#anyways there's this old church on my road and i walk past its graveyard nearly every single time i take the bus or walk anywhere | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

silverfootstepswrites · 6 years

Text

Equinox: Fall [1]

The fragrance of autumn was heavy in the air when Sakura pulled into town. More accurately, she pulled up in front of the sign she guessed said the name of the town. She used the flashlight on her phone to get a better look. She jolted when she felt something crawling up her leg. But when the light angled across the ground, she saw that it was just a log that she had brushed up against.

“This is how all the horror movies start. I’m out in the woods and-” Sakura cut herself off as she swatted at the air. “Mosquitoes!” She hissed as she flapped both her hands in the air, trying to chase away the bugs. Huffing, she stomped her way back to her car. Shutting the door, she popped her phone back into the mount. She restarted the engine. Her headlights cut two beams of light onto the empty road.

Sakura listened to the dirt and rocks crackle under her tires as her car rolled along. Her eyes darted all around the dark forest. Trees always had a way of creeping her out. Maybe it was the way things could hide so easily in those odd, twisted shadows. Just as she began to wonder whether she had taken a wrong turn, she glimpsed another sign. This one read ‘Welcome to Old Pines’.

The road eventually left the forest. She had smelled the saltwater even from the highway. But now she could see that the town sat on cliffs above the ocean. The road hugged the edge of the cliff, separated from a rocky plummet by a flimsy wooden barrier.

It wasn’t difficult to find the sheriff’s home. His email had done a good job of guiding her to his place. It was a two-story house with a huge tree in the front yard. She could see round fruit hanging from the branches. Apples, she guessed. Although it was hard to tell in the dark. The lights were on in the house, windows glowing gold.

Sakura left her car idling as she walked down the path to the house. A dog began barking somewhere nearby. After a moment, deeper barking answered. And then farther away, more barking responded. Almost like a chain of messages being sent into the distance. Sakura rang the doorbell, sticking her hands in the pockets of her jacket.

After a moment, the door swung open. The light from inside almost blinded her. It took her a moment to adjust. And then she saw a man in maybe his early-forties standing there.

He wore grey sweatpants and a t-shirt. A pug peered out from behind his leg.

“Hi. I’m Sakura,” she introduced herself.

The man’s eyes widened. “Oh. Wasn’t expecting you until the morning. That was quick,” he responded. A second nose poked out from behind his leg, sniffing at the air. Then a third.

“Kakashi. I try to make sure the town doesn’t go up in flames,” he then said, holding his hand out to her. Sakura shook it.

“Seems like you’re doing a good job. I haven’t seen smoke yet,” replied Sakura. He chuckled in response.

“Give me a second. I’ll get my phone and then I’ll show you to your place,” Kakashi told her.

“Oh! You don’t have to. I have the address. I just wanted to say hi in person,” Sakura called after him as he headed down the hall. One of the dogs followed him, but the other two stayed by the door, staring up at her.

“It’s easy to get lost in the dark, especially since you don’t know the roads!” he called back. And then his head poked out into the hallway. “This is to help me sleep well tonight,” he added. And Sakura couldn’t really find a way to argue with that.

She followed his jeep down the winding path. It was just one turn to the right. But she couldn’t help but agree that she would’ve missed the turn-off and circled around for a while. She thought she saw eyes watching from the woods a few times, but they disappeared when she tried to look closer.

The road trailed off into a dead end. To the left sat a cabin. It was a little taller than she had expected. Sakura saw movement and turned her attention to the jeep in front. Kakashi’s hand dangled out the window, pointing to the left, in the direction of the driveway. And then he waved her along.

Her little red sedan had no trouble navigating. Leaves covered the gravel, but it was level. She had expected potholes and dirt roads in a small town like this. But it had been a smooth drive all the way through. Kakashi’s headlights flooded the inside of her car as he pulled up behind her. Sakura cut the engine and stepped outside.

“I’m guessing that Genma gave you the run-down when you bought his place?” asked Kakashi, tilting his head back to look at the place.

