Maybe, but I think it's just the nerves leading up to school. I slept fine during the holidays."

"Yes, I'm anxious too," Fenris said to me. "I have lacrosse practice tomorrow." Just thinking about how he typically handled practice made me laugh.

He was aware that Fenris was never the best lacrosse player. This time, though, he had trained far more. I truly believed he would have a chance this year because of how hard he had worked over the holidays.

I recall having hopes. With pals on the lacrosse team who actually played lacrosse, I was hoping that if Lee and Fenris made the first line, maybe that could be my experience this year. I think it would have made the games more fascinating to watch them play on the field rather than pout on the sidelines.

I was standing there, resting against the door frame, watching Fenris splash water from the tap all over his face. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

He glanced at me through the mirror. "Thanks, but I'm more worried about you right now. This has been happening for a while now. Are you sure it's not about something else, like your dad?"

I straightened up and inhaled deeply as I felt my entire body tensing up. "Yes, I'm sure. I told you, I'm not going to waste another breath on him."

To put it mildly, I didn't always get along with my dad. In actuality, though, not really. He was living in Beacon Hills when he cheated on my mother, who expelled him. I tried to ignore him, but he persisted in attempting to get in touch.

He started to say, "I know, but—" but stopped when we heard a disturbance outside the house.

Something was clearly on Boris's roof, but the sound we heard was difficult to describe—it sounded like a loud creaking sound.

Lifting his gaze from the sink, Fenris listened intently. It started to sound again. I felt terror sweep over me as we exchanged glances. Had there been an intrusion? Because I would have enough emotional anguish the following day at school, I didn't need it at that moment.

While I started searching his room for a weapon, Fenris hurriedly went to put on a jacket. I scowled at Fenris because I saw that he was already clutching a baseball bat.

"You don't happen to have another one of those, do you?"

"Please stay right behind me," he murmured.

"Great, so now there might be a psycho outside of your house, and you're telling me that you're going to protect us both? No offense, but really, Fenris? I mean, really?"

At that moment, I thought to myself, "I'm going to die."

After glaring at me in frustration, he took up his lacrosse stick and flung it at me.

I grinned, "Now we're talkin'." "At least if I die, I won't be the typical damsel in agrinned. horror movie who depends on the boy."

"Alright, let's head out," Fenris murmured.

With our weapons ready, we moved swiftly to the door while being cautious not to create too much noise.

First, Fenris went and opened his home's front door and left. I trailed behind him, but not too far.

I didn't want his body to fall on me in the event that he was stabbed or something, leaving me a sitting duck for the murderer.

Even though he's a friend, I don't want to wind up a serial killer's victim. Fenris would concur.

In my opinion,

Someone was suddenly hanging upside down from the roof as we got closer to the railing encircling his home.

We all just screamed for a few seconds. I eventually made myself stop and look at the person who had really terrified the living daylights out of me.

With the hope that Fenris would follow suit, I stopped screaming and gave him a quick smack on the arm. He did, and his eyes grew wide as he realized what I had only realized moments before.

Fenris yelled at the boy with the buzz cut, "Lee, what the hell are you doing?"

With a wave of his wrists, Lee answered, "Neither of you was answering your phones." He examined every inch of us. maybe up and down. He was hanging upside down; I have no idea how it works.

I lowered the lacrosse stick slightly and gave Lee a direct look. "That is when you use the front door bell, moron. You don't try to break in and give people a heart attack, Lee!"

Even for someone with his level of intelligence, he didn't give things as much thought as he ought to have.

With a gesture toward our weapons, the hanging boy asked, "Okay. Next time. Maybe. Why do you have a bat, Fenris? And why do you have Fenris's lacrosse stick?"

Fenris complained, "We thought you were a predator," and turned to face me for support.

Letting out a sigh, I replied, "I don't know. It's two in the morning, Lee. We didn't have a plan if we thought someone was going to come and kill us."

Lee simply scoffed at us, saying, "A pre..." with a cough before shifting the conversation to the real topic he had come to talk about with us that day.

"Look, I know it's late, but you gotta hear this." I shot a worried look at Fenris, who appeared to return it, and then we returned Lee's focus.

Why wasn't his skull exploding with blood at this moment? For some time now, he had been inverted.

"I saw my dad leave twenty minutes ago. Dispatch called. They're bringing in every officer from the Beacon Department and even the state police," he said with great speed.

My brows furrowed in bewilderment. Such a call had never before been necessary for the police. Well, not for as long as I've lived. "What for, Lee?"

"Two joggers discovered a body in the woods," he said, then leaped from the roof.

Fenris appeared perplexed as ever. "A dead body?"

And the winner of the night's most ridiculous question was

With my eyebrows lifted, I directed my best "Are you serious, really?" expression towards him.Examine this.

Lee straightened up, but then gave the same expression. He mocked in a mocking manner, "No, a body of water." I grinned, thinking, He's such a clever *ss.

"Yes, dumb-*ss, a dead body."

Lee's response made me laugh out loud, but when it came out louder than I had intended, I covered my mouth with my hand. When I saw that Fenris was glaring at me, I just stuck my tongue out at him. He gave Lee another glance, rolling his eyes.

The two youngsters debated whether the victim had been murdered or not, and then Fenris posed the crucial query.

"Hold on, if they found the body, then what are they looking for?"

We all looked at each other quite amazed, and then Lee nodded. Lee enthusiastically lowered his hands from his hips and said, "That's the best part. They only found half."

"We're going."

To be honest, I'm not shocked that no one said up. Lee never ceases to amaze me. I.e.I.e.fascinating concepts.

