Post by Caleb Hutchinson on Apr 20, 2016 0:47:44 GMT
i am the mountain i am the sea; and you can't take that away from me Goodbye. One word formed from two, usually with good intentions, usually with the sense that the two saying goodbye would meet again, hopefully in the near future, but this time it wasn't the case. It was saying goodbye to a town that had treated Caleb so well, a town that Caleb had almost found himself in and planted his roots, but on a whim he had applied for a job in another town, a few hours drive away, never to return. This goodbye was bitter sweet, there was a feeling of anxiousness, yet a feeling of excitement, new journeys, new memories, uncharted territories for him to explore in this new adventure. He was leaving his life for the past four years behind on a feeling, witches intuition, maybe, maybe it was his calling to come to this town and discover things, but seeing his whole entire life in a load of boxes filled him with a sadness he hadn't experienced before, unlike when he was a child and told he was moving with his family, this time he was moving on his own back into a town where he knew not a single soul. He watched as the last box was placed into the moving van by the team of moving specialists he had hired to go on the journey, his car filled with a few boxes, too. As the van started abruptly and staggered off into the distance, Caleb knew it was time to finally put the keys on the side for the landlord to retrieve later as discussed in an earlier e-mail, and head to his new home. While he knew he was about to embark on a four hour drive, he hadn't packed anything to eat or drink, figuring he would need to get gas at some point on the journey, he may as well pick something up to eat on the way. He nodded to himself slowly as he walked towards the door of the now empty house, placing the keys on the door side table and picking his coat up off the stairs, doing a final pat down of his pockets to ensure he had everything he might need, he had already checked all the rooms had been packed up, so that wasn't going to be an issue. The sun was reaching it's mid-day peak as he closed the door, beating down on him and his car, he finally sat in the driver's seat and twisted the key in the ignition, time to set sail. Almost driving on auto-pilot, he arrived with only three breaks, to find that the moving team had already arrived and were waiting for him, great, in a way, but he wanted to see the new place himself for the first time on his own, hoping he would beat them there, that way he could make a quick plan on where to put what. He twisted his new house key in the door, a slight push and he was in, a small sigh of relief escaped from him an echoed down the hall, this was home. Admittedly, it was a little larger than his previous place, but that came with the territory of moving and taking a larger pay packet at the end of the month. A few hours passed, as slow as it was, countless cups of tea and coffee had been demolished by him and the moving handlers as they worked on through till early evening, the poor guys had a four hour drive home yet. Caleb had offered them the sofa so they could rest until the morning and then head off, but they had to be back in the office at 7 AM, which made Caleb feel even more guilty about keeping them in Cloistere for so long. When they finally left, the shut of the front door made everything flood towards him, this was real, this was it, he was in a town where he didn't know anyone, he was in a town where no-one knew him, or where he came from, or anything about him, except his name was Caleb and he was the new history teacher at the high school. No one knew about his 'shady' past, being involved with witchcraft, no one knew about the struggles he had gone through with coming out of the closet, it was time to wipe the slate clean and make a new life for himself. The feelings of freshness came to him not long after he settled in and had done a bit of food shopping, the locals seemed to be friendly, but the town definitely had a feel to it, a feel that it was hosting a secret that was begging to be released into the open, and Caleb was hell bent on finding out what it was. His grimoire was neatly placed on his bedroom drawers, next to his mother's; what kind of witch would he be if he didn't keep his own one? After all, he couldn't continue with his mother's much longer, of course she would need it back at some point, even if it's for simply referring to it on the rare occasion she wanted to practice the craft. As she was getting older, he noticed that she was practicing less and less, and he could see it was taking it's toll on her. A short text later and he had given his mother and father his new address with his new home line, which was probably useless information as he never answered the home phone. What was the point? Everyone had mobile phones now. It was beginning to get late, he was tired and had unpacked most of his things, the only thing left to do was iron a shirt for work in the morning, and prepare himself for the brutal task of introducing himself to a new class of students, who would no doubt, as all teenagers did, attempt to push their boundaries and dip their toe in the water to see how much of a push over their new teacher is. Truth be told, Caleb was petrified of it, but it came with the territory of entering a new job in teaching, he was no different when he was their age, he was probably any teacher's worst nightmare to have as a student, especially when he found out he could do things other students couldn't do. Pushing the negative thoughts to one side, he had to focus on the here and now, he needed to wash his plate up and get some sleep. Cold sweats began to proceed that night, he was dreaming of being in woods by a waterside, it was cold, dark and there was a feeling of death in the air, he couldn't figure it out. All he knew was he was being hunted, and it was a full moon. As his dreams began becoming more intense over the next few days, he contacted his mother again, reoccurring dream, same thing, every night. She pondered for a bit, unsure of what to tell him, it could be nothing, it could just be nerves of settling into a new town, to her it sounded more like his dreams could be interpreted as anxiety related, but Caleb knew it was different, there was a different feel to it, it felt too real. For Caleb, the worst part of the dream wasn't the reoccurring, nor was it the hunted feeling, but it was he didn't know who or what was hunting him, and he could never remember what or why he was running, all he knew was that he had to get out of the woods. He looked at his calender one morning, it had all the moon cycles posted on it, after he located the next full moon he made the decision to attempt to sleep early that night to try and avoid it, in some messed up way he assumed it was linked. He was almost certain he wasn't seeing future events, and he was even more certain he wasn't seeing past events; he had never experienced anything of the sort before, but something didn't feel right. This town felt as if it had a lot that was hidden, and he felt like it had a past that involved a lot of magic. That night during the dream, he the atmosphere seemed calmer, he didn't feel as worried, it was almost as if whatever was going on in the dreams before hand had gone away. That was until he saw his late grandfather who spoke one simple word to him; 'Run'. With that, the feelings came back, he sprinted, he had never run so fast in his life, he didn't even know if it was possible to be running this fast, he ran past and around a tree to be faced with bare teeth and a snout, which jolted him awake, and with that, half of the room's objects came crashing to the floor. He wasn't even sure if moving to this town was a good idea any more; he had the night terrors in check before and suddenly they had come back with a vengeance. Could it be linked to the town? Was someone, or rather, something, trying to get a message out to any vessel that would listen? Or was it all purely coincidental? one shot post for caleb; moving in day |
credit to nat of adoxography.