The hotel room was full of notebooks and loose sheets of papers that had fallen from the stack of folders. Crystal and Brandon dug through the countless articles, papers with words written so hastily that it was just scribbles, and a large collection of maps, both old and new. Outside, the sky was dark, and it had been for a while.
“We’ve been at this for hours, Michael,” Brandon complained, stifling a yawn.
Michael was at the desk, with his laptop out, open to his Google Drive. He had a dozen tabs open, each on a different website or file, and was clicking back and forth so fast that it sounded like a machine gun. He took no notice of his friend, but instead typed something intently onto the main page of notes and links, their research hub.
“You’re so unorganized,” Crystal said gruffly. “Did you even hear what Brandon said?”
Michael continued pecking at the keyboard for a minute, and then turned around to face them. “It hasn’t been that long, has it?”
“Three hours at least.” Brandon crossed his arms. “And that’s not counting the time we took to set up your stupid board-web-map thing.”
On one of the beds, there was a large, cardboard cutout. A map of Hardy was taped onto it, with pictures and notes pinned in seemingly random places. Thin string connected them, in a web graph that only Michael seemed able to read. He had the other two help him set it up, which took about 45 minutes with all of his bickering and corrections.
“I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry,” Michael said. “At this point, She’s finished and she thinks we are too. We can surprise her anytime we want. Once we find out where she stays, that’s where we’ll go. It’s not like she’s gonna change it after more than a hundred years.”
“If we don’t hurry and get Daniel his daughter back, there’s no telling what’ll happen to him. The man’s a ticking time-bomb.” Brandon sighed. “I feel bad for him, but he’s honestly lost his mind.”
“You would too!” Crystal snapped. “If you were in his situation.”
“Hey,” Michael interrupted, “I think we all would. Can we just get back to work?”
“Thought you weren’t in a hurry?” Brandon scoffed under his breath.
Michael turned back to his computer, focusing again on the first two tabs. He heard the other two mumbling in the background, probably something about how unhappy they were with him at the moment, but he didn’t care. Despite what he said, he wanted to catch the lady, and he wanted to do it as soon as possible. They didn’t need to be urgent, but he was gonna be.
The first tab was a PDF file with two pictures. One was a map of Hardy from a long time ago, although the faded map didn’t specify when. He couldn’t remember how he’d gotten access to the map, much less who had sent him the picture. The date said circa 1780, but ultimately that didn’t matter. Because on the top of the page there was a drawing of a town, an old settlers town.
Below that map was a modern one. Michael had taken the first, older map and cut the picture down until he had just Hardy and the area around it on his computer screen. He did the same for the second, figured out the scale for the distance on each map, and then set them equal to each other in his document. Now he was able to stare at them and read, like a before and after picture, what had become of this mysterious town.
On the second tab was another document, with two pages. On the first was a section from the book by Jill’s grandfather, detailing what had happened to “the Lady” in this town. The second page was from a more historically accurate book, which he had found while searching in a library up north.
“So I know that it has something to do with the old settler town that Jill’s grandfather talked about,” Michael said. “I’m not sure what, though. It’s staring me right in the face, I just can’t…”
He trailed off, but nobody answered him. Turning around in his chair, he found Crystal asleep on the bed, in a pile of papers, while Brandon was on the floor drooling onto one of his notebooks. Both of them were out cold, sleeping peacefully.
“Oh well.” Michael whipped around to face the computer screen. “Guess it’s just you and me.”
For the next ten minutes, he sat back, staring at the screen. On the modern-day map of Hardy, there was the town on the top-left, with the cornfields, soybean fields, and his house nearby, traveling down the page. There was the highway, that ran out of town and across the screen to the right. On one side of that was the cornfields, where he once had thought that Brandon was dead. On the other side of that highway, all along the top of his screen, was the forest.
According to his maps, the bridge was far into the trees, with no roads leading there. He already knew this. But the big surprise, when he really studied the two maps, was that in the 1700s there’d been a road leading from the bridge to the town. On his newer map, the town would be off to the right of the bridge. While it wasn’t visible because of all the trees, it was highly possible that remnants of that road still remained. What’s more, the creek that flowed below the bridge actually turned and would end up running by that small settler’s town.
“That explains why they saw her walking away down the creek, when the bridge collapsed. It also explains how she has such easy access to the bridge, and to Hardy in general.” He hummed thoughtfully. “I know that creek comes out somewhere near the town. I followed it.”
Michael started to close his tabs, leaving only the first two open. He went to sleep uneasily, but eventually. More than ever, he was confident. This would be it for one of them. Every time they’d gone into the forest, somebody didn’t come back. There was always death.
He didn’t expect that to change.
<><><> <><> <>
“It’s just like Christian would have expected and explained to us,” Michael explained to the other two. “The answer to a hard problem is incredibly simple.”
The other two grinned at the thought. “Remember when he got onto you for sleeping in math class?” Brandon asked.
