Alex got off work at five the same as any other day and headed straight home. When he pulled into the driveway, he didn’t see Ashley’s jeep anywhere on the street. He wondered if she was out with one of her friends. He checked his phone and didn’t see any missed calls. She was a big girl and he’d trust her for now.
Yet when he opened the front door, he immediately felt something was wrong. None of the lights were on and nothing looked as if it’d been disturbed. He walked through the house cautiously, calling out his daughter’s name as he went room to room. He received no answers. He checked her bedroom and he was sure she hadn’t been there.
“Must be with Liz,” he muttered. He pulled out his cell phone and called her. He stopped pacing as it went straight to voicemail. Now that was concerning. She’d been glued to that phone. He’d never known her to turn it off since she got it. He clicked his phone shut and headed out the door. He crossed the street and knocked hard on Liz’s door. A moment later her mother answered.
“Oh hello Alex.”
“Hi Judy. Is Ashley here?”
“No I haven’t seen her all day.”
“I can’t find her. Can you ask Liz if she knows where she might’ve gone?”
“Sure. Liz will you come here?” Liz appeared in the hallway. “Do you know where Ashley is?”
“No. I stayed home sick today.”
“Do you know where she might be?” asked Alex.
“Probably blowing off steam still.”
“Why would she need to blow off steam? What happened today?” Liz looked around uneasily.
“I heard a girl at school made a mean joke about you, her, and her mom. Ashley hit her and ran off. Nobody has seen her since. I thought she was at home and just not answering the door.”
“Okay. Thank you,” said Alex. “I’ll wait a bit longer before I go looking. Liz can you call around and tell me if you find her?”
“Sure.”
Alex nodded to Judy and went back into his house. He waited as patiently as he could for the next two hours. Liz came by and said nobody had heard from her. The clock struck eight and still he waited. Finally Liz called back and said someone saw Ashley heading for the mountains around three. Alex clapped his hands on his knees and stood up. “That’s it.” He hung up the phone and headed upstairs and pulled on heavy hiking gear. As he pulled on his clothes he called Liz’s mom.
“Judy? It’s Alex. Listen I’m going to search for Ashley. Can you and Liz watch the house in case she comes back? Give me a call if you learn anything.” He hung up the phone and dialed a new number. He headed out the front door and threw two bags into his truck. As he started to drive the phone connected.
“Hello Pat? It’s Alex. Listen my daughter’s missing and I think she’s lost in the mountains. She’s on one of the trails. Can you get geared up and be ready in five? Alright, see you soon.”
Alex ended the call and pressed down on the gas a little harder. He hoped he was wrong about all of this but his instinct told him he wasn’t. Pat was an old friend of his ever since he’d moved to the town. He spent his spare time hunting in the mountains and that was exactly what Alex needed. He was barely parked when Pat came out the front door. He was dressed in similar gear with a large bag over his shoulder. In his right hand there were a pair of leashes to a pair of large German shepherds.
“Ready to go,” he said.
“Good.” Alex opened the bed of his truck as Pat led the dogs around.
“Up boys up!” The dogs leapt in and sat down obediently. Alex and Pat got into the truck and sped off.
“What do you think Alex?”
“She always talks about the back road up the mountain. Maybe she’s lost or maybe she’s not. I won’t leave it to chance though.”
“Good. Did you bring something for the dogs?”
“The extra bag back there is her suitcase. She had all of her things in it when she moved and it hasn’t left her room until now.”
“It’ll do. The dogs can find anything out there.”
“They better. It’s starting to snow outside and it’s a full moon out.”
“That’ll be nice. When the clouds don’t block it out we’ll have some decent light.”
“I’m not worried about light. I’m worried about what else can see well tonight.” Pat frowned.
“The wolves won’t bother her. They don’t come near the town or people. You and I both know that.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know how far out she is. It’s easy to get lost up there in the dark and I don’t want to risk it.”
“I take it that’s why you brought the shotgun.”
“That is why I brought the shotgun.”
The drive was another ten minutes up the road and five more up the bumpy trail. The road ended and Alex parked the truck. Alex got out and pulled out the bag while Pat let the dogs out. Alex was checking his flashlight and shotgun as Pat held Ashley’s suitcase for the dogs.
“Smell,” he commanded. “Lost. Find. Understand?” His dogs barked at him. “Good boys. Alex?”
“Let’s go.”
“Okay. Go boys go.”
