Night Lullaby by Char Marie Adles (read after TXT) 📖

I wiped my eyes and looked at what else was in the package. I pulled out another envelope and a picture. The picture was of my mom, me, a man that looked in his early thirties and a little boy who held my hand. I didn’t know the man, but the boy was the same one from my flash back this morning!
I opened the smaller envelope and there was money! And a few hundred dollars no less! And a note that read, for you to use, if you wish.
I held it all to my chest and closed my eyes thanking him with all my heart.
The last piece of paper was directions, thought they didn’t make much sense, at the bottom it said, someone will be there to help you if you come.
I went back to work and told Mrs. Amy I would be taking a little while off, and she agreed with a smile. When work was over I went home to start packing. I knocked something over and saw it was a picture of mom. I picked it up.
“I’m going to be fine now mom. You don’t need to worry anymore. I’ll be well taken care of.” I kissed the picture and packed that too. Even thought we had lived here for more then ten years we barely had anything in the apartment. We had everything we needed and nothing we didn’t. When I placed the last things I had from mom in my suit case, and zipped it up and looked around. It had looked as if no one lived in it even before, but now it looked as if no one not even a ghost lived here. I went around saying good-bye one last time and decided that it was best to go now. It was only two in the afternoon and the rain hadn’t come yet, so now would be the time to leave. On my way home from work I had stopped by the manager office and told them I was leaving. So now nothing could stop me from leaving.
I closed the door behind me and said my last good by and headed to the rode that left to the bus. I paid my fare and didn’t look back as the bus drove away from the city.


*~*~*~*~*~*~*


The bus drove up longs roads and an hour later as it got to the edge of the town, most of the people were gone. Only an old lady asleep a few seats back and a young mother and her sleeping child in her arms were still on the bus. The houses after that slow got farther apart and soon stopped as it turned to mountains, rather then hills. The old lady got off soon after and the mother an hour later. Then it was just me.
The bus driver looked up in the big mirror to the back at me. She had a big open smile and a kind face.
“Where are you going dear?” she asked in a voice that sounded like a kind aunt.
“To my Grandfather’s, he lives up in the Black Forest.” I said to her looking for the window I had been looking out.
“Oh my,” she said, “You have to be careful there. There are stories and myths about monsters that live there. I didn’t know anyone lived up here anymore. Not since the mass murder a hundred and twenty years ago.”
“Really?” I asked, curious now.
“Oh yes. That place use to be one of the best known place for miles around because all the rich people had bug mansion there and it’s said there own city too. But know one really knows because no one has ever gone up there since. Would you like me to take you some where else?” she asked. She was worried for me.
“No that is the only place I have to go. How far is it from here?” I asked.
Monsters? Stories? Myths?
“It’s about twenty miles west if I have it right,” she said, watching the rode.
By time we get there it’ll start to get dark.
I watched out the window are the mountain became closer and soon I saw the forest. You couldn’t miss it. On either side of the entrance there were tall rocks the size of the ancient trees. Anywhere from 30 ft. to over a 100 ft. tall. But if there wasn’t enough to keep someone out the giant metal gates with the spikes was. It looked something like what a person would call the gates of hell. There were skulls carved into the metal of the gate over thorned rose vines interlacing the gate from the top to the bottom. The gate had to be over a hundred feet tall.
We were still a few miles from it which told me it had to be huge. The forest beyond the gate led up a hill into darkness. You couldn’t see beyond a few feet in.
I felt a chill run down my spine. A final warning. Keep out.
But I had no choice. I looked down at the instructions.
The gates with lead into the forest. First you must wait for them to open.

The bus pulled over on the turn off in the rode that lead up the gate.
“I’m sorry, but this is as far as I can go. Please don’t ask me why,” the bus driver said. Her voice was shaking.
I nodded. I got up from my seat and placed my bag over my shoulder. I walked down the isle of the bus. She stopped me on the top step and handed me a silver coin. It burned my palm.
“It is said that the monsters can’t stand silver, keep it close.”
I nodded and closed my hand tightly around it. The burning got worse, but I hardly notice. As soon as I steeped out of the bus the doors closed. The bus pulled away and raced down the rode to the next city over a few hundred miles away.
The sun started to set as I started to walk the long rode. The old paved rode under my feet was smooth and the cracks small. The closer I cam to the gate the cold the air around me felt. With my free hand I pulled my jacket closer around me.
Soon I stood at the foot the gate and the skulls craved into the metal seem to stare at me and scream as the gate doors slowly opened. But I wasn’t the one who had opened them.


Chapter Two
What lies beyond the gate?


I watched as the gate opened its screaming mouth to swallow me and the dark woods behind. Black shades and shapes seemed to move and shift about restlessly. Eagerly waiting for me.
I took my first step that led me up to the gate and another that finally crossed my over into the forest. The wind blew suddenly fast and furious, but it didn’t touch me instead with went behind me, as if to protect me. I shivered as I took another step forward. The warning was still there and the coin felt as if it would burn through my hand.
I put my shoulders back and started walking into the forest and up the hill. The gates screamed as they slow shut behind me. I watch them until the completely closed.
“Weird,” I muttered, turning back and going farther up hill. The shadows seemed to follow me, but every time I try to get closer they simply slid farther back and disappeared coming back as I moved on.
The ancient tree crowded close together and they were so tall I had to wonder if they were as old as the earth itself.
Once more I looked at the piece of paper with the instructions.
You will find a path of flower, and you must follow it, but do not wander from the path.
Soon the path gave away to flowers the color of blood in the fading light of the sun. I looked up. The sun was almost set.
“Crap if I don’t hurry I’ll find myself lost in the dark,” I told me self, “I hate being lost.”
It wasn’t the dark that I hated really, I actually love dark places, and it not knowing where I am that make me jumpy.
I looked around to see if I could spot anything, but the forest was huge and everything was cast into the darkness of night. The shading of the ancient trees didn’t help.
Then I saw a stone path that led deeper into the forest.
Maybe this is the way.
I stepped on the path and started through the trees. These trees were smaller then others but as I looked at them I could tell they were older. It was almost completely dark now and soon in the distance I spotted an old cottage.
Thunder rumbled in the air and rain started to pour through the trees.
“Great.” I said as my hair plastered my face and hung down my back in long wet strings.
I stumbled over the uneven ground, and caught myself before I went head first into the mud. My shoes sunk into the ground in the thick oozing mud.
I pulled my feet out of the ground a trudged on father.
I reached to cottage soon and headed for the door.
Nothing could be worse then this, I thought, as I reached for the door handle.
“Caw! Caw!”
I turned sharply to my left as a crow came flying towards me. I ducked, but it landed on my head, and I tilted my head back to look at it as I bent forward to stare at me with its black beady eyes.
“What do you want?” I asked it. I was annoyed and edgy.
“Caw! Caw! Caw!” it squawked and jumped back into the air. It caught a piece of my hair a tugged.
“Ow! That hurt!” I muttered as it pulled my hair again, but not as hard.
“I’m going to stay here tonight. You can stay with me if you want,” I told the crow.
“Caw!” Tug.
I swatted at the bird. It pulled again, but this time back in the direction I had come. It seemed as if the bird wanted me to follow it.
“Alright I’ll follow you, but you better take me somewhere useful,” I told the bird.
“Caw!” it agreed and I followed the bird.
It led me back to the path, but the path had changed.
The rain started to pour harder, and I cursed.
The bird flew though my hair still in its break and seemed to have no trouble seeing there the rain.
Strange noises of animals I’ve never heard