They were sitting on the floor of the hotel room, which was still scattered with paper. Crystal was leaning her head on Michael’s shoulder, as they all three sat in a circle and talked. That was probably the biggest difference from their teenage years. In your thirties, it took thirty times longer to wake up properly. Especially when Michael got everyone out of bed at 5 A.M.
“He really would never let that go.” Michael sighed. “Poor Mrs., um, whatever her name was.”
“Ms. Boarding,” Crystal corrected him. “She was at your funeral, you know?”
Michael laughed, holding his hands over his face. “Oh man, that’s one sentence I never thought I’d hear. Both the funeral part, and Ms. Boarding being at it.”
“You better be nice to her, now.” Brandon clicked his tongue. “I’ve heard math teachers are pretty scary as ghosts. All those pencil sharpeners and heavy books.”
Michael shrugged. Like usual, their conversations had brief moments of nostalgia from their earlier years, but those were followed by dead silence.
“There’s nothing wrong with just talking about the good times,” Brandon said. “If we’re all about to die, we might as well enjoy each other’s company. We could’ve slept in a couple hours more, too. If I die, I want to be well-rested.”
“Who says we’re about to die?” Michael asked. “Maybe we’ll actually win this time.”
Everybody had the same thought, but nobody wanted to say it out loud. It was a fact that nobody ever came out of the forest the same. If you went in, somebody was going to die. And those that came out alive were changed forever.
Michael took a deep breath. “Imagine-”
“There’s no heaven,” Brandon broke out in song. “I really think you can.”
“Those aren’t even the words,” Crystal said with mock-disapproval.
“What I was going to say,” Michael said loudly, “is that I can’t believe She was less than 20 years old when all of this started. When she started to lose her mind, and lost her kid.”
“The harde
st thing for a parent is to lose their kid,” Brandon said. “I almost feel bad for her.”
“The first one’s been dead for a long time,” Michael reminded him. “Everybody now is doing it because they’ve been trained to. We can’t afford to feel pity for her, not now.”
“If we don’t stop her, Daniel’s daughter is going to pay the price. She won’t have a life anymore,” Crystal reminded him.
“I know that, I know.” Brandon looked down at the carpet. “It’s a pretty crappy situation.”
“That’s an understatement,” Michael mumbled.
Crystal stood up and walked over to the window, where rain was beating down on the sidewalk. There were dark clouds overhead, and any trees nearby were being tackled by windy gusts. She cringed at the thought of heading out into that mess.
“We should probably go before it gets worse out there,” Michael said, reading her body language.
She nodded, and Brandon jumped to his feet. “So we’re going to the bridge, and then where?”
“When we get to the bridge, there will be a road, or a path, or something. We’ll follow that until we get to the old settlement. It’ll be rainy, and freezing, so bring something thick. Don’t expect comfort. The deeper you go into that forest, the nastier of a place it becomes.”
“Anything else we need to bring?” Brandon asked, heading to the closet where his heavy coat was hanging up.
“Bring whatever weapons you have,” Crystal said.
Michael stared out the window, where lightning struck the sky far away. he counted a few seconds, and then the thunder crashed down around them, drowning out all other noises. The sky outside was growing blacker and bleaker by the minute.
“Don’t expect to come back,” he warned. “There’s a very good chance that we won’t.”
<><><> <><> <>
They stood at the edge of the settlement, soaking wet and ears numb from the continuous thunder and pounding rain. It was hours later, but the storm hadn’t let up. Perhaps it never would.
Crystal took Michael’s hand, and he grabbed Brandon’s. She took the first step. The other two followed.
The settlement was a ghost town, every inch overrun by weeds and tall grass. Trees grew out of homes, and wild animal lairs were hidden all around. It looked like somebody had taken a random section of the forest, and built partial houses around the trees. Then they let those houses rot. You could still see the basic shape of the logs, and you could tell where the town had begun and where it ended.
What they couldn’t tell was whether she was expecting them or not. If she was behind that house, or that tree, or underneath that bush, or around that corner. All they knew was that the trees weren’t watching. They had turned away, not wanting to witness the horrors about to take place.
For over a hundred years, they’d been turning away from the lady. But now, they turned back. They would watch the final hope go against her darkness.
Crystal grabbed Michael’s hand tightly. “Is She watching us?”
He stared ahead, laying eyes on her home. “She’s always watching.”
Chapter 26
Soon
Alexander and Jill wandered quietly in the direction of the bookstore, holding hands as they went and not saying a word. Every so often, they would turn to glance at each other, but no words were spoken. The whole town was still in shock, and they were the shining example of that.
All around them, the city was swelled up and enormous. Whenever people recognized them, whispers were spoken and fingers were pointed. On this particular afternoon, as the months flipped and school was growing closer like a dreaded plague, they were completely alone wandering down the street. A thick rain blanketed the city, but it wasn’t a bother.
“I don’t understand,” Alexander said in a murmur. “I just… I don’t know what I want to say or what I want to understand. All I know is that I don’t.”
