Chapter 1
Will Graham groaned and rolled over, covering his head with the pillow. It was barely sunrise and already some idiots car was backfiring. He drifted back to sleep, and only woke back up when his alarm clock went off, pulling him out of his slumber. The sun fully shining through the blinds, last nights interruption had done nothing good for his sleep cycle.
Will could already feel a stabbing pain near his left eye, his life didn’t stop just because of a headache though. One of his many dogs, Zoey was pawing at his leg whimpering to go outside. He opened the front door expecting the dogs to rush out into the yard to go to the bathroom and run around. Instead they left and all gathered to sniff at a pile of rags on Will’s porch.
He let out a sharp whistle to get the dog’s attention “no leave that alone.” he commanded. The dogs listened to his command and back up giving Will a clearer view of the rags.
He assumed it was some form of garbage that someone had thought they could dump out in the country side but then the bundle shifted on its own, revealing a tuft of black hair. was that a human? Will creeped closer prodding the pile gently with his shoe.
The pile moved again after a few more pokes, more black hair was revealed as a face become visible. A little boy with bright green eyes stared back at him. Will blinked and rubbed his eyes, the boy didn’t disappear when he checked again, he must be real then. Will kneeled down next to the boy, he looked like he couldn’t be older than four, he was so tiny. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Will said, reaching his hand slowly towards the child like he was approaching a skittish dog.
Even seeing the hand coming the child still flinched away from him, scared.
Realizing that he wasn’t being hurt the boy opened his eyes to look. Will held his hand still in the air not moving it.
“What’s your name?” Will asked. The boy’s unnaturally bright green eyes just stared at him, the boy made no move to speak. He tried again “Cómo se llama?” the boy only looked more confused at Will asking the question in Spanish. “Comment tu t'appelles?” he tried asking in French. Will wasn’t a polyglot, it wasn’t like he could ask the question in any other languages. He barely knew the Spanish and French he had attempted with the child.
It made no difference as the child also didn’t respond to the Spanish or French. With the English attempt the boy at least seemed to have an awareness of what was being said to him even if he didn’t respond.