“Rented, not bought. And yeah. Don’t pet the raccoons. Don’t leave raw meet lying around,” Sakura listed.

“Good. Genma moved out not too long ago so the place shouldn’t be in bad shape. If there’re any issues, I can help you sort ‘em out in the morning,” Kakashi told her. And then he eyed her car.

“You need any help carrying anything inside?” he offered. Sakura slapped her trunk, shaking her head.

“Just a couple bags. The moving truck should be here tomorrow,” she said. Kakashi lingered for a moment.

“Are you sure you’re alright on your own?” he questioned. Because it was an old, empty house sitting on the edge of the woods. Sakura understood. But she nodded.

“I’ll be fine. If anything...” Sakura held up her hand, thumb and pink fingers extended. She mimed holding them up to her ear.

Kakashi clicked his tongue as he pointed at her. “Gotcha. You have a good night,” he replied. Sakura stood in the driveway, arms crossed as she watched him back out. He paused to wave at her once before he headed back down the road. The absence of those blinding headlights plunged the place into deep, abrupt darkness.

“Alright. Not getting mauled by a bear tonight,” Sakura muttered to herself as she popped the trunk open. She moved as fast as she could, even as she told herself ‘I’m a grownass woman’ over and over again.

The inside of the house echoed. She dropped her bags at the entrance and headed out to her car to grab the two plastic totes in her trunk. She slammed the trunk shut, hit the lock button twice. And then ran as fast as she could back to the house. The porch was screened-in. The outer door had a lock, which she promptly fastened. And then she locked the inner door when she stepped back inside.

The house was surprisingly open on the inside. There was a loft tucked up on the second floor. The fireplace sat on the right, by the entrance, a little dusty but otherwise sturdy-looking. Sakura tested the light switches as she walked through the place. The bulbs were a little fluorescent for her taste, but they would do for now.

After some thought, Sakura spread her sleeping bag out on the loft. The floor was hard, and the house creaked at odd times. It took a while for her to fall asleep. But when she did, it was to the symphony of crickets chirping outside.

Sakura woke to a text from Kakashi, who was checking to see whether she had survived the night. She typed back a groggy reply, misspelling half the words in her stupor. He probably got the gist anyway.

She crawled out of her sleeping bag and forced her body into the bathroom to wash up. As she pulled a sweatshirt over her head, her phone buzzed. It was the moving company letting her know that they were on their way with her stuff. Which, unfortunately, included her coffee maker. And she wasn’t really willing to wait that long.

Sakura slapped on some half-hearted makeup before she ventured out of her house. She looked up nearby coffee shops, praying as she scrolled through the results. She nearly cried with joy when she saw that there was a place that served coffee. A town without a real coffee shop was the true nightmare scenario.

She decided to walk. To her surprise, a black dog appeared halfway down the road. The only thing that let her know that it wasn’t a normal dog was the way its tail ended in wisps of smoke. She hesitated. She had a good idea of who it was, but she didn’t exactly know how to react.

“....Oh.... hello?” she called out.

The dog tilted its head.

“I’m going to get coffee,” she told the dog.

And the dog turned to trot down the road. She somehow had the feeling that she was expected to follow. So she did.

She had heard about church grims before. They normally roamed church graveyards to chase off grave robbers and vandals. She had never seen one in person before. The spectral black dog was just a shade too dark to be a regular hound. Almost like it had been colored with ink when everything around it was filled in with colored pencil.

The cafe came into view down the road a few minutes later. There were too many wind chimes hung out front. The high-pitched clanging was irritating even from this far away.

The shape of the black dog blurred. When Sakura blinked, the dog’s silhouette changed. Jaws and skull shifting. Black fur receding and lightening. And in the end, Kakashi stood there in a dark green jacket. He held the door open for her. A few blades of grass stuck to his pants. He brushed them off as she moved past.

Sakura could smell the fairy dust as soon as she stepped into the little cafe. Fairy magic was sweet. It hung in the air, shimmering like bits of glitter suspended from the ceiling.

