Chapter 2:
Throwing branches out of his way, Sonny Griffin ran as fast as his legs could go. The cold of the frigid night air ached in his chest as his breathing became almost unbearable. At age 17, he was in very good shape, yet he struggled for breath and he could feel his legs tightening beneath him. He wanted to stop, but his fear kept his feet planting one in front of the other. The thing followed him closely--chasing him through a forest in which Sonny had never been. A choking fog swallowed up most of the forest beneath him and he could no longer see where his steps landed. He pushed forward because deep in the back of his mind he knew he had to get away.
The pure evil presence behind him was catching up. Out of the edge of his view a heavy frost began creeping over the giant maple trees, from their thick twisty roots all the way up towards the leaves which had turned yellowish orange with the impending autumn. It took over until everything gleamed with a hint of blue, fully frozen. Exhaustion began to grow in his legs as it became harder and harder to pick them up to avoid the objects on the forest ground. He stumbled, giving up precious time to allow the evil presence to catch up to him.
As if a freeze gun was blasting its way to Sonny, a burning sensation engulfed his legs and they became frozen. One by one his pants, then sweatshirt, and then his face began to freeze. A sting of ice cold pierced his lungs and face turned from cold to a burning sensation. His short buzzed hair even developed a thin layer of frost atop his head. He knew at any moment his lungs would be too frozen to keep him breathing. By now Sonny had stopped running and could no longer hold himself up. He fell to the cold, hard, ground with a thump. Managing to turn over, he laid there trying to catch his breath which now only came in short bursts. With only mere seconds left until he could no longer breathe, his eyes looked up toward the presence that stood now almost on top of him.
His vision began to go hazy as the frost reached his eyes. At the very last second before he believed his eyes would shatter, two faces appeared above him. One, the face of the darkest crow he had ever seen. The eyes were sunk in and seemed empty and lifeless. The worst part of the face was the half smile that seemed immovable and sinister. Sonny's eyes turned slowly to see the face of the man on whose shoulder the crow perched, and milliseconds before they gazed upon him he awoke, sitting up, sweat drenched in his bed, still trying to catch his breath. He shivered even though his bedroom was easily 70 degrees.
Sonny shook his head, he experienced the same dream every night. Nothing ever changed, yet he never realized his dream until he awoke. He told himself every morning and every night before he drifted off that he would gaze upon the evil man with the crow, yet he was never aware enough to change his dream.
His best friend Olive will ask him, as she does every morning, if he saw the man in his dreams. Shaking his head he will have to tell her no. She was the only person Sonny had ever told of the dream. Olive had suggested to Sonny a number of times that he needed to see a doctor, or a psychologist, and now her latest venture after traveling downtown and seeing the shop, was trying to convince Sonny to go see a new Psychic who had just set up a place.
The entire week all Olive could talk to Sonny about was the Psychic and on this morning's walk to school she was at it again. "Sonny please please please do it! Go see her! I will go with you. Or at least come check out her office. It's wild!" Olive's excitement was not rubbing off on Sonny for he just mouthed the letters N and O to her with a smile.
"Oh cmon. It would be fun." Olive had been berating Sonny about this every time they walked to and from school together. Her brown hair was worn up in a ponytail and it swayed back and forth. She had a small pointed face with a petite rounded nose sitting atop her long skinny neck. She smiled at him with her mouth closed, her full lips pursing together, begging him to go along with everything she asks. He secretly liked that Olive always tried to get him to do different things--karaoke, dancing, and anything having to do with roller coasters. When it came to anything, Olive was there to make sure Sonny didn't miss any of it.
A small grin crossed Sonny's face. He knew Olive could get him to do anything, she was different like that. She looked at him with her prominent sparkling green eyes and batted her full lashes at him. "Fine, but if she's too expensive, we are leaving."
Olive shot a wide eyed smile to Sonny, "HA! I already investigated and it's $20.00 to have her read your dream." Olive beamed with pride. She had got Sonny to do something he didn't want to. That was rare considering how stubborn he could be with other people.
They laughed all the way to school imagining what it was going to be like and coming up with different ideas for what she was going to say his dream meant. They decided that weekend they would head down to the psychic's shop and check it out.