“Is this asshole really following us?”
Unfortunately, they noticed.
“Shit.” I muttered. This wasn’t good. Nevertheless, both Mike and Rose were being rational about it. Although they were both visibly worried, they seemed to understand that freaking out wasn’t going to help.
“Ignore them,” I said. “If they keep following us once we get into town, then I’ll call the cops.”
“Hang on…” Rose began. “You don’t think they saw us leaving the apartment, do you?”
“They probably did. Why?”
Stupid question on my part. We totally left a dead guy in there.
“Shit!” Mike shouted, upon realizing it. “Maybe it’s the cops themselves tailing us.”
“That’s so dumb for so many reasons,” Rose responded. “Why would cops be following us to begin with?”
“Who the hell knows what cops are thinking?”
“They can’t pin it on us, right? We didn’t do anything.”
“They don’t know that. They could argue that we forcibly shoved the pills down his throat and left.”
“Why would we do that?”
“I don’t know Rose, why the hell does anybody do anything?”
“Alright, fucking relax,” I raised my voice just a bit. “They aren’t cops, Mike. That’s ridiculous.”
“Ok, cop expert. Then who is it?” Mike responded.
I didn’t have an answer there. But I knew one thing was probably for sure. Whoever was following us was probably worse news than the police.
“Try and shake em off.” Mike told me.
“Yeah, no way in hell. I’m not a fucking stunt driver.”
As I had hoped, the vehicle trailed off once we got into town. As much as I appreciated the initial relief, this just meant we had another thing to worry about. Another lingering issue. I thought back to the unfamiliar cars with tinted windows that had been parked around town. I didn’t think about it too much in the moment, but the vehicle that’d been tailing us had also been tinted.
Shit, I thought. This whole situation was getting a bit too complicated for my liking. Not that this was an enjoyable experience to begin with.
We parked at a nearby gas station, not wanting to reveal where any of us lived just yet. I still couldn’t quite shake the feeling that we were being followed, after all.
Of course, Mike was against this.
“These motherfuckers probably know where we live already,” he said. “I say let ‘em come. My shotguns need some dusting off.”
“Ok, calm down there Rambo,” Rose replied. “Before you get yourself killed, let’s come up with a plan. An actual plan.”
We ended up driving over to Mike’s apartment after a few uneventful hours. But before we could come up with anything at all, Mike and Rose ended up passing out. I had no idea how they found it in themselves to sleep. After everything that had happened, I simply couldn’t. Paranoia was also starting to creep up on me, causing me to constantly check the street to see if anybody was out there waiting for us.
But as the night went on, nobody showed up. Either that, or they were doing a hell of a good job at being discrete. But eventually, I succumbed to fatigue myself. I woke up next to the windows, the sun stinging my eyes. Mike was cooking up breakfast sausages and pop tarts in the kitchen. Breakfast of champions, I suppose.
“Ok…” Mike said, through a mouthful of pork. “Last night was bunk. What now?”
I suppose it was time for a shot in the dark. The forest.
Mike and Rose weren’t too enthused at the idea. Could hardly blame them. However, our options were running relatively slim. No other avenues to really investigate.
“Graffiti in the forest… We’re getting desperate, huh?“ Mike sighed, putting his head down. But he got up after only a few moments, grabbing for his jacket.
“Desperate it is.”
I never really liked the forest. The place always spooked me as a kid. Can’t say I’m too fond of it as an adult, either. It just feels so… claustrophobic, you know? Surrounded by dead trees, but exposed at every conceivable angle. Maybe I’m just weird.
I tried to suppress those thoughts when we walked in.
“Where’d your brother say he found it?” Rose asked.
“Near the creek.”
“Very specific,” Mike said. “And what the hell are we supposed once we find it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find a clue somewhere.”
The words came out of my mouth with zero confidence, and it was obvious. What the hell kind of clue were we supposed to be looking for?
As we continued walking, we passed the time by contemplating what Mr. Blank might be. A serial killer? Perhaps we needed to look at it from a supernatural angle. Some kind of monster… or demon maybe? But what was its connection to the theater? The whole situation was maddening to think about. Nothing made any sense.