However, searching for a corpse? That's an other story entirely. He still has such ideas to this day.

He keeps things interesting, though, so I have to give it to him. I did ask for adventure, after all.

"This is a very dumb idea," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "Well, let me be the first to say that." I interrupted the boys by raising a hand just as they were about to object. Slowly, their mouths closed.

I shrugged, as though we were talking about going to the movies or something. "Now, now. It is a stupid idea, but I am not being left out. Could be fun." "Fenris, let's get some shoes on and go."

That's precisely what we did, and then, totally unaware of what was about to happen, we dashed outside to Lee's powder blue Jeep. To what was about to alter our course in life. Probably indefinitely.

benefited or harmed? That was still up for debate.

♥♏♤♪

Fenris started whining as soon as we stepped out of Lee's Jeep. That's how I always thought of him. He took things too seriously and was always on the lookout for potential problems.

His kind of instincts would be useful sometimes, but he also needed to understand when it was okay to not be concerned about what might lie around every corner.

I laughed, knowing he wasn't too pleased of that specific term. "Come on Fenrisie, have some fun."

"Seriously, Rudina? Yeah, okay, all we're doing is searching for a dead body in the middle of the night, whilst the police also search. Not to mention, they might arrest us for tampering with evidence, but whatever." He replied with a touch too much sarcasm

I was incredibly in love with him, but he had to quit being such a buzz kill.

"Exactly. What part of that didn't sound like fun?" Lee replied. "In addition, you're the one who constantly complains that nothing ever happens in this town," he said, smirking at me.

"With my mop of brown hair covered in a red hood, I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow," Fenris whimpered.

To put it politely, neither of the boys could have been superior to the other when they were on the lacrosse team.

Lee addressed Fenris, saying, "You know why it's so hard to sit on the bench?" I swear, I thought I saw flames almost oozing from his ears.

Each time, Coach Alaric rested them both. Mostly because they had to be the team's weakest players, you know?

Other than Greenberg, of course. I hated Greenberg.

If the coach gave them more game time, they could be even better. Fenris and Lee together hardly played half of a game last year, unless you counted the instances in which they were substituted in by default.

Fenris quipped "No, because I'm playing this year. In fact, I'm making first line."

I couldn't contain my laughter this time and started laughing again.

But moments afterward, Fenris turned to face me, that wounded dog expression on his face, and I felt awful for him right away.

I tried to be encouraging. Try, equalled, is the key word. I smiled and tried not to laugh at him again. "Hey, that's the spirit," I said.

Fenris only shook his head and kept strolling through the deep forest, frowning at us both. Lee nodded, agreeing, "Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one."

I defended myself by raising my hands to show him that I wasn't hostile. "Hey now, no need for that. Besides, he said it. Not me."

Lee was scowling at my treachery when I turned to face him. I apologized to Lee, clicking my tongue.

I kept saying, "Anyway," in between breaths. "Do you know which half of the body you've actually dragged us out here to find?"

Lee paused for a moment before stating that he had never given that any thought.

"And, what if whoever killed the body is still out here?" Fenris had asked in response to the questions.

Only cocking his head to the side did the other boy do. "Also something I didn't think about."

"Well, Lee, it's reassuring to know that you have planned this out with your usual attention to detail," I said as I started up a tiny hill. He simply laughed and nodded.

Fenris paused to rest against a tree, taking a breath of fresh air. Even though he had severe asthma, he claimed to be well and drew out his inWayar.

After we topped the little hill, I whirled around and grabbed an arm around each lad, pulling them down to the forest floor as soon as we saw flashlights. They started to object before they also noticed the lights. We observed the search for the body being conducted by the police, along with the use of police dogs.

Lee was suddenly on his feet and coming at them.

Once more, bright child, stupid notions. My fingers just barely touched the fabric of his jacket as I stretched out to grab him. We stood there, Fenris and I, whispering to him to turn around, but he ignored us.

Fenris gave us another pump of his inWayar, and we both stood up and chased after him. Just as we were getting close, Fenris yelled Lee's name.

Lee halted and turned to face us, only to topple down in shock at the shock of being confronted by a police dog and a flashlight.

I glanced up to see Lee's father, Sheriff Kurt, approaching and addressing Lee. He didn't seem overly joyful. He suddenly turned to face the trees where I was hiding with Fenris.

He called out, glaring between the trees with his police flashlight, barely missing my face, "Fenris, Rudina, are you two out there?" With the flashlight lowered, the sheriff turned to face Lee, snatching him by the back of his jacket, talking to his kid, and hauling him away.

With a loud sigh, I leaned slightly against the tree trunk and turned to look at Fenris.

"How are we supposed to get back to your house? Lee has the keys to the Jeep, obviously."

"Yeah, I know. We'll just have to walk. Come on, let's go."

Our evening took an abrupt and unexpected turn as Fenris and I went through the dark woods, the glow of his in-Wayar lighting our route every now and again. Suddenly, a herd of deer materialized and began charging toward us. I staggered, hoping to avoid the approaching stampede, but too many hooves struck me before I could get away.

There were vicious kicks to my arms, legs, stomach, and even my neck during the collision. I tried to coil up into a ball for protection, but that didn't work. The deer eventually moved on, and Fenris and I were left standing, bruised and confused, trying to get our bearings.

"What just happened?" As Fenris rummaged in the leaves, looking for his in-Wayar, I cried, perplexed. He admitted that during the attack by deer, he had lost it. Turning on his phone's illumination, we carried on looking.

Fenris yelled triumphantly as he suddenly saw the upper body. His joy was short-lived, though, as he stumbled and fell