My Grandpa had always said that Angels had walked among men ever since the earth was created….It took me until recently to actually start believing him. Oh yeah, you don't know what happened yet, do you? Well you might as well sit back and listen because this is something that takes a lot to believe…

…..

It was a couple of weeks ago, on my last birthday when it all started. It was Saturday and I and a couple of my friends were at my house having a party with a few of my family members over. It was all going perfect, we had an awesome cake, some awesome food, and my friends and I played an awesome tournament of Guitar Hero, with me coming out on top of course. After a while though, my friends and family had to start getting on home.

I was showing my last friend to the door, with only my parents, brother, and grandparents left when my Grandpa walked up right after my friend had left.

"Something wrong?" I asked, wondering what he was up to.

"Just wanted to give you your last present," he smiled as he pulled out a small wrapped box about the size of my hand, but only a little bigger.

"Last present?" I asked confused, as I thought I had already opened all of the gifts that I'd been given earlier. When I had finished ripping off the wrapping paper, I found out that it was a silver box with an outline of a brown feather on it.

"Go on, open it," My grandfather said as I lifted the lid of the box off.

Inside of the box was a silver necklace with a white feather charm in the middle of it. A small card beside the necklace said 'Necklace of the Winged.'

"Whoa…." I said, stunned as I took out the necklace from the box. "Awesome!" I said as I put it on over my head and pulled it down until it was around my neck. "Where'd you get this?" I asked, curiously.

"It was a gift from my Grandpa," He grinned before muttering something along the lines of, "It has been passed on." After that, he said that he had to go and I showed him to the door. It'd be a while before I actually learned what he had meant by that statement.

…..

A few days later, my grandpa had died of a sudden heart attack. At his funeral I wore his, or should I say my, necklace and ever since then I'd worn it to remember him. As his casket was hoisted into his new grave, I looked up at a tree and for a second, I thought I saw Grandpa standing there, dressed in a white cloak. Before I could react any more, he was gone.

That memory stayed fresh in my mind throughout the next week. That is until my friends and I went up to a place we called 'Ghost Pass' because of all the stories of ghosts and haunting that had taken place there over the years. Of course, being oblivious to fear and danger, we decided to spend the night in the 'Ghost Pass' cave…..Boy were we stupid for going there.

…..

It was around ten at night when we had arrived at the cave, and with it being a full moon, we had enough light not to waste any batteries by using our flashlights on our walk there.

"Think the others will be here soon?" My friend Josh had asked me, once we were waiting for the rest of our 'search party' to arrive.

"They'll be here," I told him, just as our four other friends arrived, with Zak taking up the lead.

"It's about time," Josh said to them once they were in earshot of us.

"Not our fault we had to take a wrong turn," Austin said as he looked at Taylor.

"I said I was sorry!" Taylor said, as she stared at Austin in mock anger.

Shana chuckled as she looked on at them. "C'mon, let's just go."

"Yeah, we're wasting moonlight," Zak agreed.

"Then let's go!" Josh said, starting to head into the cave, using his flashlight to see, with the others following behind him.

I started to follow, before I heard a rustle of a bush near us. I turned to face it, as I saw a pair of red eyes staring between the leaves back at me. My heart beat rocketed as the eyes stared for a few more seconds before blinking into nothingness.

"You coming?" Zak called back as I gulped and jogged to catch up with them.

The inside of the cave was just as you would imagine it at night: dark. Even with our flashlights we couldn't see everything at once in there. We continued walking until we came up to a tri-fork in the cave, with three different paths appearing almost out of nowhere.

"Looks like this is where we split up," Shana said as she shined her light down each of the three paths.

"Alright, whose going with whom first of all," Austin said.

"Let's see here…." Josh said, smirking. "I'll guess who is going with whom. Shana will be with Zak, while Austin will be with Taylor, if they even make it past the first few feet if they do make-out."

As soon as Josh was done saying his prediction, everyone except Austin and Taylor (which they were both blushing madly by now), were cracking up laughing.

"Shut up and decide your tunnel," Austin growled once the laughter had died down.

I started looking down the tunnels, considering which one would be the best one. All of a sudden, I heard a faint whisper from down the left tunnel. I froze as I struggled to understand what it was saying.

"Something up Ike?" Josh asked, although I barely heard him.

I shined my flashlight down the tunnel as I started running down it, full speed. "Josh, go with someone else! I'll be fine on my own!" I yelled, not bothering to slow down as my voice echoed back to them as I heard them yell back, but barely.

After a few minutes, I stopped, not only to catch my breath, but also to look around at my surroundings. So far, there was nothing special about the room I was in. Just a few rocks, some bones, some stic-wait, bones! My heart beat increased again as I raced over to look at the bones. They were animal bones, I knew because we had studied them a while ago in science class. There was one thing about the bones that set my hair on edge….They were still fresh.

I set the bones down as I stood up again, surveying the way I had came and the path that lied ahead. Another inaudible passed by my ears as I gulped and headed towards the route I had yet to take.

About five minutes later and I found myself in a large cavern. I flared my flashlight around the room, feeling my heart in my throat as it beat rapidly. I was just scanning the room as my flashlight passed over an animal….A big furry animal.

My eyes widened as I started backing up, trying to be as silent as the ninjas in movies. But, as I learned, I'm not a ninja because I stepped on a stick, which cracked and echoed throughout the cavern, and to my misfortune, waking up the beast.

The beast stood up, shaking its huge pitch black pelt as it opened its red eyes and glared at me. Suddenly, it grinned menacingly as it bared its huge fangs and walked toward me, on all fours like a wolf.

"Well well well, what sort of rare meal as this stumbled upon my nest?" It spoke darkly.

My blood froze. A talking wolf?! "I'm only a h-human," I said slowly.

"Teh, like I believe that," The wolf said. "Say what you truly are."

"What're you talking about?" I asked, confused.

"I've never met someone like you that'd lie about what they really are," The wolf grinned, mischievously.

"Ok then, seeing as you're so smart; tell me what the heck I am?" I asked, not wanting to get angry with this huge talking wolf that'd probably kill me with a single bite.

"You really don't know do you?" The wolf laughed. "You're an Angel."

I froze. "What….?"

"Angel, you know, things with wings that 'help' people," The wolf sneered, saying 'help' as if it was poison. "How pathetic, well at least you'll provide a good snack for me."

"S-snack?" I asked shaking slightly I guess as the flashlight light started moving and shaking.

"Yes!" The wolf howled as he lunged at me.

I don't know how I did it, but somehow I was able to sidestep the lunge and start running the way I came, with big dark and hairy breathing down my neck behind me. I remembered the way I had come as I ran back, adrenaline fueling me along as I ran. As I reached where we had to choose paths, I was lucky to have the others just coming out of their tunnels.

Before they could say anything I yelled "Run!" and without protest, they broke into a run towards the entrance. I glanced behind me to see the wolf still behind me as we ran. Finally, after seeming to have taken forever, we ran out of the entrance, my friends stopping after a few feet out of the tunnel to catch their breaths.

I ran out and turned to face the wolf once more….but nothing came. The sun slowly rose behind me as I looked into the shadows.

"What….was…with…the…howling?" Zak asked between breaths.

I stared into the shadows to see the red eyes of the wolf staring back slightly. "You got lucky Angel….next time you won't be…" it laughed before its eyes faded into the darkness.

"I'm not sure…" I said, still shaken up before reaching up and touching the necklace around my neck. "But I've got to ask some questions about my Grandpa…"