Both dogs ran up the trail with Alex and Pat following two steps behind. The first ten minutes up the trail and the scent still wasn’t good. The dogs sniffed the entire way, but showed no sign of sensing Ashley. They kept going regardless. The first trail led to nothing so they moved onto the next path and still they found nothing. Two hours passed by with little to nothing. Then they started further up the mountain and found her jeep. One dog sniffed the ground and barked at its companion. Together they scratched the ground.
“They’ve got her,” said Pat.
The dogs ran faster and they gave chase before the night swallowed them whole. The clouds were working harder to cover the moon and the snow was coming down harder. If they took too long soon there would be no trace of Ashley. They were an hour up when the dogs skidded to a halt. They began snarling and Alex and Pat saw what had the dogs so alarmed. There were animal tracks in front of them.
“Other people?” asked Alex hopefully. He already knew the answer.
“Dogs don’t like it,” said Pat. “I think these are wolf tracks.”
“I hate it when I’m right,” said Alex.
As if on cue, the howling began. Both of Pat’s dogs snarled. Their ears perked up and they scanned the area. Alex and Pat watched the woods carefully.
“We’re not alone,” said Pat quietly.
“And by the sounds of it, some of them are very big. Go boys go!”
The dogs ran but Alex took the lead. He didn’t need them to take point anymore. He followed the wolf tracks as fast as he could. They led straight up the path and he didn’t like it. The distance between the tracks was growing which meant the wolves had started to run.
“Ashley! Ashley!”
No response. Alex started to become more frantic. He couldn’t hear anything but the dogs next to him and Pat. They came to a fork in the road and the tracks vanished into the forest. The dogs looked around cautiously, but didn’t advance into the forest. Alex knew the scent went on but the dogs sensed eyes on them. They didn’t want to rush in anywhere.
“We won’t stop,” said Pat.
“I know.” Alex started down one path when he heard it. A sound, a musical tune he knew. Pat started to say something, but Alex held up his hand. “Did you hear that?”
“No, what was it?” It was subtle and soft, but it was there. Then it was gone. Alex looked to the dogs and watched their ears twitch. They heard it too.
“I heard something.” Alex pulled out his phone and hit send. Ashley’s face appeared in his phone and filled him with hope. Then he heard the music again and his hopes soared. “Ashley!” Alex bounded off the path, moving his flashlight about madly. The hill was steep and wet from the snow, but he didn’t care. More than once he almost lost his footing. The sound continued and he shouted to it. The ring was just ahead of him now. He made a leap to clear the brush but one small branch caught his foot. Alex let out a cry just as he hit the dirt. Both dogs came to his side and Pat was coming up right behind him. Pat pointed at something. Alex crawled forward and saw what Pat saw. Ashley’s cell phone was in the snow in front of him. There was no Ashley, only her impression in the snow. Alex took the phone and looked around.
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“She was here,” he muttered. “Where could she have gone?”
One of the dogs started to sniff the tree and whimpered. They played their flashlights on the tree and saw what the dog smelled. Blood. There was a nice blotch on the tree and small drops in the snow below it.
“What do you think Alex?” asked Pat as he bent to examine it.
Horrible, nightmarish thoughts entered Alex’s mind as to what could’ve happened. Taking a deep breath, he examined the area as he’d been trained. He looked at the way the snow had formed, where Ashley had been, and the blood. It didn’t look like an attack. He walked up the hill and found broken branches and dragged brush.
“I think she fell. She probably was running and tripped on something. Looks like she hit her head and was knocked out, at least temporarily.”
“Makes sense,” said Pat. “Judging by the snow I’d say she was picked up.”
“You sure?”
“Pretty sure. There’s no evidence of her being dragged away. I don’t see any tracks though as to who came for her. If someone came and got her, they didn’t do it from the path. They must’ve come from within the woods.”
Alex moved into the woods with the dogs and looked for tracks. Thanks to all the snow he almost missed them. The tracks he found weren’t human though, but a dog’s. The sight made him nervous. They looked like wolf tracks to him but they were much too big. He could put his hand inside them.
“You sure she was picked up Pat?”
“Bet my life on it. Why?”
“Because either I’m imagining things or a very big dog came through here.” Pat eased his way over to where he was crouched and shined his flashlight over the tracks. He let out a low whistle.
“Someone owns a big pooch.”
“I hope that’s someone’s dog.”
“That’d be a big damned wolf.” It was a grim assessment.
“Make a call into town and see if they’ve heard anything.”
