Chapter 4: First Day Jitters
My alarm went off at five-thirty, but I'd been awake for hours anyway. Every time I'd closed my eyes, I saw that massive shape moving through the trees. Those familiar dark eyes watching me from the shadows.
I stumbled to the kitchen and made coffee with shaking hands. The logical part of my brain kept insisting I'd imagined the whole thing. People didn't turn into wolves. That was fiction, not reality.
But the irrational part of me—the part that had felt so drawn to Caleb, that had recognized something wild in his eyes—whispered that maybe fiction wasn't so fictional after all.
I drove to Murphy's Diner in the pre-dawn darkness, my headlights cutting through thick morning fog. The parking lot was already half full despite the early hour. Apparently, Silver Creek was an early-rising kind of town.
Beth was waiting for me inside, tying an apron around her waist and looking disgustingly cheerful for someone who'd been up before sunrise.
"Ready for your first day?" she asked, handing me a matching apron.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Murphy emerged from the kitchen, looking exactly as gruff as he had the day before. "Grace! You're on time. Good start. Beth'll show you the ropes, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Better to ask than mess up someone's order."
The next few hours passed in a blur of coffee refills, breakfast orders, and trying to memorize which regular customer liked what. The ranchers wanted their eggs over easy and their coffee black. The construction crew from the motel ordered everything on the menu and left decent tips. Doc Mitchell stuck to oatmeal and tea, reading medical journals while she ate.
I was starting to feel like I might actually survive my first shift when the bell above the door chimed and Caleb walked in.
He looked different in daylight, more human somehow. He wore dark jeans and a blue button-down shirt that brought out his eyes. But there was still that sense of controlled power about him, like a predator pretending to be tame.
Every conversation in the diner stopped. Not obviously—people kept eating and drinking their coffee. But I felt the subtle shift in attention, the way eyes tracked his movement as he chose a booth in the corner.
"I'll take this one," Beth said quickly, grabbing a menu.
"It's okay, I can handle it," I said, surprising myself.
Beth looked uncertain. "Grace, maybe—"
"I'm fine." I straightened my shoulders and walked over to Caleb's table, notepad in hand. "Good morning. Can I start you with some coffee?"
He looked up at me, and for a moment the noise of the diner faded away. Those dark eyes held mine, and I felt that same electric connection from yesterday in the woods.
"Coffee would be great," he said. His voice was lower than I remembered, rougher somehow.
I poured his coffee, proud that my hands weren't shaking. "Do you know what you'd like to eat?"
"Pancakes, bacon, eggs scrambled." He paused. "How are you settling in, Grace?"
"Fine. Good. The town's been very welcoming."
"I'm glad to hear that." But something in his expression suggested he wasn't entirely convinced.
I was about to ask what he meant when Murphy's voice boomed from the kitchen. "Order up!"
"I'll get your food started," I said, backing away from the table.
The rest of Caleb's meal passed without incident. He ate quietly, reading something on his phone and occasionally glancing my way when he thought I wasn't looking. When he was done, he left exact change plus a generous tip and walked out without another word.
"You did good," Beth said, appearing at my elbow. "Caleb doesn't usually talk to strangers."
"He's not much of a talker period, from what I can tell."
"The Stone family keeps to themselves mostly. Old Silver Creek family, lots of land up in the mountains. Caleb's father runs some kind of security business."
I thought about what I'd overheard in the woods. Security business could mean anything. "What kind of security?"
"Private stuff, I think. Rich people who want protection for their homes, that sort of thing." Beth shrugged. "Why all the questions?"
"Just curious. I met him yesterday while I was exploring my property."
Something shifted in Beth's expression. "You were out in the woods alone?"
"Just walking around, getting familiar with the land I inherited."
"Grace..." Beth looked around the diner, then lowered her voice. "Maybe stick to the main trails for now. Until you know the area better."
"That's what Caleb said too. Is there something I should know about?"
"It's just—" Beth hesitated. "There have been some incidents lately. Animal attacks. People getting hurt. The sheriff thinks it might be a rabid wolf or something, but whatever it is, it's been getting closer to town."
The paw prints outside my cabin flashed through my mind. "Has anyone actually seen this animal?"
"Not clearly. Just tracks, and..." She glanced around again. "Janet Morrison swears she saw something huge near her property line last week. Said it was walking on two legs one minute and four legs the next, but she'd been drinking, so..."
My blood turned cold. "Walking on two legs?"
"Like I said, she'd been drinking. But Grace, promise me you'll be careful out there. Especially at night."
"I promise."
The morning rush began to wind down around ten, giving me a chance to catch my breath. I was refilling coffee when I overheard two men at the counter talking in low voices.
"Found more tracks this morning," one was saying. "Up near the old mining road."
"Same ones as before?"
"Bigger, if anything. And there were signs of a struggle. Blood on the trees, vegetation torn up."
"Think it got something?"
"Hope not. But the sheriff's organizing another search party for tonight."
I moved closer, pretending to wipe down tables while I listened.
"My money's still on a bear," the first man continued. "Big one, maybe sick or injured. Makes them unpredictable."
"Bears don't hunt like this. This thing's smart, coordinated. Almost like it's planning these attacks."
The second man's words sent a chill through me. I thought about the shape I'd seen outside my cabin, the way it had moved with purpose rather than animal instinct.
"Grace?" Beth appeared beside me. "You okay? You look pale."
"Just tired," I lied. "Long morning."
But I wasn't tired. I was scared. And despite everyone's warnings about staying away from the woods, I knew I had to find Caleb again. I needed answers, and somehow I suspected he was the only one who could give them to me.
The question was: would he tell me the truth? Or would he keep protecting whatever secret Silver Creek was hiding?
Either way, I was done pretending that moving to this town had been coincidence. My father had lived here. He'd known these people, walked these same woods. And something told me his death hadn't been the accident I'd been told it was.
I was going to find out what really happened to him. Even if it meant discovering that monsters were real, and one of them might be falling for me.