The Hybrid by Lauren Shelton Read Free Book Online

to make sure. But, she was completely awake, and completely alone once again.
What just happened?
Tru tried once more to look around, hoping for a
glimpse of something that could give her any sort of clue
as to what had just taken place. It was still pitch black,
and all that could be seen was the dim glow of a full moon
behind a thick blanket of dark clouds ⎯ not anywhere
near enough light to illuminate anything for her.
Slowly, Tru rose from the moist ground where she sat
and turned to begin walking back towards the house.
Finding the beginning of the path back through the trees
was much more difficult now that it was so dark outside.
And not surprisingly, finding the path was much less difficult than actually trying to navigate her way through it.
More than once, she tripped over a fallen log. A few times,
she stepped in deep, muddy puddles of water, soaking her
shoes,
and
even
her
socks.
The
moist
fabric rubbed
against her feet uncomfortably.
When Tru finally began seeing the glow of the patio
light through the trees, she looked at her clothes to see if
there were any signs of her encounter with the voices. But
the only evidence she could find were the muddy legs of
her pants, a few patches of wet fabric on her shoulder and
part of her stomach, and a wet, grass-stained seat on her
jeans.
Hurriedly, Tru ran to the sliding glass door, hoping it
would still be unlocked. But when she was about two feet
away, she could see that the door was open, with no more
than a three-inch gab between the door and the door casing. The curtains, that hung against the window inside
the house, swayed back and forth as the wind from outside pushed against them.
Gertrude’s jaw dropped instantly.
She pushed the door open further⎯ wide enough for
her to slip through. Gently, she closed and locked the
door behind her, then tiptoed her way through the family
room, and into the kitchen. It was hard to see her way
around the house with every light turned off, but she
walked slowly, avoiding as much furniture as possible.
When she walked into the spookily dark kitchen, Tru
could just barely see that the oven and stove were both
turned off. The dishes had all been washed and put away.
And fortunately, nothing looked too out of the ordinary.
Tru carefully turned around and walked back out into
the hallway and looked up at the second floor from the
bottom of the stairs, as she stood in front of her bedroom
door.
“Hello?” she whispered. She didn’t want to wake her
grandparents, just in case they were home, but part of her
still worried that something was wrong.
Everything is okay. They’re asleep. They have to be.
Everything is fine, she said to herself repeatedly.
Then, as she placed her foot on the first step of the
stairs, she stopped to listen. The faint rustling of sheets as
someone rolled over could barely be heard over the sound
of her grandfather’s snores.
They’re safe . Tru took a deep breath. I am slowly losing my mind.
Almost immediately, Gertrude remembered that she was the one who had left the door open. She had been in
such a hurry to get to the meadow that she had forgotten
to close the door behind her when she left. Her grandma
and grandpa must not have seen that it was open.
Tru turned back towards her room ⎯ finally able to
call it her own⎯ and walked to her bed. She didn’t want
to believe anything that had happened earlier that night.
And thinking about it more made her think even more
that the whole thing had just been some crazy dream.
She stood there in silence as she unbuttoned her pants,
pulling her legs out of the holes⎯ one at a time⎯ and
yanked on her cotton basketball shorts. She wrenched her
sweatshirt and shirt over her head and threw on a ratty
tank top her mom had bought for her years ago. She then
gently climbed into the bed and pulled the warm sheets
and fluffy comforter up to her chin. Her mind was racing
at a thousand miles a minute, but before she even had a
chance