“Good idea.”
Pat moved away to make the call. Alex eyed him over his shoulder before returning to the tracks. Whatever had made these track had made no effort to conceal its path. By the way the snow sunk down with every step he had to guess the dog was heavy. Its feet moved all over the place like it was sniffing around.
“God I hope I’m wrong.”
“Alex! They got her. She’s in the hospital with a concussion, but otherwise she’s okay.” Alex was already heading back to his truck.
“When did they find her and why didn’t they call us?”
“She just made it into the hospital and they tried a few minutes ago. They said your phone was busy.”
Alex cursed under his sigh of relief. They’ve must’ve tried to call him the whole while he was tracking Ashley’s phone. Talk about bad timing. Being deep in the mountains gave them bad reception which probably didn’t help either. They hit the path at a calm pace for once. He was still worried for Ashley but she was in good hands now. Last thing he needed was to race back and hurt himself the same way she had.
“Who found her and how?”
“It was the Lexington’s. Morgan unleashed his dogs.”
“Good, good.”
Millions of thoughts were flying through his head, but they all disappeared in the face of the one that mattered. Ashley was safe. It took them a while to navigate back down the mountain but the hospital waited patiently for them. While Alex hurried through the hospital doors, Pat went home to relax with his wife and feed his dogs. They deserved a special treat or two.
Alex was barely inside when he saw the sheriff speaking with the doctor. “Where is she?” he asked. The sheriff pointed down the hall.
“Fourth door on the right.”
Alex all but slid through the door when he got to it. Ashley was lying in a hospital bed asleep. There was a bandage just above her right eye and she was pale. When he touched her cheek she was still cold. The doctor came in behind him.
“How is she?”
“She’s alright. She took a nasty hit which took a few stitches. She was out in the cold for a while though and developed hypothermia. We’re going to monitor her until she wakes up.”
“When will she wake up?”
“I don’t know. She’ll sleep as long as she needs to. We’ll keep her warm and safe until then.”
“Okay thank you.”
A small cough told Alex somebody else was in the room. He turned a little and was shocked to see Morgan’s son Nathaniel sitting in a chair in the corner. He was wearing a long black overcoat and hiking boots. He had a hospital blanket over him and looked sick. His eyes were glazed over and he was shivering.
“Nathaniel? What are you doing here?”
“He was the one who found her,” said the sheriff as he came into the room.
“I didn’t want to leave her alone,” said Nathaniel quietly.
“Thank you,” said Alex. “I’m in your debt. You can stay if you like, but I can watch her now. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep?”
Nathaniel nodded slowly and rose unsteadily out of the chair. He passed the blanket to the doctor and left with a shaky gait. Alex was suddenly worried about the boy. He obviously wasn’t well and his family lived up in the hills. He looked to the sheriff who seemed to share the same worry.
“Are you going to be okay Nathaniel?” asked the sheriff. “Need a lift home?”
“No I’ll be fine.”
The words were clearly forced. They started after him but Nathaniel was out the door and disappeared around the corner. When they got outside, he was gone. The only trace of him was a pair of brake lights pulling out of the hospital parking lot.
“Kid is fast,” commented the sheriff.
“He didn’t look so good,” said Alex.
“No, but then again, he’s been busy. According to his report, he found Ashley way up in the mountain.”
“She was. Pat and I found where she’d fallen.”
“Well not only did that kid pick her up and run her down the mountain, he did so without any winter gear. By the time he made it here he looked ready to collapse. The doc took Ashley and a nurse just gave him a blanket. I don’t think anyone gave him a second thought until now.”
“Hope he gets home okay.”
Alex left the sheriff in the hallway and sat back down next to Ashley. She was fine and just needed rest. He looked at his watch and sighed. Work was in seven hours. He’d just call everyone in the morning and tell them he couldn’t work today. He’d deal with her medical insurance in the morning as well. For now, he just had to wait.
*
Ashley was a little embarrassed. Until now she’d had a hard time accepting Alex as her dad. He had been there for her since she’d arrived, but he hadn’t quite felt like a dad to her. She honestly couldn’t have asked for anyone better after her mom passed away. Yet something had stopped her from taking him in. She didn’t know whether it was the loss she felt or that she’d never known him until now. Alex hadn’t seen it that way though. His daughter, not a girl named Ashley, had been lost and hurt in the woods. He’d been out in the snow with no idea where she was. He’d alerted the whole town and had many people who’d never met her searching for her. Ashley gave him a weak smile and put her hand on his.
