(21st of May, 1999)
Deep in the woods of Maine, a great scarlet oak tree stood. Surrounded by dried leaves that lay nearly undisturbed by the passage of time. Left to dry and wither. There were no birds, deer, or squirrels and around. Not even a bear would find itself in the presence of this tree. There was something sinister about it. A wild circular gnash could be seen almost twenty-five feet upward. In a hollow echo.
But that was one of few areas nearby that seemed disturbing. Most of the region is quite beautiful and peaceful. The town closest by was a village called “Small Pines” and boasted a whopping 2,100 people. This may seem small, but it was actually growing. The name “Small Pines” was in reference to the areas unusually feeble pine trees.
But despite this fact it was their thriving oak tree mills that was starting to create an exponential growth in the population. Quadrupling from a little over 500 in five years. A small maple syrup factory had also opened up and was starting out at brisk $14 and hour. Business was booming! Cheap land and plenty of opportunity. And more citizens meant more funding and larger staffing’s for the local police, hospitals, etc. There were even talks that the internet may become more readily available!
But as happy as the town’s Mayor, Keith Sikes was about his fair town’s booming economy and bolstered budget… I mean population. There were still detractors. Longtime residents believing the town had started to become too rowdy. Detractors like Mable Stillwater. A little old lady living on Foster Dr. who used to be the only house on the block. Hell there never even used to be a block. A quick stroll from there to the mountain as well as Lake Moosehead. Once at peace, but now…
“Get the hell out of my backyard you brats!” Mable roared from her back porch.
Two kids who’d been digging for treasure on her property giggled and laughed as they jumped on the spot and began running back out onto the street. The oldest a boy named Daniel ushering “Go! Go! Go!” as he and his buddy Ricky ran. The old crone with a sunken, wrinkly face had shook her head looking at her massacred Poa Supina grass she’d had planted specially. Seething.
Little Bastards! Mable Stillwater thought as she went back inside to watch her program. “I’d just reach out and grab them if I could!” She said enraged. Flailing her old lanky arms. Clenching her fists, not even feeling her long painted nails digging into her own skin.
“Come on Dick!” Daniel said as they darted down the road.
“Don’t call me that!” Ricky protested.
The two’s sneakers clacked against shiny smooth, new pavement. It was so clean and slick looking, you’d almost feel as though you could smell the fresh asphalt. Even though it’d been over a year since the road had been enlarged. Single story houses in abundance. Dozens of them. All well-kept and nearly brand new. Each one looking exactly like the last. In fact Old Mable Stillwater’s house probably looked the least homogenous by comparison.
This gave her house an almost old-worldly appeal to it which may explain why Daniel and Ricky had been searching for some ancient treasure on her property. But their curiosity was fleeting. Which is why now they decided to run the road. Follow it until it’s natural conclusion. The woods.
“…” Daniel stood and stared into the woods for a moment.
The sounds of the birds chirping amidst a sun that was slowly starting to set. The tree line was soft and inviting. The bright shadeless environment starting to slowly be overtaken by shadow. The wind started blowing against Daniel’s back as if it were ushering him onward. Come on in it might as well have been saying. Ricky stood several feet away. Gulping nervously at the thought of his friends’ next move. After all he couldn’t say no… Daniel looked down to see where the pavement met the grass. Seeing the distinction between where civilization ended, and nature began.
“Danny?”
The light breeze howled.
“Yeah…”
Daniel kept staring. Acknowledging his friend through verbal means only.
“Let’s go back. I’ve got Donkey Kong…” He said plainly. Almost if to entice his friend.
“…Alright…”
It was then that a shadowy figure began walking slowly from behind. The two kids heard it’s heavy footsteps as thickly layered combat boots struck the pavement with each step. As they turned they saw a tall man, six feet in height. A normal sized man, but to the mind of children it’s exacerbated. To them it was a giant in a gray trench coat, scarf around his face and an old leather hunter’s cap with a wide, wafty brim.
They screamed playfully in unison.
The man faltered and put up his hand as they took this as an attempted kidnapping. The pair of young boys screamed and with a mixture of laughter and genuine suspense, they plunged into the ever growing darkness of the woods. The two laughing off in the distance as the man collapsed to the ground. An empty flask falling forth from his coat pocket as well as a bizarre button whose thread torn from his coat as he hit the grass. Lying unconscious.
