What if you knew that horrific events were coming and you figured out a way to protect your home and the ones you love, would you do it?
Yes? Then come along and read When Worlds Collide.
"Hey Stacey," Aimee answered her phone while plopping down in her favourite reading chair. "What's up?"
"It was freaking here, Aimz," Stacey blurted out to her best friend. "I saw the footprints. They were weird, and they were huge, and it was standing right under my freaking bedroom window!"
"What? Hold on." Aimee was trying to wrap her head around what her friend was saying. "Why the heck would a wolf go stand outside your bedroom?"
"I don't know, Aimz. This isn't a normal freaking wolf though. You know that," Stacey reminded her.
"True," Aimee agreed, and then asked, "how many drinks have you had?"
"Why?" Stacey mumbled through a sip that turned into a glug.
"Because you're speaking in rapid fire and you're saying freaking a lot," Aimee teased.
"Not enough," she slurped, finishing her glass. "And maybe that's because I'm FREAKED OUT!"
"It just really likes you, I guess," Aimee chortled.
"Yeah. But, why me?" Stacey started to whine. "What does it want with me? What even is it?"
"No idea," Aimee answered flatly, trying to calm her friend down.
"Well, it freaking winked and smiled at me before it ran off, so it's intelligent and it knows something, something about me," Stacey revealed, before emphasizing, "it came up to me on purpose."
"It did?!" Aimee wasn't aware of that part. "Okay, yeah, that would be a reason to drink." She paused to have a think, and then continued, "well tomorrow is Halloween, right? And they say the veils between worlds are thinnest on Halloween. So if that's true, could that be why this is happening? Something's going on since we've all had weird experiences."
"Hmm, maybe. But why now? Why not last year?" Stacey let out a heavy, frustrated sigh. "And why us?"
"I don't know." Aimee chewed on her bottom lip as she pondered the question, and then exclaimed, "oh!" as she remembered something she had to tell her. "I heard that Ron and Carrie saw a couple of UFOs last week."
Stacey coughed, "really?"
"Yeah, Carrie's sister told me." Aimee confirmed, and then shared the details of the sighting. "Apparently, they were driving on highway 2 along the river in Summerstown one night, and two triangular craft suddenly appeared out of nowhere over the water. They said they were both pretty low and flew almost side by side with one just a bit behind the other. Carrie told her they followed them all the way into Cornwall before losing them around the power dam because they couldn't go any further."
"Wow." Stacey gasped. "Things are getting way freaky around here."
"At least you're not alone there. You've got Doug. I've got no one and get the creeps now with the woods so close in my backyard." Aimee could hear her pouring another glass of wine, so added, "oh, and tell Doug not to open any more bottles for you tonight or we'll need a trip out to Stone Crop Acres."
"Mmm, good idea!" Stacey chuckled, then turned more sombre. "Yeah, it's getting creepy here too. Oh!" she remembered, "oh and get this, speaking of Doug, as I was heading back to the garage this afternoon, Doug decided it would be fun to jump out at me in a freaking werewolf mask! A werewolf! My chest hurt so bad I thought I was going to die."
Aimee burst out laughing. "Sorry! That's funny, but not at the same time." Then laughing a little more, she wrapped up the conversation, "well, snuggle up with your hubby tonight and try to get some rest. You need it. Call me if you need anything."
"K, night Aimz. Thanks."
"G'night." Ending the call, Aimee got up and went into the kitchen.
After making herself a cup of tea, she grabbed a couple of oatmeal cookies and settled back down in her cozy armchair. While blowing on her hot brew, she took a moment to enjoy the peaceful evening, and peered out the large windows of her living room. Squinting for better focus, she looked to the thick treeline that began abruptly past her small backyard. It was the edge of a rather large woods within the city.
Aimee had loved it when she and her now ex-husband first bought the house, as it provided a beautiful view and some privacy. But now that she was divorced and her daughter was grown and had moved to Ottawa, she was alone there. Although, she wasn't so sure that was true anymore.
As the street lights came on in the gathering darkness, Aimee scanned the treeline. Now that the leaves were falling away, she could see much further into the woods, and wondered if the wolf Stacey saw could be out there. Then she wondered if it was the same as the one in her dream.
Same, but different, a deep masculine voice spoke in her head.
Aimee's eyes grew wide and she froze. "That came from inside my head," she murmured without moving her lips, and then asked out loud, "who's there? Who was that?" She waited in silence, but nothing responded. So she shrugged, trying to act brave and added it to her growing list of weirdness.
Shifting her position in the chair, she picked up her book, Missing 411 Canada, from the side table and opened it at the bookmark. Earlier that afternoon, she had reached the section on Ontario, and now resolved to read a few cases before going to bed.
After about twenty minutes of cookie nibbles and sips of tea, Aimee started to glance up apprehensively out at her dark backyard. She thought about the people in the book and wondered what happened to them. Where did they go? Did something take them? Or did they just vanish from the spot? She shuddered, imagining the possibilities.
The unexplained disappearances from the book were getting to her and giving her the heebie-jeebies. Using a smarthome app on her phone, she decided to turn the back light on.
Aimee still had a weird feeling though. Like being watched, she thought, and then remembered what Heather had said about her experiences when they went out to Mexi's. So resting the book in her lap, she slowly looked around for shadows, paying particular attention to doorways and hallways. Nope, still nothing.
As she sipped and read for another half an hour, she hoped she wouldn't end up as one of the missing. But then, realizing she had gone over the same page four times now, she decided it was time to close the book for the night. She just couldn't concentrate anymore.
Aimee did her usual nightly rounds to make sure everything was off and locked tight, and then headed to bed. Before tucking herself in though, she stopped in front of her closet to make sure it was closed. She even gave the door a little tug and jiggled the handle. Making a mental note of it so that she would know she wasn't imagining things, she climbed into bed and turned off the bedside lamp.
The scent of freshly washed bedsheets combined with the lilacs still blooming in a vase on her dresser filled the air as Aimee settled down under the covers. Intense drowsiness quickly overtook her consciousness and she let it. She was grateful for the rest to come.
Then right as Aimee started to drift off into sleep, The Call came. That beautifully haunting voice sang its song, rapidly bringing her into deep delta sleep.
As Aimee sank into serene slumber, the closet door clicked and opened.
© 2021 by Linda Casselman
Last: Lurking in the Backyard
Next: What's a Dogman?
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Did You Hear The Call?
Become a Shield Warrior-in-Training
