The shrill beeping of an alarm-clock.
The warmth of the morning sun streaming through the window.
A blurry, hazy view of a beige ceiling.
The tickle of her own curly black hair as it rested on her nose.
These were the first things that Erin Evans noticed when she woke up.
Reaching one arm out from beneath the smug warmth of the duvet, she slapped the the button atop her alarm clock, then probed around the top of the table with her hand until she felt the familiar metal frames of her glasses.
With a noise somewhere between a yawn and a groan, Erin sat up, stretching and putting her glasses on. As the world came into focus, she looked out her bedroom window. A bright morning sun shone down on her quiet hometown of Silver Pines, broken only by a distant front of dark clouds that loomed slowly closer in the distance.
"Well, so much for Uncle Jason's barbecue," she quipped to herself. She slipped out of bed and changed out of her pyjamas into a pair of black skinny jeans and a turquoise blouse, adorned on the front with a yellow lightning bolt. Over this she wore a simple plaid blue flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, her favourite top due to how it contrasted against her caramel-coloured skin. After brushing her unkempt shock of black hair as best she could, she pushed it up and out of her eyes with a violet headband.
She had tried every style she could to tame her hair. Ponytails, plaits, corn rolls, dreadlocks, you name it, she'd tried it, and in a few cases, seriously rocked it. But in the end, the sheer amount of work it took to maintain these styles overwhelmed her, and she resolved to just wear her hair out naturally. A simple hairband to keep it out of her eyes was all she needed.
And now we wait for those most wonderful words, she thought to herself. In three, two, one...
"C'mon guys, breakfast is waiting! Come get it!"
Her face lit up with a smile. And there it is.
She raced downstairs to the kitchen, a cosy affair with a large round table in its centre, surrounded by four chairs. Off to the left of the table was a tall, skinny man in his late thirties, dressed in casual slacks and a t-shirt, over which he wore a white apron emblazoned with the words 'CUDDLE THE COOK'
"Well, you don't have to ask me twice!" Erin giggled as she ran at the man, who looked up just in time to see her grab him around his middle in a tight hug.
"Hey, good morning pumpkin!" he said with a broad smile and an affectionate peck on her forehead. "Sleep well?"
Erin sat down at the table. "Sure did Dad. So what's for breakfast?"
"I got some toast a minute or so away, and some jam and honey in the cabinet. You want some juice?" he asked.
"Yeah, thanks," Erin replied. "Got any plans for today?"
Her father dished the two of them some fresh toast and glasses of orange juice, and sat down opposite her. "Well, I was hoping to get some food cooked for Uncle Jason's cookout this afternoon, but judging by the weather, he's probably gonna have to cancel."
"Yeah, that sucks." Erin frowned. Uncle Jason's family cookouts were the stuff of legend. Folding tables groaning under the weight of plates and plates of jerk chicken, steak, buffalo wings and enough macaroni and cheese to fill a bathtub. Half the neighbourhood would turn out to get a chance to try his cooking.
"So I'm probably just gonna get some cleaning done and cook some dinner for when your mother gets home. She had to head to work early today."
Erin glanced over at the wall behind her, where there hung a picture frame containing a photograph of her and her family. She was at the front, next to her little brother Darrell, his wide grin showing off a gap in his teeth, his short dreadlocks barely contained by a baseball cap. Her father stood behind them and to the left and by his side, arm draped over his shoulder, was a beautiful black woman, standing half a head taller than him. She was a curvy woman in her early thirties, her long hair tied back in a massive bun at the back of her head, giving the photographer a smile that could light up a room. Erin smiled at the photo, taking a big bite of toast. Even just a picture of her mother was enough to brighten up her morning. "Man, they're running her ragged at the bakery, huh?"
"They really are," her father replied. "Good thing she's got her day off coming up the day after tomorrow... Hey, weren't you supposed to be hanging out with your friends before school?"
