Excerpt: Nothing to Fear

After the first blank moments of blindly searching the snowy forest floor, he felt the need to whistle.

It was a song he vaguely remembered. Duran Duran, probably; something about girls with brown eyes. It was catchy nonetheless. His sound was dulled by the snow surrounding him, muted in the cloudy darkness. Something rumbled inside the house, and Alex assumed that it was Jacob finally turning on the heat.

He whistled one half of the chorus, trailing off. Somewhere far back in the woods, something echoed back at him. He stopped halfway up from a stoop, head cocked slightly in the direction of the sound. He whistled one half of the refrain again, stopping on the same note at last time. The echo came again, but after the pause of three heartbeats. Alex stood to his full height, tinder secure under one arm. He whistled his one half of the chorus one last time.

Five heartbeats later, the whistle echoed back, finishing the refrain of the song.

My brown-eyed girl...

Alex’s head whipped left and right to search for any form in the wood he might have missed, but in the late hours, he was surrounded by nothing but shadows. He took two steps backwards, ears open.

The whistling returned back to him with no prompt this time, finishing the chorus a second time. Alex whipped around and stumbled through the snow back toward the cabin. The snow fell silently around him.