After about 20 minutes of inspecting each and every tree near the creek, we finally found it. The carvings that my brother was talking about.
“Huh,” Mike commented upon seeing it. “Pretty spooky.”
I couldn’t disagree. It was more or less the way that my brother had described it. Very “strange” indeed. It was difficult to make out any real features of the man depicted in the carving. Well, I guess it was a man. Humanoid, at the very least. It appeared to be tall, wearing some kind of long, sweeping coat. There was a strange pattern covering the torso. Almost looked like… bones? Hard to tell, given the nature of what we were looking at. And then there was the head. No facial features. Blank, if you will. And of course, it was accompanied by the word “STOP” scribbled all over. I could only describe the nature of the writing as “distressed.”
Was it just a coincidence? I doubted that.
“What the hell are we getting into here?” I heard Mike mutter under his breath.
I looked over at Rose, trying to gauge her reaction as well. She certainly looked frightened, as expected. But… not in the same way that Mike was. The fear on her face appeared to stem from a more urgent matter.
“Do you guys…” she began asking. “Don’t panic, but I’m pretty sure somebody’s following us.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I realized something. We’d been careless. Even though we were being tailed last night, we didn’t bother carrying that caution over to the morning. Hell, I didn’t even look over my shoulder when I’d first walked into the forest.
Mike clicked his tongue loudly, looking agitated.
“Okay asshole, come out!” He shouted.
“Jesus Mike!” Rose and I said in unison.
“I don’t wanna draw this out,” he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pistol. “Gotta come prepared. Learned that yesterday didn’t we?”
The next few moments comprised of a tense silence. Well, maybe not. I’m pretty sure everybody could hear my heart beating out of my chest.
“Alright.”
I flinched as a deeper voice called out from an indistinguishable location.
“Suppose there’s no point in keeping this up. I see you have a gun, kid. I’m coming out, so don’t shoot.”
I could see movement within the maze of trees. Mike clicked the safety off and aimed the weapon right toward the general area it was coming from.
“Are you stupid?” he said. “Also, I’m 24. Don’t fucking call me a kid.”
Whoever had been following us didn’t hesitate, continuing towards us.
“It’s not like your age makes you less of a kid. I’ve known 13 year-olds that I would already consider men, given what they’ve been through.”
The voice eventually revealed himself. He looked to be in his early 30s, dressed in a windbreaker and well-tailored dress pants. He was about a head shorter than Mike, with wavy hair, a clean-shaven face and a world-weary look in his eyes. There was a also substantial scar running down his left cheek. But beyond that… he was probably one of the best-looking guys I’ve seen in my life. Not an important detail but… whatever.
“You’re not gonna shoot me kid. So why don’t you stop pretending like you’re even considering it?” He said, in just about the most confidence tone I’d ever heard in my life.
Mike gripped the pistol, the veins bulging in his hand. “Don’t push your luck.”
“I’ll introduce myself,” he said, ignoring the threat. He reached into his coat pocket (which made Mike flinch), and pulled out a pretty official-looking FBI badge and identification card.
His first name was Sven. His thumb was covering up his last. Maybe it was a conscious decision.
“I’m not really concerned with whether or not you believe my credentials. But I’m curious. What are you kids doing out here?”
“Why the hell should we tell you?” Mike asked, still trying to sound assertive.
Sven sighed, before looking at Rose. “Darling, could you please ask your friend to put the gun down? He’s gonna get himself hurt,” he looked back at Mike. “Keep it in your hand if it makes you feel safer, though.”
Rose obliged, nudging Mike.
“C’mon,” she whispered. “That’s not gonna end well.”
Mike mumbled something angrily before obliging himself.
Sven nodded and smirked.
“Now. Regarding my question. What’s the deal here?”
He was certainly pretending like he didn’t already know.
“The missing people,” I said. “I’m sure you’re familiar with the rest of the details. Probably more so than we are.”
He nodded, before looking down. “Yeah… it’s a strange case.”
Mike scoffed. “Strange? My sister’s missing. If you know what the fuck’s going on, then tell us.”
He looked back up at us, an inquisitive expression on his face.
“Maybe that’s something I’m trying to figure out myself.”
