Saturday, October 8th, 2016

Davy’s POV

Sid is in a hospital bed, fed oxygen by a calm buzzing machine, while a tube enters through his mouth, causing his chest to rise and fall in a natural pace.

Annika is sobbing in a chair slightly moved away from Sid. The closer we got to Sid, the more anxious so grew.

And in front of the room, she told me she felt as if there was some sort of force that tried to push her away.

I think it’s safe to say whatever is going on right now, is way bigger then we thought.

Annika pushed through, but only did so because Angie told her she feels the same whenever she’s getting close to Sid, but she would stick by her side.

It’s painful to watch my sister break down in front of me, because I am able to touch the guy she loves so much, while she can’t.

She tried, again, but with her fingers hoovering over his arm, she said she already felt the burning pain caused by the heat that is radiating off his body.

He hasn’t got a fever anymore, and to me he feels perfectly normal, but I saw the struggle in Annika’s eyes and as a twin, I could swear I felt the pain myself.

We’ve been in here for about an hour, at first accompanied by Sid’s crying mother and stressed to the max father, but alone since half an hour.

All three of his sister’s have been here this morning, but we missed them because Annika kept postponing to go inside.

And out of all friends, only Annika and I are allowed to visit for now. Which is mostly because we found him, and everybody feels like it would calm us down to see him in hospital, getting the help he needs.

What’s weird, is how quickly some of the lashes seem to heal. It’s confusing most people.

I said most, because one older doctor isn’t surprised, and told Sid’s parents he saw it before and how it wasn’t rare.

I don’t know the full story he told them, but all I know is that I find it weird, and I would like to confront that doctor about it.

What if he saw it before on other victims that got possessed by the same entity? What if he saw them, treated them, and knows that whatever happened to Sid wasn’t a simple attack by another human being?

“You know…” I drawl, closing my mouth again as the door re-opens and Sid’s mother walks into the room. Her eyes are still bloodshot after shedding many tears, but she calmed down in the last half an hour. She looks from Annika, to me, to Sid, sighing deeply while slumping in a chair on the other side of the bed.

“Anni?” She speaks with a shaky voice. “I kind of assumed you would constantly hold his hand… Are you okay?”

Annika shakes her head in response, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Is anyone going to explain what happened to my son?”

“We already told you…”

Mrs. Hayes shakes her head, cutting my sentence short, Angie appearing by her side.

“I think she knows there’s something weird going on.” Angie circles Mrs. Hayes. There’re goose bumps on her arm, but she does not respond to it.

I’m not sure how to respond to either one of them. What if she knows there’s more then we admit right now? Would she believe us when we tell her?

“We don’t know what happened, Mrs. Hayes.” Annika whispers, but she sounds as if she’s certain of her case. “We found him like… this.”

And it’s not even a lie. We did find him this way. We just moved him to publicly accessible grounds and we’re holding back the info that we found him in the Miller woods. But what good would it do to admit that we’re trying to find out what the hell is going on in there? She’s probably going to keep us from going back in. She’ll probably demand us to show the tunnel and then close it down.

And all I know for sure right now, is that the answers to save Sid, lie in those woods. All the information we need is out here, in town. But we need to get back in there to help him.

Mrs. Hayes nods, but I can tell, knowing her for years now, we didn’t convince her right now.

But getting anyone involved he didn’t witness what we witnessed will put everything at risk, including, and most important, Sid’s life.

As long as Mrs. Hayes is in the room, we can’t talk. And since it’s clear she isn’t going to leave any time soon, Annika and I eventually get up to leave.

We say our goodbyes to Mrs. Hayes, and I lean over to Sid, whispering into his ear; “hold on buddy. We will find a way to help.”

I squeeze his hand shortly, and then we leave without looking at Mrs. Hayes to find out her response over the fact Annika did not kiss Sid goodbye.

We remain silent and it’s only outside that I notice Angie didn’t follow us. But she’s been spending most of her time away from us after we agreed with our friends that we’re going to fix this, together.

* * * * *

Annika hurries into the library, where we agreed to meet with Amber, Amara, Edward and Cory, the latter acting grumpy and distant, but agreeing to help nonetheless.

We find Amber and Cory already seated, bend over books that Annika and Sid previously went through already.

I wake both of them up from their bubble of concentration, by slamming our folders with gathered files on the table.