Erin turned from the picture frame to a clock hanging nearby, and leapt up with a start as she saw the time. "Aw shoot, I'm meant to be meeting them at the park in ten minutes! Sorry Dad, I gotta go!"
She quickly wolfed down her remaining slices of toast and chugged her glass of juice before running back upstairs to grab her bag. I'm gonna regret that in a couple hours, she thought. But no time for a leisurely breakfast!
One quick brushing of her teeth and visit to her bedroom later, and she was all set to head out. "I'll see you later Dad!"
"You have a great day, Pumpkin!" Her father called back from the kitchen. "And be sure to hurry home after school, that storm looks like it's gonna be a fierce one!"
"Will do!" And with that, she was off.
As she power-walked down the sidewalk, she looked around at the neighbourhood. Same clapboard houses, same big red stop sign at the crossroad, same dogs barking playfully through the chickenwire fence surrounding a home as she walked past. Same everything, the same as it had been every day for as long as she could remember. Silver Pines was not a town known for its development and change. It was the kind of town where people's grandparents could look at stores on the main street and go "Ah, just like I remember it when I was young."
All in all, it was a very appropriate visual metaphor for her life. Calm, quiet, unchanging. Dull, even.
If there was one word to describe Erin's life, dull would be high on the list of choices. Alongside unremarkable, routine, all round rather plain. She did not resent her lot in life, far from it. She had a roof over her head, food in her stomach, a family that loved and cared for her, friends she could always rely on, a home in a peaceful and respectable (if boring) hometown, all things that she was eternally grateful for. But every day, as she went through the ropes of school life, social life and family life, she found herself wondering: Was this it? Was this all she could look forward to?
Of course, she had far more than that to look forward to. But such exciting ventures as moving out, college and a career were many years off. So in the meantime, it seemed that this daily routine was all that she had to look forward to.
As she walked, she adjusted her backpack up on her shoulder. As always, her bag was stuffed with books. And not just dry academic textbooks, quite the opposite. In fact, these books were just about her only escape from the mundanity of suburban living.
Every week, either from her school library, or from the bookstore on the main street, she would indulge herself with a book of her favourite genre: Fantasy. For Erin relished losing herself in epic tales of knights, battles, castles, dark lords and wise wizards, elegant queens and fierce warrior women. And dragons, oh, dragons most of all. Just the idea of a gargantuan reptile that not only could fly, but shoot great gouts of flame from its mouth fascinated her. It always seemed so much larger, much grander and more beautiful than the world she lived in. Be they the foul damsel-stealing, knight-battling wyrms of European legends and tales, or the elegent serpentine beings of wisdom and divinity from East Asian mythology, dragons were by far her favourite of all fantasy creatures.
But the latest chapter of her current read would have to wait until lunchtime. For now, she had friends expecting her.
As she rounded a bend she reached a small area of trees and greenery, a tarmac path cutting through the grass. Awaiting her in the middle of the path was a trio of teenagers, around the same age as Erin.
"There you are!" a slim redheaded girl called as she waved to her.
"About time too, we were about to head off without ya," added another, a Korean girl a full head shorter than her companions.
A lanky Hispanic boy with a mop of brunette hair greeted Erin with an outstretched fist. "How ya doing, Erin?"
Erin bumped his fist with her own. "Not too bad Jaime. Sorry to keep you waiting guys, I got a bit too relaxed at breakfast."
The redhead girl shrugged. "Ehh, been there before, no worries. C'mon, we better get going."
"Geez Katie," the Korean girl giggled. "Since when have you been so enthusiastic about going to school?"
"Since Mrs. Glassenger threatened to give me a weekend's detention if I'm late one more time this month. Call me crazy Chun-hei, but I'd rather not be stuck in a classroom on a Saturday."
"Fair enough, let's go," Chun-hei replied.