And that’s when he dropped the bombshell on us. He wasn’t actually here on official business. He was essentially after the same thing that we were. This wasn’t the first instance of “Mr. Blank” causing somebody to disappear. His fiancée, Sarah, had gone missing a few years prior. Hauntingly similar circumstances. He tried looking into it, but his higher-ups told him to stay away, and wouldn’t give him any information or leads.
“Mr. Blank” was an utterly classified topic.
Ever since then, he’d been chasing after answers. Trying to unravel this obscure mystery. But not with much luck. However… there was an opportunity here. This was the first time that Mr. Blank had made an “appearance” since his fiancée went missing. Without telling any of his fellow agents, and without the discretion of the higher-ups, he’d come here to conduct his own investigations, all while attempting to stay hidden from the agents already posted here.
“The tinted vehicles,” I muttered. “That’s why they’re here?”
“Yup,” he said. “The don’t want anybody prying. Probably for the best. But for obvious reasons… I can’t stay away.”
“Yeah. Likewise,” I said. “So it was you following us last night?”
He raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. “Sounds like you’ve caught their attention.”
Shit.
“Then why are you following us now?” Rose asked.
He looked at Mike. “You’re Mike Caron, right?”
Mike gave him a slight nod.
“Lacey Caron was one of the people that went missing. I was aware of the whole thing. I took a shot, assumed you would try doing something about it. When I saw you guys leave town yesterday, I got even more curious. I couldn’t have followed without giving myself away, though. So I kept an eye on your apartment. And then you walked into the forest first thing in the morning. Interesting behavior for sure. So, prove my intuition right. What do you know? Cause I’d love to know as well.”
His tone had taken an intense turn. It was pretty obvious that he was driven by passion, which I could understand, even if mine was to far lesser degree than his.
“Truth be told, we really don’t have much,” I told him. I felt embarrassed even considering showing him the tree carving as some kind of evidence. Perhaps my passion really was clouding my judgement. Maybe we really were just grasping at fucking straws here.
But then Sven took a look at it himself. I expected him to scoff, possibly make some sarcastic comment to the effect of “good job guys, you really cracked the case here.”
But instead of doing that… he began studying the carving rather intently. After a few minutes, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“Look familiar?” He said, showing it to us.
After nearly gagging at the initial sight, I had to admit that it was. A tall humanoid. Sweeping coat. Skeleton-torso. Blank face. This time, it was drawn in blood on a dirty basement wall. There was also a man with his entrails leaking out kneeling down towards it.
“Fuck,” I muttered, trying to hide how much I was shivering. “You sure you’re supposed to be showing us this?”
“I’m not supposed to be doing a lot of stuff right now,” Sven replied. “But here we are.”
“What the hell is it? A crime scene?”
Sven nodded. “Two and a half years ago. About the same time Sarah went missing. Don’t know the details, cause I wasn’t there. Risked everything to get my hands on this.”
Despite how gruesome it was, the crime scene pretty much confirmed that there was some kind of connection here. But the question remained… what now? Where do we go from here?
“Guys,” Rose spoke up. “Check it out.”
She pointed to another tree up ahead, maybe about twenty feet away. Could it be? I thought, approaching it.
It was. A similar carving had been scribbled into it. The same figure. The same word. I began scanning the area once again. There was another tree, a bit away farther this time. And then another one. And another. The four of us began following the carvings like a trail of bread crumbs, right towards what had to be the culprit behind him. We didn’t even hesitate. Didn’t stop to ask questions. We were driven by sheer impulse at the revelation.
But clearly... Sven was paying more attention than us. After a few minutes, I felt him put a hand on my shoulder.
“Wait.” He said.
“What? Why? You have a gun, don’t you? So does Mike. We’ll be fine-“
“Not that,” he said. “Look forwards, but stay calm.”
And then I saw it. There was… something up ahead. A large figure doing a poor job of hiding behind a thin tree. I could see a large, pale, bony hand twitching erratically as it drooped near the ground.
A quiet, but shrill noise suddenly began filling the air around us. Like a combination of a high—pitched radio frequency and some kind of deranged laugh.
I suddenly remembered what Jay had told us before he died.
He’s already on his way.
---
Credits
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