“Holy…” Cory gasps for air, and then sends us an annoyed look. “I’m a bit on edge, would be great if you wouldn’t give me a heartattack.”

“On edge? Because of what happened to Sid?”

“Because Angie visited last night.” He grumbles, slumping down in her seat. “Where is she anyway?”

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“I think she’s still with Sid…” I frown, sitting down but sending him a questioning look. “Wait, if you can’t see her, how can you tell she’s not here?”

“Because she visited,” he deadpans. “And I listened.”

“You opened up.” Annika smiles weakly at her. “Did you see her?”

Cory sighs and nods, still not too happy about this apparently. “She’s annoyingly enthusiastic that I did so. Kept smiling because she has a new friend…” He rolls his eyes, pulling our files towards him. “What’s this?”

“All the research we’ve done so far.” Annika points to the map that Cory retrieved from one of the folders. “We’ve been trying to figure out what the exact pattern is in the activities. Ever 13 years, six kids went missing. Two years ago, one kid went missing and never was found, while Kim and you disappeared, but got out of the woods alive.”

“nothing happened after that. So, two years ago, the cycle wasn’t finished.”

“Which is why you think Sid might be the one who has to finish.”

“We said next cycle, didn’t we?” I share a look with Annika, confused because I don’t recall telling them that there is a possibility Sid has to end the cycle still.

“Angie said there’s a possibility he has to end the last cycle. Which means he has to kill another five kids.” Cory whispers with a voice full of disgust.

“Well, we’re not sure and we need to find out if this happened before, and we need to figure out if others suffered from the same symptoms as Sid does right now. The lashes, the throat that is black and blue, the respiratory arrest.” Annika sums up.

“We need to research sacrificial rituals too.” Cory taps on the list with names of kids who went missing. “And see if this happened before 1962.”

“So, divide tasks?” Amber asks, still acting a bit awkward.

“Let’s work in groups of two,” I suggest, to prevent anyone from skipping important information.

“Can I work with Annika?” Amber looks at her. “We haven’t hung out a lot lately and I miss hanging out…”

“You left us because you didn’t believe the guys.” Annika shrugs. “But fine. Prove that you won’t leave us again by helping me to find other people with the same symptoms and wounds as Sid, preferably shortly before a new cycle started.”

“Cory, you help me to find out if it happened before 1962,” I tell him, scooting over a chair to retrieve the file I was working on before. “And I still need to figure out three abduction locations of the kids in the early cycles.”

“And us?” Edward sits down on the chair that I was just seated at, while Amara slumps down next to him with a tired look on her face.

“Find any sacrificial rituals that have anything to do with the number six, the Anti Christ sign and devil worshipping orwiccan rituals.” I shove the map to them that was previously Annika’s part of the research. “Let’s get back here in two hours to see what we got. Until then, do what you want, wherever you need to do it to get the information.”

We al nod, and head to work.

For little over an hour, Cory and I focus on any historical information about missing kids, but there’s not much information about the Miller Woods dated before 1959.”

“It wasn’t always called the Miller Woods.” Angie is suddenly seated on the table beside me. Cory jumps in his seat, I send her an annoyed look.

“It wasn’t? I found news articles from 18-something that use the name.”

“Those are revised.” Angie smiles, hovering in front of him. “Search Baywick Woods.”

“Why didn’t you say before?”

“Some of us pay attention during history class.” Angie crosses her arms and smirks down on us.

“History class?” I frown, feeling a bit confused.

“Cory had history, yesterday. When I left you and Annika to keep him company? Mr. Brightwaters was talking about how Miller Town once started.” Angie floats to stand behind us. “Baywick Woods, and a guy names Thomason Baywick.”

“Can’t you do my next test in history class?” Cory asks curiously, typing in the name Thomason Baywick to Google his name.

“I can help you, yeah.” Angie shrugs. “Did help Sid too, once or twice.”

“I knew it.” I call out with a smirk, getting a shush from the librarian. “You helped during German.”

“I did, and once during Math.” Angie shrugs, pointing back towards the computer screen. “Look, Baywick. He’s the founder of this town.”

Cory leans in, reading the information aloud, causing Annika to stop what she’s doing and listening along, soon followed by the rest.

“Thomason Baywick, born in Scotland, was left homeless after his parents died. Without siblings or relatives to turn to, Baywick started to travel, looking for a place to settle on his own.

