Morning all. I am hoping today we actually see the sun. It didn’t make much of an appearance yesterday and I kind of missed it. For now, the coffee is brewing and we have a writing prompt to get into. So timers set and off we go.
I am going to need to figure out the situation but I like the character.
Tuesday, December 17th: The birds took flight in mass.
The birds took flight in mass. Jackson froze. He realized he was out in the open and eased himself under cover near the edge of the woods. Something sent the birds into the sky and until he knew what, he wasn’t taking any chances. He knew that the woods weren’t expressly forbidden, but no one had actually mentioned them. He grew up spending more time in the woods than he did in town and now, confined to campus he found himself getting twitchy.
He thought a brief walk would do him good. He was armed only with a sketch pad and box of pencils. He hoped that if anyone asked him what he was doing he could say that he just wanted to sketch some of the wild plants in their natural habitat.
He hoped that wouldn’t be a problem. Since arriving here all of the plants he had seen were in the green house. They were big on cultivating the items they needed, not so much in the gathering them in the wild. While he was willing to concede that it was handy to have them so close, there were, in his estimation, a few things missing. It was not a new thought, but not one he could afford to spend time on at the moment.
Something spooked the birds and he knew it wasn’t him. He just had to figure out if whatever sent them flying was a danger to him as well. He looked up, watching them pinwheel through the sky. They flew to the east then circled back to the west. The lowered and then angled back up instead of settling. There was squawking he could hear from where he was. The birds were unhappy and not willing to settle back down. He watched them and saw the blank spot in the air. Whatever was disturbing them would likely be there. He eased forward.
Even as he slowly started deeper into the woods he wondered if this was a good idea. These weren’t his woods. He didn’t know quite what lurked in them. He had been assured that there was nothing fearsome in the area around campus, but again no one had mentioned the woods.
He had grown up tracking and hunting. His grandpa made sure he could sneak through the woods without leaving a trace, as quiet as a whisper. Those were the skills he leaned on now. He avoided any twig that might snap or leaf that might rustle. His sketchpad and pencils were still in his bag. The bag rested on it’s strap at the base of his spine and he kept it close so it wouldn’t snag. Silently he inched his way forward, eyes shifting between earth woods and sky.
Slowly he moved deeper in. He was almost at the spot. He stopped hidden from view, waiting listening. He quieted his breath and practiced going still, just as he was taught. Ahead, he heard movement. Shifting, heavy breathing. He wondered, momentarily if he interrupted a tryst. He almost shook his head. There was only one person, he was sure of it.
‘Unless the second person isn’t breathing,’ he thought. It brought dark images into his mind and he shoved them aside to focus on what he could hear. There was the sound of something heavy being dragged and then he heard the sound of a shovel digging into the ground.
Ten til Midnight 