Another sunny day. Finally a day off. I woke up, exercised a bit and went out to do some shopping at the local supermarket. I was buying some milk, when I heard a couple of people talking nearby.
“You heard about the disappearance, George?”
“What? Another one?”
“Yeah, 3 days ago, an old man named Samuel Greg, they say he was crossing our town and that’s when he was last seen, someone had seen his license plate and saw it on the news.”
“Damn, man. Never thought our town’d be haunted”, he said in what sounded more like a funny-ish tone.
I was worried. Another disappearance? Crossing our town? Why did I feel, yet again, that there was something at that forest with that big corn field? I had to do something. I returned home and put everything in the fridge, when I thought about calling Chris. On second thought, I should go to the police station, this is too serious to talk over the phone.
Our police station was a small one, it did have some hard-working staff however and my cousin was one of them. Chris was the deputy Sherrif, and our police station covered the nearby villages too, so you can understand his hands were usually full. I knocked his door, opened it slowly, he was in there, talking on the phone. He saw me, and nodded me in with a smile. Shortly after, he put the phone down and gave me his attention.
“Jack! Been days, how have you been cous? I’ve been too busy lately..”
“I know man, don’t mention it. I’ve been alright, but kind of concerned about the disappearances.”
“Yes.. third one within the month. We’re working on it though, we’ll be setting more patrols around the town.”
“What you need to worry about it the woods outside of it”, I stated to him in a serious tone.
“What do you mean?”
“I just.. have a bad feeling about the western area, around that corn field. Not long before the disappearances, I was coming from Brixton, when I saw what looked like a small cabin. Had never seen it before, looked like someone had made it recently. Can it really be a coincidence? A cabin near all the area where the disappearances took place?”
“Jack, we don’t know exactly where..”
“We do, man!” I interrupted him.” Where else could they have disappeared? The gas station in the middle of the town, or the supermarket? Where could they possibly attack an adult couple and an old man, all of whom were last seen driving?”
George was thoughtful. Deep inside he knew I had a very strong point. He had, however, to try and be objective, even if that means he’d be wrong.
“Jack, you are my cousin and I love you, but we have to follow certain lines. I am a deputy, but I’m also not the Sherrif. We have to firstly follow the procedure, we cannot move further simply with speculations, we have to focus on the town, the residents don’t feel safe.”
“….I understand”, I stated in a dissapointed tone, “but remember, I warned ya”. I left.
I felt so guilty the following days, you know, that kind of guilt where you wish you could do something, but can’t really.. work couldn’t keep my mind busy, I was constantly sinking in my thoughts, till I couldn’t keep myself any further – I’d visit the corn field myself.
Another sunny day, and the kids were playing at the park with their mothers watching them and talking. Little Anna was playing with Lisa, when she saw something moving behind a tree, not far from the park. She walked towards the tree, curious to see what laid behind it. On second thought, she stopped and thought about going back. No one saw that she was almost out of the park. She turned around to walk back, when she heard a whisper calling her, “heey, over here”. She was intrigued. She walked towards the tree line. “Over here, I have something for you”, the whisper said, even deeper in the woods. She kept walking, till she saw a figure. It had a white dress, the person was about her size, and black, long hair covering its face. It had its hands behind its back. “Let’s play”, it said, in a girly voice, and showed its hands, holding something round and hairy. It rotated the round item, it was a head, the old man’s head. His eyes were carved out, and his mouth was open, as if he was in shock. Anna screamed in horror, and her mother heard her from the park. She felt terrified, she looked around, calling her name. “Anna! Anna!” Anna was nowhere to be seen. She ran towards the trees, thinking Anna had run away. She kept calling her but never received an answer. A couple of parents made sure their kids are alright and ran after her in the woods, but she was already gone.
My mind was full of bad thoughts, I was worried that people were in danger, I visited the police station again and headed to my cousin’s office, I had to give it another shot. Knocked, but I received no reply. I opened it slowly, but he wasn’t in. I saw an officer passing by.
“Sorry, where is deputy Wilson?”
“He’ll come back soon. You can wait for him in his office.”
I sat down, and waited. He had left his radio on the desk, I could hear the police force’s activity and reports, when I heard something that caught my attention. Another disappearance, mother and daughter last seen in the woods at the end of the town. I froze. My gut was right once again. I panicked, I couldn’t hold myself. I looked around, no one to see me. I walked around his desk, sat on his chair and searched his drawers. The first two only had files, but the last one – I found was I was looking for – a gun. He had a small revolver. I checked it, it was full, 5 rounds. That’s all I needed. I put it in my pocket, and walked out of the station in a cool manner. I drove to the end of the town, parked on the side of the road. Right in front of me was the forest, with the corn field covering most of the area. It was dense, but my field of view was assisted by the bright sun. I walked towards the field, pushing the corn aside. Walked slowly through the corn, using my left hand to clear my path and holding the gun straight forward with my right one. Suddenly, I saw a pile of black smoke ahead of me, ending high up in the sky. It must be that cabin, I thought. It wasn’t far, so I kept walking, with a decisive confidence. I saw something moving between the corn ahead of me. I stopped, it moved again. “Who’s there, show yourself!”, I stated. I approached it when it moved again. I panicked and pushed my index towards my hand, pulling the trigger. I had just shot something. I walked towards it, looked down. It was a crow. I felt my panic had made me overreact, tried to calm myself down.
That’s when I heard something in frony of me, yet again. But this time, I was certain it wasn’t a crow. It was moving towards me. It was foosteps. It stopped. I heard foosteps behind me, I turned around, holding the gun, ready to fire. It was running around maneuvering, trying to confuse me, get my attention. I tried to focus, it was approaching me, steps getting louder and louder, I tried to aim but the corn was too dense and the steps kept moving around, louder and louder and louder and louder!!! Then they stopped. I took a deep breath, tried to stop my fears from kicking in, when
I heard a step right behind me.