The Brody Girl - How It Begins...
It rained earlier in the evening, but the thunder clouds finished emptying themselves on the old house in Indiana. A light breeze whisked the remnants of the storm away, and as it did, the moon emerged. In its full light, someone might have seen the silhouette of a person crawling out of the house through an upstairs window. No one did.
Nor did anyone hear their footsteps. There were the songs of crickets, frogs, and the last drops of rain which fell from the trees, but not a single sound from the dark specter on that roof.
The shadowy figure was small, but nimble as it crept along the roofline of the Victorian country home. It moved in silent determination down and across the gable outside the window and then over to the southern corner of the roof. There it disappeared down the side of the building and was not seen again until it appeared in the large yard between the house and the dense forest behind it.
Without cover of shadow and bathed by the light of the full summer moon the figure was visible. Other than the maroon-colored pack upon her back, the girl carried nothing. Her dark clothes were all but indistinguishable. All, except for her bright white shoes. They glistened like wet pearls in the moonlight.
Suddenly, a noise emanated from the direction of the house. Like a deer spooked during a meal, the girl remained motionless in the moonlight, waiting. She paused for only seconds, but to her it seemed so much longer. The evening returned to its gentle symphony of singing nocturnal creatures and the breeze pushing through the trees. Confident no one had come looking for her, the girl’s tensed shoulders visibly relaxed.
Even though she was in no immediate danger, the girl did not dare linger there any longer, so exposed by the light of the moon. Plan in mind, she darted silently towards the darkness of the trees. The forest behind the lonely country home which stretched out for acres consumed the girl. Swallowing her deep into its belly, leaving no sign of the girl or her bright white shoes.