BHS Inkwell 2017-2018

Hannah Tallant

and spiral, a glowing cyclone in the sky. I grow dizzy, fall to my knees and my head spins, but I cannot look away. I call Rufus to tell him about the dream after breakfast. When we meet at the decrepit barn for our morning run, he hands me an issue of the Fenton Daily News, pointing at a short article on the second page. I skim through it. Apparently, yesterday evening, a note was left at City Hall saying, “You are all disgusting little fools”. It was signed “Friends of the Meadow”. “So what?” I say, looking up at Rufus. “That seems like a harmless teenage prank,” “Keep reading,” says Rufus. I cast my eyes back down at the paper and shudder. “The message was written in a dark red ink that has not yet been identified.” Rufus nudges me. “Blood.” “No way it’s blood,” I say, shaking my head. “There’s so many other things it could be.”My mouth is dry. I try not to think about the newspaper when we get to the part of our run that cuts through the Meadow, but I find myself running a bit faster

than usual until we reach the forest once more. After our run, I find myself unable to stop thinking about the Meadow as I return home and go through my daily chores. Could Fenton really harbor something so sinister, lurking beneath a surface tension built of monotony and dead grass? I’ve always thought that I live in the most boring place in America, a pocket of people who all collectively decided to settle for the blandest way of living life. I worry that if I stay here for long enough, I’ll become like all of them, blending into my dull surroundings like everyone else - a herd of chameleons.The midday heat drifting in from the open kitchen windows is beginning to turn my thoughts into daydreams of leaving this place to travel the country when my phone interrupts, buzzing harshly. “Hi, Rufus,” I answer. “What’s up?” “Frogs,” he replies. “Frogs everywhere. You have to see this.” This sounds a lot like one of Rufus’s stupid jokes. His favorite hobby has been playing tricks on me ever since we were in elementary school. “What the heck are you talking about?”

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