The walls were covered with what looked like real ivy. Smooth, jazzy music played from a speaker somewhere. A woman leaned over the counter. Her hair was silvery-blonde, like corn silk. She perked up when Kakashi turned to her. And her whole face lit up when she spotted Sakura.

“This is Ino. She’s fairyfolk,” Kakashi said.

The second part of the introduction was a little unnecessary. What with the pointed ears and the faint glimmer of green wings behind her. She extended her hand, smiling with her teeth that were almost too white. Sakura shook her hand.

“Sakura,” she replied. She could feel Ino staring at her. More than appraising her. Because she felt the little tug at the corner of her awareness. And after a while, Ino leaned forward, eyes gleaming.

“My glamour isn’t working on you at all. But you’re not fairy...” Ino questioned.

“Siren,” Sakura corrected her.

Ino’s grin widened. “Fab. You visiting?” she asked.

“She’s renting from Genma starting today,” Kakashi answered for her. And then he added, “You got any scones?”

“Fresh from the oven. And iced coffee, one sugar for you?” replied Ino, pushing off the counter.

“How did she...?” Sakura wondered. But she stopped herself. Kakashi rested his elbow on the counter. Hand in his chin.

“Fairies,” was all he said.

“Yeah.”

The moving truck rumbled into town a couple hours later. By then, the caffeine had done a good job of waking Sakura up. She had managed to scrub down the floors when the truck pulled into the driveway. Two brothers climbed out of the truck, like mirror images of each other.

“You’re late!” Sakura scolded, hands on her hips.

“Sorry. Sorry,” one of them said, moving around the back to open up the truck. His twin headed over to her to plant a big, noisy kiss on her cheek. She tried to push him away by the face, but he still managed to mess up her hair.

“Sakon, you asshole!” she scolded. She shoved his shoulder as he turned away from her. Sakon snickered as he stomped down the stairs. His brother elbowed him as he walked past. Ukon, carrying a cardboard box on his hip, paused to tweak Sakura’s nose before he left the box on the porch.

“You’re the asshole, you know. Why is all your stuff so heavy?” Sakon called, peering around the side of the truck.

“You break any of the equipment in there and I’ll kill you” she threatened. Grunting, Sakon struggled with something inside. And then he let out a sigh. There was a ripping noise and then wind gusted out. He backed out of the truck, leathery black wings spread from his shoulders. His arms had transformed, black and muscular. Ending in sharp talons.

He easily lifted the huge box. Instead of walking, he gave a powerful flap of his wings to glide over to the porch. His wings folded up behind him so he could fit through the door.

“Move,” grunted Ukon, shoving past him. His eyes turned gold, hands and arms blackening too as he moved toward the truck.

The gargoyle brothers managed to lug all of Sakura’s things into the house without much trouble. She did a little nagging and managed to get them to even move the boxes into the appropriate rooms. The trickiest part of the whole ordeal was trying to get the biggest bookshelf up the stairs to the loft. In the end, the twins each grabbed one end of the shelf and flew it up over the railing, Sakura directing them away from light fixtures like the bad conductor of an orchestra.

They stayed for a beer, but then both of them were checking their phones.

“We’re pretty busy today. Sorry, Bunny,” Ukon told her as she took the empty bottles from them.

“Okay,” she replied, walking them to the door.

Sakon lingered on the patio steps, turning to look at her.

“I’m not that far from the city. Come visit me,” Sakura said to both of them. Sakon avoided her gaze. But he shoved his hands in his pockets, looking down at his feet as he nodded.

Ukon smiled. “You know we can’t say no to you.”

Suddenly, Sakon’s chin jerked up. His eyes scanned the woods that grew up to the edge of the property. The nails on his right hand sharpened into talons as he twisted around.

“Sakon?”

After a long moment, his talons softened back into nails.

“Lock your doors at night, Bunny,” Sakon warned her.

