Chapter 11: The Woods

The canopy was thick enough she was only moderately wet. She hardly noticed. Emily was too busy beating herself black and blue inside.

All she had to do was reach out to him. Was that so hard? Just a word, a moment of compassion. Where had her soul gone? She was starting to wonder if she even had one. There was so much empty surrounded by hurt Emily was sure she was as hollow as the visions she saw of the girls.

She tripped over a root, cursing as she looked up for the first time. The woods. The very place they expected to find Cole, though the search was over. The volunteers called back, the dogs led away. Emily shuddered at the thought of some hunter stumbling over his body a decade from now, a small collection of white bones in a rotted sheath of blue cotton. Was he there? Could he be that close? She knew it was foolish. The path she traveled was so well used there was no way Cole wouldn't have found his way home if he stumbled on it. No, he wasn't here. She was sure.

It didn't stop her from scanning the trees on both sides as she moved on.

Her mind flickered to the other two boys. The first fell. But Gavin... Devon's brother. Brandsom said he was kidnapped by his estranged father. Yet, Devon didn't mention anything about his dad. If it was a family thing, why did he look so scared?

Unless his dad was a monster. Like Sam's. But that didn't make sense either.

She shook her head, rain running down her ponytail and into the back of her shirt, making her shiver. Something was wrong. If Cole was in the woods, why didn't the dogs find him? He was only ten. He couldn't have made it that far.

Emily's shoulders jerked involuntarily when she felt it first. Animal instinct. Fight or flight. She tried to shake it off, but she couldn't ignore it.

She was being followed.

When her heart calmed down, she risked a glance over her shoulder. The path behind her was empty. And up ahead, not a soul. She was alone, but she wasn't. Every part of her tingled with the knowledge that someone watched her.

Emily's steps lengthened, sped up. She hated giving in to the fear, but couldn't act any other way. Her mind ran with anxious questions. Devon? Maybe. She had brushed him off. Maybe he wanted a chance to talk to her again. Todd? Doubtful, but possible. Who else?

Motion from the right. A flicker of something in the trees. Emily froze. Nothing. No one. Just dripping trees and darkness. And total quiet. When had the birds fallen silent? The thick woods blocked the sounds of the outside world, wrapping her in a muffled cocoon. She heard her own breathing, harsh and loud.

Her feet carried her forward even faster than before. She thought about running. It was another half mile to the other side.

Flicker.

Emily's head turned without her permission, eyes desperately seeking the source. Again, nothing. Was it her imagination? Her recent return to the real world? Had she been so dulled that the ordinary seemed terrifying?

No. Not so. There it was again, this time up and to the right. Where the path was its narrowest. Emily stopped again. Considered turning around. She could go back to school, take the road. It was longer, but she would be among other people. Not so alone and exposed.

She backed up a step. Another. Her backpack felt like it weighed as much as she did. Rocks and roots dug into the bottoms of her feet through her thin sneakers. The air was heavy with rain. She felt slow, that she would never outrun what was after her. And yet, the flickers had stopped. Emily drew a breath and regained her ground, moved on. This time, she kept her eyes locked on the path and refused to be baited.

It didn't last long. There was someone beside her, just inside the trees. Emily leaped to the opposite edge of the path with a cry, her whole body gripped by tremors.

Madison stared at her.

Emily half-crumpled, the terror so much her lungs wouldn't function, her heart constricting and expanding so fast she was sure it would burst. She stumbled another step back. Someone grabbed her from behind, pulled on her. Emily screamed and fell to her knees, jerking free. Looked up. A tree limb bent toward her, its thin branches caught in her hair, her backpack.

"God damn it!" She rolled away, tugging against the springy wood. It snapped back with a hum, a shower of water cascading to the ground below it in a musical patter. Emily staggered to her hands and knees and turned back to Madison.

She was gone.

Tears and rain drenched Emily's face. She hugged herself, her soaked and filthy knees chilled by the wet. The old scar ached from the pressure. The scar from that night.

Emily got herself to her feet. Staggered forward. She had to get home. To her room. She would never leave it. Ever again. She would grow old and die there and no one would ever care.

Tara stepped onto the path beside her. Her blonde hair was dull and ugly in the gloom. Emily froze a few steps from her, unable to move. Unable to pull her eyes from her dead friend. Her mind was grateful Tara looked like herself at least. Emily would have perished right then and there if her face was mangled. Like it had been for real.

"You're not here." Was that her voice? It sounded like someone else. A lifetime smoker with sand for saliva. "You're just in my head."

Tara's arm lifted. Pointed directly at her. Then, she flickered and vanished.

This time, Emily ran. Panting, gasping, heart and lungs on fire, fear whipping at her like a cruel master, legs trembling so much they struggled to keep up with her panic. She flew over the path, feeling them around her, seeing the flickers of their passage beside her, chasing her. Herding her. Off the path. Into the trees. She crashed through the undergrowth, pushing aside branches, not wanting to leave the relative safety of the rutted track, but having no choice in the matter, sobbing in terror as the very branches tried to grab her, to hold her. She needed to get back to the path but she was lost. Lost. Just like.

Cole.

Emily stumbled over a large root and fell with a grunt. She had yet to see Sam. The fear redoubled. She wouldn't survive it. A miracle, her legs held her when she rose. Moved forward. Shrieked out her breath. Tara blocked her. Emily staggered back, spun. Had to be another way out. But Madison was there. So close she could touch her little friend if she dared.

She didn't. Emily backed away from them, her head shaking back and forth, hair pulling free in sodden clumps from her ponytail. Slid, hit one knee on a stump, recovered. They pursued her, forcing her backward, driving her with their empty faces and bottomless eyes, pushing her deeper and deeper into the woods.

And stopped. She almost didn't notice she was so afraid. Her sneakers slid on the moss and she fell again. This time when she got up, they just hovered, watching.

Emily knew what it meant. She froze. Slowly turned.

Sam's face was inches from hers. Emily backed into a tree, pressing herself to the hard bark, the backpack digging into her through her sweatshirt. None of that mattered. Sam came closer. Closer. So close the cold surrounding her chilled Emily to her toes.

"Please." Could Sam hear that desperate whisper? Could any of them? Tara and Madison flanked her, pinning Emily in place. The only way out was through them. "I'm sorry. Please. Stop."

Silence. Just the bitter cold. And Sam staring at her. Then, her arm lifted. Her head turned. Emily looked. A clump of bushes. A large oak tree with an old man's face formed from a gnarled knot. A patch of bright yellow moss.

Sam looked back. Her gaze ate Emily up.

And then, they were gone.

Emily's body was so rigid from fear the collapse took a full minute, a slow motion crumple to the wet ground. She panted out her terror, head in her hands, sure her heart would never recover. Emily glanced at the bushes. Thought of Cole. She got up, staggered a step. Peered over them.

Nothing. Just more leaves and debris. Nothing.

It was a long time before she could move. When she left the spot she shivered in her thin tank top, t-shirt left behind, marking the spot, hung on the lowest branch of the tree, shielding the old man in the oak from the rain.

***