the secret of silver lake

panic

Tears steamed down my face as I followed the teacher in front of me. I didn't understand why I was going to the office. I hadn't started it. She led me down the hall past doors that led to different classrooms. Teachers were trying to calm down students.

'Dillon's a bully! Those three are always picking on someone.'

'Did you see her hit him it happened so fast'

'I heard the crunch when Lilly hit him. I think Travis was right, and she broke his nose.'

'Shhh, shhhh, here she comes.' The two boys that had been talking shuffled further into the class, peeking their heads out the door as we turned the corner and headed to the office.

When we walked in, I could hear Brad yelling from somewhere. The office was large you had to walk around the secretary's desk to get to Mr Adam's office. She pointed to some chairs on the wall opposite the desk on the left side of the room. It was a small room compared to the whole office. It did have two big windows which let in the sun. I sat down in the one closet to the window.

'Wait here'.

The sound of the phone drew me back to the present. My father had a puzzled look on his face.No one was expecting a call this early. Maggie turned her gaze from me to my father with a worried look on her face. My father looked at the phone as it rang. On the third ring, he got up to answer.

"Hello," my father said into the phone. There was a brief silence on my father's end. You could tell that the person speaking with my father was serious as his face went dark. The person continued to talk on the other end, as the silence got louder. I wanted to ask him what was going on. Who was it on the other end?

"Yes, I see." My father finally spoke. "I'll be there in an hour or 2." His eyes met Maggie's, and a familiar fog covered his eyes, I had seen it many times. She could always tell what he was thinking. I now wondered if it had something to do with their wolves.

Maggie stood up fast with shock on her face. Knocking the chair over in the process. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was starting to get scared. Maggie didn't react that way for no reason.

"I am coming with you, Everett. I will not let you walk in there alone. They have powerful methods of gaining what they want." she spoke sharply.

"I know, Maggie.I know, but what am I supposed to do? I can't just tell them that she's dead can I." he finished speaking, but what he said shook me. Was he talking about me? Heat erupted from me as my anger took control. I wanted to know what was going on. Why weren't they being honest with me. I stood up fast, then slammed my hand down on the table. It creaked with the force as a white light flashed when full contact was made with the palm of my hand. Without warning, the table eruted into thousands of splinters that send shrapnel throughout the whole dining room and adjoining kitchen. A deep growl came from my throat. I'd never expected that to happen. Maggie and my father both took a step back with the aura I was surrounding myself with.

During the commotion, the force had blown open the front door. Both Maggie and my dad had their hands up, palms facing me like a midevil sign of surrender, and I could smell their fear, I didn't know fear had a smell.

Lilly calm..." Before another word was spoken, I panicked and ran. Through the door down the front steps, halfway down the driveway, I turned and cut acrissed the front yard and to the closet trail I could find I needed to get away from it . Who am I? What am I. Before I knew it, I was standing desperately trying to catch my breath at one of the spots I visited the least on the lake.

Shock hit me as the full realization that I had just run up a moutian trail that normally would take a half day to hike, depending on how skilled you were. In less than two hours. You could see the whole lake from up here, the town below, and the camp on the other side of the mountain. I made my way to the top of the trail where a set of cliffs hung over this part of the lake. I sat on the edge to hang a leg off. I pulled my other leg up into a hug and rested my chin on my knee as the tears came. I watched as the sun cressed the mountain to the east. I had never watched the rise from up here. As the sun hit the lake, a fog started to form on the surface of the water, blocking the full view. The fish were jumping for the morning flies that skimmed the water. I wasn't sure how long I had been sitting there. When I hear footsteps approaching from behind me, I look up from my daydream to see Maggie's smiling face. She come had come after me. after a pause, she stretched and sat down beside me, hanging both her legs off the edge. She leans back, puts her hands back flat on the ground, raises her face to the rising sun, and takes a deep breath, releasing a big sigh. She pulled me into her in a half hug. we sat like that for a long while before she began to speak.