Thomason wasn’t a social or outgoing person and spent most of his times indoors or on hikes through woods. Baywick’s hobby was hunting and he was known for it around his home town.

Baywick settled in Miller Town around 1624 and build his own cabin in the midst of the woods that he claimed as his own; Baywick’s forest.

He bought the grounds for no more then five guilders, declaring parts of the woods as official hunting grounds, while remodelling parts of the woods to build small cabins for other hunters to stay in during their hunts.

Baywick’s forest was later renamed to Baywick woods, and proved to be ideal for hunting. More and more hunters came to provide food for their families and some decided to stay.

It was Baywick’s daughter Elizabeth Miller-Baywick who later officially founded Miller town, while her husband, Antony Miller, founded the mills, using resources from the woods to provide the local town in woods to build houses and furniture…”

Cory groans, lolling his head annoyed. “This isn’t helpful…”

“It is!” Annika shoves me aside while grabbing a notepad. “So, we have three names of important historical locals. Thomason Baywick, his daughter Elizabeth and Antony Miller, the founder of the mills.” She sounds enthusiastic. “We now know the first resident moved into the woods; Baywick, and he build himself a cabin, and he started the cabins by the lake. At least, I assume they are the cabins he did build for hunters to stay over during the night.”

“And how is this helpful?” Amber frowns, siding with Cory now.

“Miller Town is founded shortly after 1624, Miller Woods was first called Baywick’s forest and later Baywick woods. We can use all these names to find more about the history of the forest.” Annika taps the notepad. “We’re not getting further, and this might be the push we need.”

“I’ll read further into this.” I suggest, pointing towards the screen. “Cory helps me, and you four search for more about Baywick Woods.”

“Why do I have to help?” Cory asks with a whisper, sounding annoyed.

“What’s going on with you, Cory? You’re suddenly acting hostile and annoyed…”

“It’s nothing. I’m just moody a bit.” He shrugs carelessly. “Go on, read. I’ll write.”

I shortly watch at him, contemplating on asking more about his sudden switch in mood, but decide on letting it slip. I’m not close to being the friend to Cory that Sid was, so maybe it’s not my place to bother him about it.

I turn back towards the computer and for a while, all I do is read about Miller Town and how it got founded, how it grew, and why people started moving here.

It’s boring, useless like Cory claimed, until I read why Thomason Baywick wasn’t the one they named the town after; which would’ve been logical since it was his ground, and why they renamed Baywick Woods into Miller Woods.

“In 1637, Baywick reportedly lost his mind over the many hunters in his forest, lashing out on several residents of Miller Town, threatening them with death if they would enter the woods again. After a total of six weird hunting accidents resulting in deaths, locals hunted Baywick down, claiming he caused the accidents. The horde of angry people forced Baywick into his cabin, setting it on fire, as a revenge for killing their loved ones.”

I share a shocked look with Cory, who stares back and forth between me and the computer with wide eyes.

“So, sixdeaths followed by the massacre of Baywick? Founder andownerof the Miller Woods?” He wraps the story up shortly, shock seeping through his words. “Davy, this must be it. Baywick is the entity…”

“Wow, let’s not jump to conclusions. We need to investigate…”

“No, seriously.” Cory taps his paper. “Look, 1624, Baywick arrived. 1937, Baywick’s massacre took place. That’s thirteenyears. I bet if we continue adding thirteen years, we’ll get to 1962, 1975… all the cycles will add up. I’m sure…” He drawls, adding thirteen to the number over and over again, until the calculator mockingly shows us 1962.

“So, no cults, no rituals? Just the murdered owner of Miller Woods hunting people down…”

“Not just people, Davy.” Cory shakes me, waving to the rest to call them over. “Residents from people in Miller Town. What if he hunts down people who are direct offspring of those who murdered him?”

“I’m not sure what that is about, but if that’s the case, we need to find out who murdered… Baywick?” Annika cocks her head and we nod to tell her that her guess was right.

“The numbers add up. There had been six accidents, and Baywick was murdered because they blamed him, exactly thirteen years after he moved over here.”

“That seems like too much of a coincidence.” Amara sits down, pulling the calculations towards her to go over them, while Annika rereads the part about Baywick’s death.

Edward taps my shoulder and I turn to look at him. “What if we solve that… the death of Baywick… what if that will set him free?”

“I’m not sure, but we need to investigate all of this. We will find out what exactly happened, and we’ll save Sid, help Angie, and maybe even Baywick.”