And so the four of them made their way to the school that stood a few block from the park, trotting up the steps mere minutes before the bell rang to begin the day. You shall be spared however, dear reader, from the descriptions of the dreary, draining and dry nature of junior high school. It is a reasonable bet that even non-American readers can sympathise with the drudgery of lessons, barely edible lunches and schoolyard politics. Erin certainly felt that way about school. Indeed there were only two parts of school she looked forward to: English Lit, wherein she could chat with Mr. Walsh, an English teacher who had a similar passion for fantasy literature (though his was a bit more old school, preferring the likes of Tolkien, Lewis, Milton and Malory). The other was lunch break, when she could tuck herself away in a hidden corner of the school library and lose herself in a chapter or two of her current book. A much-needed respite from the mundanity of school life.
However, on this day the afternoon was at least a little more interesting, as it was around half past two when the storm began to arrive.
It started as the skies grew darker, heavy grey clouds blocking out the sun. Heavy winds began to pick up, sending swirls of autumn leaves flying every which way in the playground. And as the final bell rang, for what may have been the first time in the school's history, the students were reluctant to leave the building. Not Erin, though.
Turning up the collar of her flannel shirt against the cold, she slung her backpack over her shoulders and marched boldly out the door, completely disregarding the rain.
Normally she would have taken a leisurely pace home, admiring the scenery, walking and talking with friends, stopping by the local convenience store for a candy bar or a soda. But today the weather had other plans, and she opted instead to jog straight home.
But as she reached her house and turned to go up the driveway, even through the now heavy rain and wind, her eye was caught by movement in the sky.
From out of the corner of her eye she spotted a distant glint of light, hundreds of feet in the air, of a strange bright blue colour unlike anything she had seen before. And as she turned to get a better look, she saw it!
What looked like a dark shape, barely discernable as anything more than a blob, seemed to emerge from the light. It flew through the air at immense speed, seemingly caught in an updraft or a sudden gust of wind that sent it flying up, down, to the left and right, in every direction, getting closer all the time.
Erin watched from the shelter of her porch as she shape grew closer and became clearer. She could make out what looked like wings, perhaps a tail, or was that the head and the other end the tail?
It descended, swirling uncontrollably around by the heavy winds, only just visible through the wall of rain.
Erin watched, entrance by this bizarre thing that seemingly appeared from nowhere in the sky, and was very swiftly approaching the ground. But it was not slowing down whatever it was.
What if its a plane or something, she wondered to herself. What if they're in danger?! She looked on as it careened through the sky, now less than a hundred feet above her. And when the strange form flew overhead, she finally got a better look at it. It was moving far too fast to clearly make it out, but it seemed to be dark red, spikey, winged, and definitely had limbs of some sort, and was at least ten feet from tip to tail. It definitely wasn't a bird or a plane, whatever it was.
Unless... No. No way, she thought. It couldn't be...
Her eyes grew wide, however, as whatever it was swooped low overhead, looping and barrelling wildly before dropping down near some trees beyond the edge of town with a distant muffled crashing sound.
Erin stood in shock at what she had just seen. Surely her eyes had been playing tricks on her? Maybe she was too tired from school? There's no way she saw what she thought she just saw.
But what if I did? That little voice in her mind spoke up. What if you did see it, and it's now waiting in those woods, less than a mile away?
She turned back to the front door and pondered for a moment, before looking back in the direction the object had flown. It was just too good to pass up...
But before she could throw caution to the wind, the door clicked open to reveal her father, now without his apron, in the doorway. "Oh thank goodness! It's really coming down now, huh?" he said, stepping out onto the porch to join Erin.
She looked to her father. "Dad, did you see it? Something in the sky, it... It just appeared, and, like, flew over the house! I saw it when I got to the porch, I swear!"
Her father peered up in the sky as Erin pointed up at where the strange shape had first appeared. But where there had been a strange blue lighr, now there was only grey cloud and heavy rain.
"Heh, come on daydreamer," he chuckled, ushering her inside. "Let's get in before we drown out here."
As she was led into the hallway, Erin glanced back one last time at the small forest on the edge of town, where the thing had apparently landed. Just what had it been? Where did it come from?
And would it still be there when she finally got a chance to check it out?
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