The two darted through the woods, not daring to look back in fear of their pursuer. The laughing pair stumbling over themselves when suddenly they duck behind a fallen oak tree and peered over the bark to see the man. They saw nothing but fallen leaves and their tracks on the way in. Daniel had an epiphany seeing this.
“Look! He’s going to find us if we keep running like this…”
“You’re right.” Ricky said. “What do we do?”
Daniel looked onward into the woods. Seeing patches of dirt that weren’t covered in leaves on the way in. He then saw a couple of sticks on the ground. He scooped up the sticks as he handed one (albeit slightly smaller…) to his buddy. Arming himself and his friend Ricky.
“We follow the dirt. That way he can’t track us! And then we find a nice open space. Wait for him to show up then we flank him.”
“Flank him?” Ricky scratching his head at the notion.
“Attack him from behind Dick!”
“Oh…” Ricky normally at protest to the use of Dick. Was too embarrassed by his gap in knowledge of basic military strategy to warrant pointing it out. Opting to stay quiet and follow Daniel’s lead.
The duo tiptoed across the dirt, trying, and failing not to leave their tracks behind. So what if there was the imprint of a sneaker in the dirt? It mattered little to them. They’re playing, they’re having fun. Who could say one way or the other that they were being pursued? They were pretending and having fun. Venturing into the unknown.
Moving in as the blue skies fade and orange hues take over the horizon. The sound of an owl hooting could be heard from how deeply they ventured into the woods. Merely ten, twenty minutes? The boys already lost track of the time. But almost a mile had been covered. The boys full of energy and full of life. Fencing with their oak sticks whilst trying to avoid the “lava” on the ground. Hearing an owl and then saying “They’re watching us…”
And finally amidst all the playing and fighting. Amidst the falling sun they came into a small clearing. “I beat you here!” Daniel roared as he jumped onto a large stump near a fallen tree. “That’s not true. It wasn’t a race!” Ricky said as he jumped up onto the stump as well.
The two began sword fighting as the banging of sticks echoed through the woods. Echoing between the trees. Into the pits and against the stones. But most importantly of all, a grand scarlet oak tree. With crimson leaves, deep red like they’d been soaked in blood. Bark so lumpy and filled with so many creases. Like the skin of an angry old man. Or an old lady, not too dissimilar to Old Mable Stillwater.
There was a round hole that rest high up in the tree. And as the echoes of roughhousing made themselves known to its innards as something began to stir. To wake up. It was a viscous clump. Like an eyeball that wrapped itself up in fleshy, bloody tentacles that were connected to the optic nerve behind the retinas. And there were dozens of them. Full freedom of movement. This malicious onlooker peered over the gnash and out of the darkness.
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“Gyah! Hah! Take that!” Ricky said as he knocked Daniel off the stump.
“AH!” He yelled as he hit the dried leaves. Once undisturbed, but now a human inscription, and crumpled footprints lay there. Ricky lauding his victory over him. “You are a dick!” Daniel said, meant vividly as an insult and not as a nickname.
“Take that back!”
Ricky leapt from the stump and wrestled Daniel further to the ground. The kids growing more and more violent. The world around them dark. Their eyes blinded by their circumstance. Blind to the force watching them from the trees. And that force, that presence… started moving. Clumsily climbing forth from the scarlet oak. Slime soaking to bark as it wrapped it’s tendrils around it. Climbing down. But in it’s clumsy first steps. The force lost its footing and fell to the ground.
*THUMP-CRACKLE!*
“What was that?” Ricky flung around, looking over his shoulder for the source of the sound. Daniel with his back in the dirt.
Ricky squinted his eyes to catch a look at what was rustling in the leaves roughly fifteen feet away from where they were. From the leaves he saw it staring at him. A wide unblinking eye rested on the ground, peaking out at him. Daniel sliding his hand in to the leaves when he found something solid, something gravelly. Ricky shaken swung back to plead with Daniel when- BAM! He was struck in the head with a rock and knocked out cold.
“HA! I WIN!”
Daniel laughed as he jumped to his feet brushing away the leaves and the dirt. He dropped the rock near his friend’s unconscious body. Blood crawling slowly from Ricky’s scalp. Unaware of the of the presence not even ten feet away now. Lauding his “victory” over his unconscious friend when suddenly. Suddenly he turned and was stopped stone cold in his tracks. Because staring back at him… not even ten inches away from his face. There it was. A lone eye standing tall on its tendrils. Naked in its slimy, veiny presence.