Sakura spent her second night in Old Pines assembling furniture. She would have been more worried about Sakon’s parting words if she didn’t have a few trinkets placed around the house. Chains of little silver bells hung above the front and back doors. A cluster of dried four-leaf clovers dangled from a red thread at one of the kitchen windows. On the center of the mantel sat a big pinecone.

Her friends in the city had always chalked up these little things to an eclectic sense of decor. They thought it was cute that she kept a sachet of mugwort and lavender by her pillow when she slept. Poked at the shining peridots that dangled from her curtain rods with comments like “pretty”.

Sakura took a sip of her wine before she returned her attention to finding the right screw. It took some head-scratching and she had to read the instructions three times. But she managed to assemble the bookcase with all the parts in the right place.

She pushed it up against the wall, to the left of the fireplace. Hands on her hips, she looked at the stack of boxes next to the sofa. And then she checked her watch.

“Tomorrow,” she decided. She grabbed her tools and left them on top of the boxes. Tripping over a hammer in the dark would be an unpleasant experience, to say the least.

She washed up and changed into some old, faded clothes. She set her laptop on the right side of her bed and flopped down beside it. Pillow between her legs, she scrolled through her email and then checked her Twitter feed one last time before headed to Netflix. Screen dimmed, volume turned down low, she kept her eyes open for as long as she could before she drifted off to sleep.

Sakura woke in the morning, eyes dry. And even though it was another quiet start to the day, she had the distinct feeling that she hadn’t slept well at all.

“Coffee,” she grunted, stretching her arms above her head. She crawled out of bed, rubbing her eyes on her way to the kitchen. And as she stood filling the coffee pot at her sink, she nearly dropped the carafe.

One of the things Sakura had missed while living in the city had been a yard. Even if it was just a dinky patch of grass, it was nice to be able to point at that grass and announce, “That’s mine.” Genma had left behind some nice shrubs and some flowers. The big tree in the middle, he’d added, was a peach tree.

“Don’t worry about watering that stuff or whatever. It’ll be fine,” he’d assured her as he handed her the keys to the place.

And the reason Sakura stood horrified now was that Genma’s yard had been overturned. One of the shrubs had been ripped out by the roots. The leaves and flowers on the other plants were in tatters. Parts of the yard had been dug up, like someone had been hunting for buried pirate treasure. The garbage was knocked over, paper and food bits scattered throughout the grass.

Sakura called Kakashi, phone tucked between her cheek and shoulder as she measured grounds and poured them into the filter.

“Sheriff, hey. Uh... you busy right now?” she said when he picked up.

“I was on my way to the station. Why?” he replied.

“Well, I’d really appreciate it if you could drop by. Looks like someone had a party in my yard last night. And I wasn’t invited,” Sakura told him.

There was a pause. Then she heard his signal clicking.

“Be right there.” He hung up.

Sakura sat on the steps leading up to the back door. Her elbows rested on her knees, cheeks in her hands. Only her eyes moved as she watched the spectral black dog pace back and forth across the yard. In particular, he seemed to pace the boundary between the grass and the forest with diligence.

“Is it aliens? The devil?” she inquired.

Kakashi turned his head in her direction. The black smoke around his tail expanded, swallowing him up. When she blinked, a man stood there instead. He crossed the grass, careful not to step in the garbage as he went.

“Smells like werewolf,” he told her. Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck, adding, “I have a pretty good guess at what happened here. But I’m going to have to talk to a few people first.”

Sakura nodded, only understanding about half of what he was saying. And Kakashi seemed to either see or feel that. Because he crouched in front of her so that he could look at her, not down at her.

“You grow up around werewolves?” asked Kakashi. She shook her head. And he chuckled, “I figured. Scoot over.”

Sakura made room for Kakashi on the stairs. When he sat, the wood gave a long creak.

“Were packs tend to handle stuff in-house. They’re pretty big on disciplining their own,” he explained. “So I’m not saying to pretend this never happened. I’m just asking you to keep an open mind. If, when we get talking, you see eye-to-eye with them, great.” And when Sakura caught on to what he was saying, she frowned. He held his hands up.

