The pedestrian crossing signal began to beep when I was halfway across, a reminder that I wasn’t in the woods. There was no natural noise like that. I probably would never live in the woods again. My degree in social services was meant for cities, not cabins in the forest. I sighed.
I needed to get home to drop off the books, and then I could go running through the greenbelt. I needed that run. Tonight, the woods would be beautiful. A picturesque scene of white snow on silver trees as I breathed the free air.
“Girl,” a voice called in the silence. I jumped at the unexpected sound and turned. A homeless mature woman who was probably in her fifties stepped from the shadows of an alley. She could have been beautiful once, but now her hair was tangled and dirty, and her clothing was barely more than rags. Dirt smudged her cheeks, and I was sure that she hadn’t showered in days.
She still stood tall with more poise than I’d ever seen in one of the homeless that populated the streets around the college. Her steps were slow with no sense of shuffle as she moved away from the alley.
“It’s a strange night, girl.” Her eyes seemed to focus on things beyond me even though she stared at me. “Don’t stand in the dark for the shadows have claws tonight. And eyes and ears. Death comes for the daughter if the mother hears her call.”
What the hell was this woman talking about?
Her gaze focused on me, leaving whatever madness behind. “And you will call tonight, won’t you, girl? You’ll call your mother. Only the mother will call the prince.”
“My mother is dead, and I have no idea what prince you’re talking about. Have a good night.” I turned to walk away from the insane woman, hoping she’d leave me alone to the winter night. I wasn’t that lucky, and she called out one more time.
“She left the dark and reclaimed her light. That is not your path, girl. Your heart is dark like your father’s.”
I ignored her as images of my father came to mind. The kindest man I’d ever known. The only one that had ever cared for me. One that had ignored my oddities like a father should. I barely remembered him, but every one of my memories was of him smiling.
Jet-black hair, emerald eyes that seemed alive, and a smile that could fix anything. He was handsome. I knew it like I knew that my mother was beautiful. Both of them could have been models, and I’d been born looking hideous. My eyes were too far apart and slightly too large.
My hair wasn’t beautifully black like my father or icy blond like my mother. Instead, I had plain brown hair that was always just a little bit wild no matter how hard I tried to make it straight and pretty.
I pushed the memories out of my mind, but I couldn’t help turning to see if the old woman was following me. She was gone, probably back to the alley that she’d come from. Her words reverberated in my mind.
Don’t stand in the dark for the shadows have claws tonight. And eyes and ears. Death comes for the daughter if the mother hears her call.
What a creepy thing for someone to say. I guess that’s what happens when you listen to crazy old women living in alleys.
The whole experience made me a little more nervous now that my imagined peace had been broken. I hurried along the sidewalk to the sorority house, passing more houses and more alleys.
I heard a noise as I passed one. A scratching noise from behind a dumpster. I froze, the old woman’s words running through my mind once again. My heart began to race as I stood there, not sure if I should keep walking or find out what the noise was.
An explosion of movement and howling made me drop my bags of books. A cat flew out of the dumpster, landing on its feet and running straight for me. Right behind it, another cat chased it, screaming like a banshee.
My heart felt like it was about to pound out of my chest as I shrieked. I stumbled over the bags of books as the cats dodged me and ran across the street to the opposite alley.
When the cats were gone, I still lay on the ground trying to convince my heart that I wasn’t actually going to die. “What the hell am I doing?” I muttered with a soft laugh.
I stood up and brushed the dirt off my jeans. After picking up the bags, I began to walk towards the sorority house again, very ready to be done with creepy stuff for the night.
Still on edge, I checked the alleys that I passed, seeing dumpster after dumpster. This was a strange night. The old woman hadn’t been wrong about that. You could feel it in the air that something was off.
When I was two blocks away from the sorority house, I heard a scream from the alley in front of me. Then what sounded like more muffled screams. My heart began to race again as I stepped in front of the alley.
A fat man held a sorority girl against the dumpster while another watched. One hand was held over her mouth as muffled screams tried to escape her. The other hand was pulling at her skirt.
I froze as I watched the scene. I’d never seen anything like this. Everyone knew that this kind of thing happened, but it didn’t happen in front of you. It wasn’t something that anyone saw.
The woman was doing her best to keep her skirt on, but the second man grabbed her hands. “Shut the fuck up, whore. Don’t make me get my knife out.” The words were quiet enough that if I weren’t standing there, I wouldn’t have heard them.
The