The screams could not be heard beyond the threshold of the woods. Then there was silence. Back by the entrance. On the ground where the pavement meets the parsley. Was a bronze button with a sword insignia. Glistening under the moonlight.
10:15 PM
Hours later police sirens could be heard. People were looking out from their living room windows in curiosity. After all police sirens were a rare occurrence in these parts. The female officer driving the car bearing a logo that read SPD. Small-Pines Police Department. Her partner drinking his coffee from the passenger seat. Loaded with sugar, but no cream. A certified madman. Dispatch blaring all the while.
“Do you have to blare the sirens so loud?” He asked. “It’s giving me a headache.”
“It’s not on me that you spent half your shift asleep Frank…”
“What’s wrong with a little shut eye? Nothing happens in this town anyway.”
“You mean nothing used to happen.” She argued.
She is officer Kimberly McKnight a young twenty-five year old officer with curly brown hair, brown eyes and an average build. She’d been with the police force in Small Pines for the last four years. Her partner, officer Frank Houseworth had been in the SPD for almost ten years. It was joked around the station of how similarly he looked to Kimberly. Some of their fellow officers joking that he was like her “older brother” despite having straight brown hair. They had fundamentally different ideologies on how policing should be done in the small town of Small Pines, Maine.
One remembering the days of the only action there might be is taking the town drunk home on a Friday night. The other being brought about in a booming town with a growing population. Knowing that with that, they’re at risk to an increase in crime.
They continued to argue about the potential of growing crime in the area. Frank stating that there’s been no substantial increase in crime while Kimberly recalled it differently. Mentioning an ATM robbery from the previous year. “Wow! Really grasping at straws with that one huh?” He retorted. Responding by turning off the sound of the siren. Letting the lights run as a compromise.
“Wake me up when we get there.” He said.
“Need a melatonin first. That might help.” She said sarcastically.
But he didn’t respond. He was already snoring.
Kimberly McKnight rolling her eyes thinking Why bother waking him?
It wasn’t long after that, the squad car turned onto Foster Drive. Showing up to the call of a concerned mother who was sobbing on her front porch, being comforted by her husband all the while. Kimberly smacked Frank awake and got out of the car as he took a moment to stretch and crack his back. She was already at the doorstep before Frank had even unbuckled his seatbelt.
Notepad in hand she introduced herself.
“Hello I’m Officer McKnight. Are you Mrs. Dawn?”
“#1 %#$ 1 @^^!” Mrs. Dawn said as Kimberly McKnight was taken aback.
Her sobbing was so intense and her speech so unrecognizable that Kimberly had no idea what to make of it. Pretending to jot down what she said in her notebook to save face. By this point Frank was on the doorstep as well.
“I’m sorry.” He said as he looked to the husband. “Can we talk to someone who knows the English language?” He said as Mrs. Dawn sobbed harder.
“…” Kimberly standing there flabbergasted by not only the mother, but her partner as well. Damn, no need to be like that… she thought, but didn’t say it. More concerned with getting the info they needed than correcting the manners of her partner.
“I’m sorry for my wife. She’s understandably upset.”
“It’s quite alright. So you say your eight year old son…” Frank checks his yellow legal pad. “Ricky hasn’t come home yet?”
“That’s right. He’s got a 9 o’clock curfew and after an hour had passed we got worried, and he still hasn’t come yet.”
“Was he alone Mr. Dawn?” Kimberly asked.
“No he’s with his friend Daniel… uh Daniel Rhodes.”
“And what of the Rhodes? Have they called in about their son yet?” Frank asked.
“Uh… no they haven’t. They think they’re just out playing late.”
“And you?”
Mr. Dawn hesitated for a moment. “Yeah I think so too. This isn’t the first time he’s shown back up late…” He said.
“#(1 ^373* 1#1$ 1@13!!” Mrs. Dawn said hysterically.
Frank ignored her as he addressed Mr. Dawn directly saying. “Thank you for your time. We’ll back tomorrow to follow up.” He said as he closed his legal pad and stepped off their porch. Kimberly looking at Mrs. Dawn growing even more distressed.
“Woah wait. Frank!”
“What!?” He said as he spun around.
“We’re not even going to look for these kids?”