“Thanks…dad.” He gave her a sideway glance and smiled.
“You’re welcome. Just promise me you won’t run off again.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
They stopped at the pizza place only for a moment. Her dad ran in to pay and Ashley stayed in the car with the heater. Her skin still felt cold and she couldn’t wait for the heavy, hot food in her. Alex opened the door and put the warm box in her hands which she clutched greedily. He was barely back inside before Ashley crammed the first piece into her mouth. The warm grease crept across her tongue and she grinned in ecstasy.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“You have no idea. After eating almost nothing for two days, this is amazing.”
He threw the car in gear and headed for home. In her hunger, she continued to eat the entire way home. When they pulled in the garage Alex led the way, stopping only to turn up the heater. Ashley started to sit at the table, but her dad shooed her upstairs. He took her straight to her bedroom and pointed at the bed.
“I was nice before, but now I get to be the worried father. Get into bed and get covered up. You can keep the pizza up here. If you need anything other than the restroom, I can get it.” Ashley frowned at him.
“I’m not helpless you know.”
“I know, but you are sick. No arguing.”
Ashley clambered into her bed and wrapped herself up in a blanket. It felt great and her dad sat down at the end of the bed. He opened the pizza box and looked at in disbelief. About half of the pizza was gone.
“If you ate this much you’re going to be sick again.”
“I hope not. I was so hungry I just kind of kept eating. I’m already kind of regretting it.”
“Well at least you left me some. I was surprised when you just got pepperoni.”
“Everybody says that. What is wrong with classic old fashioned pepperoni? It’s simple and delicious.”
“Alright, just saying.”
They sat in silence and she got comfy on the bed. Without warning she sneezed loudly all over the bed.
“Tissue?” she asked through her cupped hands.
“I’ll get you a box full.” He got off her bed and left the room. A second later he returned with a box and the bathroom trashcan. “I have a feeling you’ll be needing these a lot.”
“Thank you.” She wiped her nose and hands. “Have you ever been sick like this?”
“Once. When I was about twenty I got stranded out in the cold. I didn’t slip and fall like you did, I was just foolhardy. I was backpacking through Europe at the time and didn’t plan ahead.”
“Wow. Why were you backpacking through Europe?”
“When I was younger my teachers told me to go out into the world. They said if I was ever to learn anything it would have to be with my own two hands and see everything with my own two eyes. So I traveled through parts of Europe and later Asia. I met a lot of people, learned a lot of culture, and saw the whole world in a different way. Since then I’ve never looked back.”
“If you’ve traveled so much, how the heck did you get here in the end?”
“I traveled a lot on my own and through the military. Eventually I started to get tired of moving every couple of months and I decided it was time to find a home. I started in New York City, but that place was too busy for me. I started moving west just by driving around. I happened to stop in here one day and I liked the town and the people, so I stayed. I’ve been here ever since.” Ashley sneezed again.
“You couldn’t have found somewhere warmer?” she asked as she cleared her nose.
“Oh it gets so much better,” Alex said with a grin. “That was barely a storm last night. You haven’t even seen a real winter storm yet. Snow can come down in waves thick enough to bury your car.” Ashley shook her head.
“I can’t see why anyone would ever want to live here.”
“Have you ever seen the snow Ashley? Not the little flakes you saw last night, but a snow covered town in the first rays in the morning light?” She shook her head. “It’s beautiful. There’s something about snow that it can make anywhere seem so peaceful and quiet. It sparkles in the sunlight and even though it’s cold out, you feel warm inside.” He patted her leg. “That’s why I live here.”
“Sounds better when you put it that way.”
“It’s cold out tonight, who knows, maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get a tiny bit of snow. Then you can try and look at it differently in the morning.” Ashley nodded and her dad got off her bed. “Get some rest. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.” He headed out the door and Ashley smiled at him. Alex was becoming more of a dad than she’d ever hoped. He returned a second later smiling.
“I think it’s better if I take this back.” Laughing as he took the pizza box off her bed. She started to complain, but he just kept laughing. “If I leave this with you I’ll never get any pizza.”
“There better be some of that left tomorrow,” she said.
“Unlikely,” he said as he headed out. She called to him just as he got outside the door.
“Hey dad.” He turned around and looked in.
“Yes?”
“Thanks again.” They shared a smile and he started to close her door.
“You’re welcome.”