TRICK

BY SKYLAR MOORE

Prologue

t h e n i g h t m a r e

I was walking. It was an eerily bright day. The kind of day where everything is reflecting the sun and it hurt to look anywhere. I was walking in a field of dying grass. I couldn’t tell what it was made up of, some sort of tall grass or wheat or something. I looked down at my bare feet. They were cut and bruised, but it didn’t hurt as I dragged them through the dirt and pebbles. I realized I was wearing a dress. A white, silky sun dress-style one. I was confused by this development. Not only would I never wear a white silky dress, I didn’t even own a white silky dress. I didn’t even own a dress at all.

There was an open sky above. It was blue for a time and strangely cloudless, but the brightness of the day bleached the blue away. The golden grass around me shined in the sun, and I felt my arms tingle from the strength of the sun’s rays. The grass smelled musty with dying age and was coarse and brittle as I crushed it between my fingers. I realized it was dead, and it’s gleam faded and disappeared altogether. There was a great tree in the middle of the field, and my feet were going towards it. There was a man standing under the tree.

My dream self recognized the man and ran up to him. He had peculiar brown hair and an olive complection. He was dressed in a military style outfit, dark brown in color. I noticed with a start that he vaguely looked like he had broken out of a straight jacket. Furthermore, he seemed to have a sepia tint to him that made him look like he was from an era long past. He went to embrace me, but saw my feet and jumped back in fear. I reached for him, trying to calm his frightened ways, but he all but disappeared around the tree trunk. I stumbled after him, the pain all at once hitting me. I soon found that I was the only person under the tree. It was dead silent. There was nothing but cloudless skies and long stretches of field.

Then suddenly I could hear something. It took me the longest moment to register what it was. There was a low growling coming from somewhere, I was growing more and more certain of it. I looked to each horizon for some sign of life, but as the fear rose in me, I couldn’t find any trace of anything at all. Yet the growling was growing louder still, from somewhere dangerously close. Leaves floated passed my vision from the tree above, and I snapped my head upwards in alarm.

I had but a few seconds to take in the horrible creature in the trees. It’s growl had turned into an all-out snarl. It was wolf-like in form, but possessed some uncanny features that made it seem almost human. I couldn’t shake the feeling it’s eyes gave me, eyes that screamed the malice only a human could have, only the intelligence a human was capable of. Gigantically round and livid acid-green eyes surrounded in a fringe of blue-black fur. It’s body was sickly out of proportion, with it’s torso being unusually long and it’s back legs curled up under it like it was going to pounce. All at once, the creature let out a horrible bark and bounded down the tree branches to attack me.

And then I was dead. I was pain.

I was living death.

“Helana!” My mother called up the stairs. I let out a groan, shaking off the sweat and the terror as much as I could. A glance at the clock told me I had overslept.

“Get up, Helana! You’re going to be late for your first day of school!”

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For those of you who have read Trick before, it's undergoing extreme revision and editing. This is one of those redone chapters.