“But if you’re not happy, I’ve got your back, alright? I’ll do everything I can to make you happy. I’ll do anything to see you smile,” Kakashi added. When he had finished speaking, he seemed a little surprised. Almost like he couldn’t believe what had come out of his own mouth. Shaking his head a little, he scrutinized her.

“I’m not even that nice to my family. That’s some charm you’ve got there,” he observed. She gave a rueful smile, tight at the corners.

“You grow up around sirens, Sheriff?” Sakura questioned. He laughed at the way she threw his words back at him.

“No. Although I hear that sirens tend to stick together,” Kakashi recalled.

Sakura looked down at her knees. “Yeah,” was all she said.

Grunting, Kakashi got to his feet. He gave her shoulder a light squeeze.

“Don’t touch anything out here. I’ll be back in the afternoon,” he told her.

“Sure,” Sakura called after him.

Sakura kept busy. What had happened to the yard was upsetting. But she had learned from experience that staying busy was the best way to deal with things that were out of her control. So she unpacked a few boxes, discovering that the freezer had an automatic ice maker. Which cheered her up quite a bit.

She managed to assemble the coffee table and half of another shelf before Kakashi knocked on her door. He came bearing a light blue box filled with profiteroles. Delicate, flaky pastry piled high with custard and whipped cream.

“From the lovely Ino. She sensed that you were upset,” Kakashi explained, surrendering the box. Sakura took a bite out of the biggest pastry, chocolate and cream smearing around the corners of her mouth. She wiped her face on the back of her hand before motioning him inside.

“And I brought-”

“Shh. Coffee first,” Sakura interrupted him. Kakashi fell silent as he followed her into the house. While Kakashi struggled with his boots at the door, Sakura headed into the kitchen. She only pulled one mug out of the box on the counter. She filled it with plenty of ice before pouring coffee into it. It said on the side in big red letters: ‘If this is full, shut the fuck up’.

Sakura turned to face her the sheriff. Kakashi stood there, tapping his fingers against the countertop with obvious impatience. But he didn’t say anything as she enjoyed her coffee.

She didn’t offer him a drink. Or any of her profiteroles as she picked up the one she had already taken a bite out of. She chomped down on it again. Marveling at how the silky taste of butter and sweet cream melted together in her mouth.

“Okay. I’m ready to listen,” Sakura sighed once she finished eating and took another gulp of coffee. Powdered sugar and bits of pastry clung to her fingertips. She wiped them on a kitchen towel before she leaned her elbow against the counter.

An odd look crossed Kakashi’s face. Like he didn’t realize that he had been waiting for her.

“Yep,” replied Sakura with a knowing look. His eyes demanded an explanation. She didn’t blame him.

“I can’t force you to do something against your will. But I can suggest things and you’re more likely to listen,” she said.

“Oh. Well... can you.... turn it off?” Kakashi requested.

She laughed. “It’s not a lamp, Sheriff. It’s just... part of me.”

Kakashi didn’t look too happy. But he took it rather well. He just sort of sighed and nodded.

“You’ll build up a little bit of immunity, eventually. Takes a couple weeks. And it doesn’t work as well if you’re aware of it,” Sakura assured him. That seemed to comfort him a little. And then Kakashi’s face was all business again.

“I brought a guest. If you’re willing to hear him out,” he told her. He pointed with his thumb. Sakura sighed as she headed to the front door. She could already see someone waiting outside the patio door. He lifted his head before she said anything.

Sakura pushed the door open.

“Hi,” was all she said, a little more than wary. Because no matter how handsome he was, a stranger was still a stranger. And if this stranger had anything to do with uprooted shrubs and a ruined lawn, he was lucky not to get her foot up his ass first thing.

“Hey. I’m Kiba. I really wish we could’ve met under better circumstances,” the man said, offering his hand. Sakura shook it. She could feel the callouses on his fingers and his palm. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled.

Sakura decided that her foot would stay on the ground. For now.

#equinox #writing #equinox: fall #multisaku

150 notes · View notes