Shooting stars
Leah stared her reflection in the mirror. Her dark eyes were looking so tired under the neon light.
She sighed heavily, and washed her face with cold water, hoping to wake up completely. After drying she went to her closet and put on her work uniform, before exiting the door.
When she arrived at the store, she looked the hour on her phone and found she still had 20 minutes before her shift.
“Well, nice”. The young girl walked to the coffee machine, right outside the store, and light on a cigarette while waiting for the hot beverage to come down.
“Hi Leah. How’s today going?” A blonde girl dressed with the same blue uniform approached Leah with a faint smile. “Have you finished?” she said, pointing the coffee machine.
“Hello to you, Anne. I’m fine, just tired, as always. You arrived just in time, it just finished” Leah took her coffee with the free hand, and took a step to her left, to leave space for her coworker. “How was your day?” She looked up at the sky. Even if it was late in the evening, the city light made it impossible to see the stars, it was kind of sad. Leah hoped to see some early shooting star, knowing that the following day would have been the best day of the year to see the phenomenon.
“Uhg, same. I was so tired that I just slouched on the couch all day. I’m so happy that today is the last night shift of the week. Are you still down for tomorrow?” she sipped her hot coffee. “Remember right? Jake said you could come with us to his parents cabin. To see the stars?” she added staring at Leah with a questioning look on her face.
Leah nodded with her head, while she put out her cigarette: “Yeah, don’t worry. We meet at noon before leaving, right? I will probably sleep all the trip till the cabin, just so you know.”
“Yes, and don’t worry, I will probably do the same. It’s not like we will have much time to sleep after this shift, anyway.” Anne put her cup in the trash can before starting to head to the back door. “You coming?”
“C’mon girl! We’ve arrived. Time to start the party!” a young man had open the car door and was shaking up Leah.
The sky had nice shades of pink and purple, while the sun was already gone behind the mountains. The air was chill and had a nice smell of pine and musk. Leah shivered, feeling cold after sleeping for a few hours. They had left later than expected, so it was already late. The cabin lights were on, and she could hear Anne and Jake arguing inside the building.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m awake. Have you seen my backpack?” Leah hopped out the car and was looking around her.
The guy did a motion gesture with his hand while slamming the car door shut: “Already inside, it was hard waking you up, so we already took care of it. Jake has just found out the stove isn’t working, so we will probably have a nice dinner out of s’mores”
“Thank you, Mark” she responded. They just entered the cabin, that was small, but actually really cozy. Her backpack was near the entrance, with a few other bags. Jake and Anne were near the kitchenette, arguing about the stove.
Anne was saying that Jake supposed to ask his parents about the kitchen condition before going on the trip, while Jake was swearing it did work last time he was there, so he didn’t thought it could be a problem. Mark, who was Jake’s cousin, was looking at the arguing couple with an amused smile: “OK guys, nice talk, you both have a few good points, but I’m hungry as hell, so can we please just go outside and put up a bonfire, so we can happily eat marshmallows and drink a few beers looking at the stars?” Everyone turned their head to him “We're here for that, remember? We can fix the stove tomorrow, but today please, let’s just try to have fun”
Everyone agreed and started to organize to make a bonfire in the backyard. While Anne and Jake were taking out the food, Mark had already built the structure: “Leah, can you see if you find few other sticks, please? Here take my torch” he said, while handing the torch to her, “Just, don’t go too far, you will find enough stuff near the first trees anyway.”
Leah took the torch and headed to a few trees, there were plenty of sticks on the ground, and she was able to collect a good bunch. Before she turned around, she heard loud howling coming through the woods. She wasn’t able to say how far they were, but she was sure she didn’t want to find out.
She walked the few feet to her friends in long and fast steps, looking over her shoulders all the time.
“Hey, have you seen a ghost? You’re so pale” Anne was looking towards her with a worried look on her face.
“I just heard howling. I’m not sure where the sound came from, but it couldn’t too far”
“Don’t worry, there are a few beasts in these woods, but it’s really rare that they attack humans.” said Jake while taking the sticks from the girl and starting the fire “Anyways, we’re not more than 20 feet from the cabin. Even if they tried to come near us, we could just easily go back inside.” The boy stood up on his feet and took a beer can from a small portable refrigerator: “The fire’s on guys! Cheers to this wonderful night”
Everyone took a beer and cheered together, they started to eat and chat. Beer after beer, they were becoming more and more drunk, laughing and enjoying the night.
“Look, here they are!” Anne was hugged to Jake, and was pointing the sky with a beer still in her hand.
Leah turned to watch the wonderful sight. It seemed to her like the sky itself was crying. The moon was lighting the woods silhouette, while thousands of stars stood still, watching their sisters fall to the earth. The scene alone was beautiful, and then a choir of wolves started howling, probably somewhere watching the same view the guys were enjoying. The woods were never so alive like in that moment.
Leah felt a tear streaming down her face, while ancient memories came to her mind: she was screaming and trying to reach for someone, but she couldn’t remember his face. Other people were dragging her away. She was kicking and digging her nails, that resembled claws, on their arms, but it didn’t seem to bother them. Them, there were so many of them, no one seemed to have a face, but it was like a sea of dark figures dragging her to her end.
After a few hours spent outside, the fire was starting to die. The boys put down the ashes and everyone went inside.
Leah went lying down on the bottom bed of a bunk bed, in a small bedroom the should have been Jake’s room. Him and Anne closed themselves in his parents bedroom, while Mark preferred to stay on the couch. It had been a long night, and everyone fell asleep almost immediately. The silence was interrupted only from the nature sound outside.
A loud crush came from the evening room. Leah jumped on her feet, scared to death. Mark was screaming, and she could hear loud steps of someone running out the double room “Who the fuck are you? Anne call the police!”.
Leah ran out of the room and couldn’t believe at the scene that was before her eyes: a tall and muscular man was standing naked in the center of the living room. Mark was on the ground with a cut open on his cheek, while Jake was kneeling beside him, worried about his cousin. Dozens of wolves were outside the cabin, staring at what was happening.
The man turned his black eyes on Leah: “Mate”.