“We’ll get through it together,” Jill assured him. “One way or another, someday or another, we’ll get through it.”
“We won’t forget about it,” Alexander said, hunching his shoulders against the driving torrents. They splashed on the sidewalk and fell from his already-drenched jeans.
“I don’t know,” Jill responded. “People tend to forget terrible things. Maybe our minds block them out, or maybe some things are meant to stay in the past. But we might forget. You never know.”
“I know she’ll come back,” Alexander said. “She’ll never stay in the past. Nobody will ever defeat her.”
“Hey, that’s a long time from now.” She squeezed his hand. “We have a long time. Let’s not waste it by worrying about her.”
“Could we just run away?” Alexander asked.
She glanced at him, trying to read his emotions. “Are you seriously asking, or just expressing your depression?”
He chuckled. “Are you seriously that formal, or just expressing… I don’t know. I failed.”
Another block went by, and they reached their destination. The bookstore was to their right, with the door locked and the lights shut off. Alexander turned and pulled out his keychain, deftly unlocking the door and pushing it slowly open.
There was a pile of letters on the floor, and it smelled rancid. In the middle of the floor, there was a dead cat. From the looks of it and the flies buzzing around every protruding gut, it had been that way for a while.
“Where’s that lady you work with?” Jill asked instantly. “Shouldn’t she… have been in here?”
“Yeah. She should have. She comes in everyday.”
“Maybe she got sick?”
“No, she would’ve called me and my parents. She was sick once for about a week, a while ago, and that’s what she did.”
Jill peered around the bookstore, holding her nose. “So where is she?”
“I have no idea. I hope she’s okay.”
Grabbing a trash bag from under the desk, Alexander set to work cleaning up the carcass. He glanced up, expecting to see Jill, but she was gone. He turned around and saw her still at the desk, bent over some book.
“Will you help me with this?” he snapped. “It smells disgusting.”
“You need to look at this,” she said. “Like right now.”
“Give me a second.” Alexander rolled his eyes and tied the trash bag. Holding it far in front of him, he set it outside to deal with later. It was under the covering outside their shop, so no rain threatened it. After a quick spray of Clorox and a couple sweeps of the mop, he was satisfied.
He around the desk, and was about to apologize for his tone when he saw Jill on the floor, curled up in a ball. Her back was against the desk, and a book lay open in front of her. It was too dark for Alexander to make out the words, but as he bent down and pulled out his phone, flicking on the flashlight, they came more clearly.
“What is that, Alex?” she asked fearfully. “What does that mean?”
The book was sickeningly familiar. It was written by Jill’s grandfather. In the front of it, on the library card that still remained yellowed and dirty, there was a name written in blood red ink: Michael Walker.
(Beyond that page were stories, the kind that tell about ghosts and monsters that nobody has ever seen. But one of them is different. You’ve already heard that story. You know which one I mean.)
“I don’t understand.” He shook his head, dropping the book, after reading the passage out loud. “How is it possible? How is…”
Under Michael’s name was a letter. Just that, a couple of paragraphs. It was written in the same, blood red ink. To Alexander, it told an entirely different story. The woman wasn’t out there in the night, anymore. She wasn’t hiding in the woods anymore. She had been right behind him the entire time. She was always there. She was watching.
I owe you so much, Jill. Your family, really. Your grandfather wrote this book, and he made me forever in people’s minds. My story is in their hands, and my face is nearby. Forever, I will be grateful to you and to your kin. They broug
ht me on the verge of fame. They have made me pleased.
Alexander, there isn’t enough space on this page to tell you how pleased I was to meet you and to work beside you for so long. Please keep our bookshop running smoothly. I’m sorry about the cat. I’m sure the place will smell, but you’re good at cleaning up messes. You were genuinely one of the nicest and most interesting people I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. My favorite part is that I didn’t have to kill you. Not yet.
You both could come search for me, but there’s no need. I am retired, now. I have my victim. This little baby will grow into something neither of you could imagine. Because now, there are no rules. I am free to do anything I want and kill whoever I please. For both of your sakes, I hope we never cross paths again. But I already know we will. Paths have a way of leading to the only place you don’t want to go.
You’re lucky, really. Because the girl is so young, I’ll have to wait a full 20 years before she makes her first hunt. You see, there is no pattern. There are no rules. What you find yourself in is complete chaos, completely misery. So enjoy your break. When we return, there will be no end.
Don’t forget to change the book displays every Saturday and to water the plants in the Edgar Allan Poe room. Please and thank you <3 Again, sorry about the cat. It got on my nerves.
“Do we need to tell Daniel?” Jill asked him.
Alexander shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea. I don’t know what to do next. I’m… I’m scared.”
“We have 20 years to plan what to do. That’s a long time. And we will plan. We will get her.”
He nodded, staring at the book which was open wide, like a mouth pulled back in a mocking grin. Alexander picked it up by one end and chucked it across the room, where it smashed against the wall and fell helplessly to the floor.
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