Polaris Read Online Free PDF Page A

house before meeting up in the living room.
    “What just happened, and where’s my mom?” Aaron said. He paced rapidly around the room.
    Parker nervously peered out the window. “Who the heck did you guys let into your house? Did you see his eyes?” He rubbed his glove across the glass in a failed attempt to get a better view. “Do you think they’ll come back here?”
    “Oh, man,” Aaron pulled off his hat and rubbed his head. “Last night … his eyes … ” Aaron stuttered out as he sat on the edge of the couch.
    “Last night, what?” Parker demanded.
    Aaron stumbled over his words a few times. “I’m not sure how to say it.”
    “Just spit it out.”
    “Last night, I thought I saw Nakal’s eyes glow, but I was looking at his reflection in the mirror and there was a bird staring in the window, “Aaron paused. “I think they were looking at each other.”
    “What?” Parker’s voice rose an octave. “You serious?”
    Aaron nodded.
    Parker narrowed his eyes. “You saw all of that and you stayed in the room with him?”
    Aaron huffed. “I thought I’d imagined it.”
    “Did you tell your mother?”
    “No.” Aaron threw his hands up. “Again. I thought I’d imagined it. I have to find my mother.”
    “The car is still out in the driveway and she was too sick to walk anywhere.”
    “True,” Aaron said, “But she was on the phone before we left, maybe Mom is down at your house?”
    Parker’s eyes perked up. “Yeah, maybe my mom came back from town and stopped by to pick her up or take her to the doctor.”
    Aaron ran into his mom’s room, picked up the handset, and held it against his ear. He looked at Parker and frowned before hitting the receiver button a few times. “It’s dead.”
    Parker pulled out his cell phone and dialed his home number. After a few seconds, he looked at the face of the phone and sighed. “No signal.” He walked to the other side of the room and held the phone up in another attempt to get a signal. “Nothing.”
    “Let’s just run down to your house. Maybe your phone there is working,” Aaron pulled his hat back down on his head and zipped up his jacket. Parker followed behind him.
    As they made their way through the deep snow to Parker’s house, Aaron took in his surroundings. The area where he’d grown up and played all his life was now the site of a bad horror movie happening in real time.
    “Did you see that thing erase the trees?” Aaron shouted to Parker. “What was that?”
    Parker shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe it came from that meteor.”
    “That’s crazy. This can’t be happening, right?” Aaron asked.
    “Well, what about your mom getting sick after being outside with Nakal.”
    “Let’s hurry,” Aaron yelled as they ran toward Parker’s house.
     
     

     
     
    Parker’s family owned a two hundred acre wheat farm, located a half mile down the street from Aaron’s house. Several birds sat along the roof’s edge of Parker’s house, lined up like soldiers. They seemed to watch the boys as they approached. Their only movement was an occasional blink of their eyelids to flush away snow flurries.
    Aaron noticed the birds first. He nudged Parker who’d been running with his head down to block the icy wind.
    “Whoa!” Aaron said.
    The two slid to a stop and entered into a stare down with the birds for a few minutes.
    Parker waved his arms around. “Shoo, birds,” he shouted.
    The birds remained motionless and continued to watch the boys.
    “They look like the same birds that attacked Nakal and those monsters,” Aaron whispered. “And check out the one up front. It has a chain around its neck.”
    Parker focused in on the one bird. “What’s that about?”
    Aaron shrugged. “I dunno, but I think that’s the same bird that was looking in my bedroom window last night.”
    “This is too much.”
    Aaron nodded. “Now that I see them in the light, I think they’re Peregrine falcons. Don’t you remember we studied them