Chapter 5- Have I lost my Mind?

I was almost to the den when I heard something up ahead. Beau said he would meet me here around nine thirty, but it was only eight. Maybe he had come early to surprise me. He knew I loved it up here and probably anticipated me being here long before him.

“Beau? Is that you?” I said, with a hint of a smile on my face. My heart was beating faster than normal, my stomach was doing back flips. I smoothed out my hair and felt my checks turn red. It was in that moment, that I finally realized what that strange feeling I had around him was. I loved him. Or at least, that’s what it seemed to be.

I peered around the tree in the direction where the noise came from.

“Beau are you up here? I-”

I froze in my tracks. What stood before me was beyond this world, unlike anything I could ever have imagined. Black, horrifying wings spread from its fleshless spine, its ashen colored bones illuminated in the moonlight. I thought I was facing Death; The Grim Reaper himself. And not the cutesy one they animate in old fashion Disney cartoons.

I began to back away as slowly and quietly as I could, keeping my eye on him. A branch cracked beneath my feet. I covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming out loud. The figure turned at the sound, and stared at me with its empty hollow eyes.

At that moment I figured I had two options: Faint and let Death take me away from this world, or run down the mountain side screaming like the teenage girl I was. I wasn’t so keen on the idea of a young, mysterious death, so I chose the second option.

At this time I also realized that tears may possibly be the most inconvenient bodily function known to man. Particularly when you are running down a mountain in the dark on a cold autumn night with your face towards the wind. Already blinded by the night, I had to deal with the tears filling in my eyes from the “Near Death Experience”.

I was wiping my eyes with my hoodie when I ran into something hard. I fell backwards and began to automatically beg for my life from the thing that stood before me.

“Please, please spare me… I didn’t mean to interrupt you, I was just coming to meet my friend and I thought you were-”

“What are you doing?” A familiar voice interrupted, with a hint of humor in his voice.

I opened my eyes to see Beau, looking at me with one eyebrow raised and a blanket in his hand.

“Beau! Beau… I am so glad to see you” I said hysterically, beginning to cry again. I got up and hugged him so hard I practically tackled him. He stumbled a bit before catching himself and hugged me back.

“Its nice to see you too…” he said, still puzzled. “What happened to you? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“You have no idea how close you are…” I said under my breath, snuggling my head closer to his chest. I have to say, he smelled fantastic…

After about 4 minutes I decided to finally let go of him. I kind of figured he needed to breath when he patted me on the back awkwardly. By then I had stopped crying, but I was still dramatized by the incident.

“How ‘bout we just head back to my car, okay? You can tell me everything when you are nice and warmed up. You’re going to go into shock if you stay out here much longer. Take this blanket, it will keep you warm until we get down to the road.”