“Look they’re kids. They were playing. Mr. Dawn thinks so. The Rhodes think so. They’re not missing it hasn’t even been 4 hours! Let alone 48.”
“They have a curfew! Kids have a curfew!”
Kimberly spun back around to address Mrs. Dawn. Giving the dad a dirty look as Frank sighed and stepped back onto the porch to back her up. Albeit a bit begrudgingly. She took her by the hand and told her to breathe. Calming her down so she could speak on the matter.
“Mrs. Dawn… when was the last time you saw your son?”
Mrs. Dawn collected herself.
“It was 6 going on 7PM. They went over to Mrs. Stillwater’s house which I told them not to do, but they did anyway. And that was the last time I saw them…” She sniffled.
“And Mrs. Stillwater. What did she say?”
Mrs. Dawn began sobbing again. “SHE TOLD US TO FUCK OFF…”
Minutes later the officers were at Old Mable Stillwater’s house knocking with no answer. Kimberly growing impatient began knocking harder and faster knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!
“FUCK OFF!” A voice yelled.
“Friendly” Frank whispered sarcastically.
“Mrs. Stillwater! It’s the police!” Kimberly informed her.
“…”
A few moments went by when finally a light shuffling across the living room carpet could be heard. An old lady peered through the blinds before opening the door. When she did she only opened it a few inches. Exposing an interior that was filled with floral pattern wallpaper and stuffed teddy bears littered all over the shelf space. Warm and inviting, juxtaposing her harsh personality.
“What the fuck do you want? I didn’t call the damn police!”
“We’re here because two young boys haven’t come home yet. Ricky and Daniel. Have you seen them today?” Kimberly asked.
“Those little miscreants?”
Old lady Stillwater recounted how they were tearing up her backyard. Acting all loud and interrupting her TV show. And when she confronted them she talked of how they went running down the road and out of view.
“Thank you Mrs. Stillwater that was a big help.”
“Yeah whatever. Now leave.” She said.
Kimberly then noticed her husband sitting quietly in his chair. Mr. Stillwater laying in his recliner like a vegetable. Eyes glued to the TV. She inquired if he might know anything as the door was suddenly slammed in her face. Leaving Officers McKnight and Houseworth out to dry. The light turning off on her front porch, enshrouding them in darkness as an extra insult from the old crone.
“Willing to take stroll with me Frank?”
Frank sighed. Relenting to her.
“Yeah, maybe we should do a quick follow-up.”
The two rode the squad car down the street until it’s dead end. They got out of the car hoping to find a sign of the boys but nothing. It was all quiet. A nice quiet neighborhood. Crickets chirping and mosquitoes out in full force. They shone their flashlights around and were just getting ready to give up when something shiny had been caught in the ray of her flashlight. A bronze button with a sword insignia.
“What’s this?” She asked curiously.
“Looks like a coat button.”
Kimberly looked back at Frank with a look in her eyes that said no shit. She picked it out of the grass and examined it. Taking note of its quality and wondering how it got here in the first place. Sitting at the end of a dead-end road that hasn’t even existed for long. A street that was very well kept.
“I think this might be the sign of a struggle…”
Kimberly started walking into the woods at the protest of Frank. Pleading to wait until morning, not wanting to be tripping around in the dark. She ignored him and kept going. Knowing that this was going string him along. They found leaves like ruffled feathers at the beginning of the woods. Reaffirming this idea in Kimberly that they had to keep going. Shining their lights as they walked through the woods eventually they came upon patches of dirt with kid’s sized sneaker prints.
“The boys!” Kimberly said as Frank to note of it as well.
To his credit not taking it lightly anymore. “Let’s keep moving.” he said.
The officers then began speed walking through the woods. Moving with more urgency than before. Following the tracks to their natural conclusion. A clearing with a tall scarlet oak tree existing on the rim. And it was odd. It was quiet around this area. Unsettling. No animals. No bugs, nothing. Just silence with the exception of a light breeze.
“Damn it!” She said.
“…” Frank remained quiet as he followed a vague image of the boys’ footprints.
“There’s nothing here…” She said defeated as Frank knelt down out of sight.
“Kimberly!” He yelled as she rushed over to him. “What does that look like?”
“…Oh shit.” She said. Seeing a small blood spatter by the stump of a fallen tree.
“Ugh… Looks like we’ve got some paperwork to do…”