While I tell you what happened, please keep one thing in mind: stay away from the forest. Forget everything that I told you the last time, about recreation and nature and all that. It’s not worth it.
It really isn’t.
I didn’t want to say it, but deep down I knew. It was my fault that my dad was missing. No matter what cryptic creatures roamed the park, he’d been safe until I showed up. Through me, he’d showed them he had a weakness. and they fed on his fear. Now, it was possible I would never see him again, and it was all my fault.
I knew it. I just chose to bury it deep down in my chest and let it sink deeper in my stomach, a knot that would never disappear.
As I was sitting there, at the checkpoint, covered in a blanket and shivering from the stress, Martin approached me. As much as I wanted to ask him about the park, the rules, my dad, something inside me didn’t know whether to trust him or not. Was he the real Martin?
He sat down next to me. “I’m sorry.” The night was still cold and unwelcoming. The trees stood tall and sober in front of us, crowned by the dark, never-ending sky. No stars. Just a black, soulless night. Maybe clouds had rolled in. I kept thinking of how 4 hours ago I’d been searching for constellations with my dad.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m sorry for your dad.”
“Don’t say that. You say it like he’s dead.”
Martin didn’t answer, and didn’t look at me either. I turned my body towards him. “He’s not dead. He isn’t.”
Martin remained silent. Then, without thinking, I punched his arm. He pulled away and frowned. “It’s not my fault! He shouldn’t have brought you here.”
“Tell me everything you know! About this stupid park! I deserve it. You owe it to me, and it’s the only way I can actually find him.”
He stared at me for a while, and so long had passed until his response, that I’d thought he had decided not to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was toned down to a whisper. “We thought they were lying. Both me and Paul, and the others. When we got hired here, we heard the stories, the legends and everything, but assumed those were horror stories passed around. We didn’t stop to listen, and didn’t believe anything until we saw it with our own eyes. See, this park is huge. Huge, and no one ever bothered to explore it. I’d thought they lacked the resources, but now I see they were just afraid.”
He stopped to look around. It would be ridiculous of him to hide from anyone right now. Why would he feel ashamed of telling me these? I thought, but then realized he was probably looking around himself to stay aware not of someone, but of something. That’s the thing. Even when you’ve been face to face with the supernatural, your mind still searches for a logical explanation.
“We started writing down the occurrences, trying to find… a pattern, or a way to avoid them. We thought that, if we wrote down those rules, we might be able to not get inconvenienced much.”
He wiped his face with his hand. “We never knew this could happen. None of us had ever disappeared, we just thought the worst they could do was annoy us, creep us out, hurt us…” He was sweating, even if it was freezing outside. He kept shaking his head. “P-Paul always refused to believe… he’d never actually seen anything…”
I sighed. I felt too alert to let my guard down and cry, but I craved it.
“Why do you let tourists here? Campers?”
“They only care about those who wander off. They search for it in your soul. The desire to get lost. And then they help you.”
A shiver ran down my spine, for no reason. I hugged myself, then sneezed. “I need your help to find him.”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“No, Martin. He could get hurt.” I turned towards the dark mass of trees. “He’s out there, alone, now.”
“Who’s out there?” said a woman, coming out of the cabin.
“My dad. He’s missing.” She frowned, then looked at Martin.
“Which post?”
“62” he replied.”
“Shit. That’s my next shift. I could look for him with you, if you want? I’ll take my car and go to the post. Tell you if anything shows up.”
Martin looked back at the cozy cabin, warmly lit, then to the dark woods. With a sigh, he stood up and started walking to his car. I followed.
He locked the car doors, and then I called my dad. My heart was beating so fast, I thought it would break free from my chest. No answer. I took a deep breath. “Right. We should, uh, look for his ATV first.”
We drove back to his post, then we started checking the other paths around the main road. His ATV couldn’t have gotten too far. We found it parked in front of a big oak tree, but no trace of my dad.
The trees surrounding it made it impossible for the car to pass through, so we came to the grim conclusion that we had to get out and search for him by foot. We ran over the rules one more time, to be sure.
No weird markings.
Dead Blue.
Whistling, loved ones, one-armed man. Got it.
I held onto Martin’s arm as we sunk deeper into the dark trees, our flashlights drawing out more shadows than usual. Calling out for him. Begging him to come out. I yelled his name over and over, until my throat started to hurt. I could feel branches hanging on to my clothes in unnatural, twisted angles.
At one point, we stopped dead in our tracks. Ahead of us, behind a tree, something was moving.
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know.”
We both froze. “What?”
The old lady voice continued. “Who could it be-e-e?”
It was as if she was hiding behind the tree. One of her bony hands appeared from one side, and the other from the other side. She moved them around, tracing the outline of the tree with her fingers. It looked as if she was playing with us, to make the tree seem like it had hands.
I knew I had to try. “Have you seen my dad?”
“Have you seen my face?” she replied, instantly.
“N-no.”
“Would you like to?”
I turned to Martin, right when the old lady (or whatever it was) jumped from behind the tree. Even though I hadn’t seen her face, I could make out how grotesque it looked judging Martin’s expression. He fired a few shots, and I heard a wail like nothing else I’d hear before. It felt as if my ears were ripped off.
Then, silence. “I don’t think this is safe, Kev.”
“No shit.”
“I’m sorry about your dad, but I’m sure he’s fine, if we just search for him in daylight…”
“No, he could die by then. Every moment is precious.”
I thought Martin was looking at me angry, but I realized two things. One, he wasn’t looking at me, but behind me, and two, he wasn’t angry, but confused.
“Kev, don’t move…”
Right in that moment, I heard a whistle far in the distance.
If the whistling is near you, it means they’re far. If it’s far away, it means they’re near.
I opened my mouth to scream, but right in that instant, as Martin reached for me, I blacked out.
When I woke up, I had a terrible headache. I was still in the woods, but Martin was gone, and so was his car. I felt incredibly drained, and my hands were shaking so bad, I could barely lift them up. I started walking back to my dad’s ATV, hoping I could take it and move on with my search. I checked the time, but something else stood out on my phone. The date. It was one day later.
I’d been in the woods for a whole day.
My head foggy, my body stiff, I got on the ATV and figured out how to start it, then drove back to the main road and to my father’s post. I could see the light on and make out a silhouette. I stopped, studying its outline. It looked like it had only one arm. If you see a man without an arm, don’t help him.
It was too late. He’d seen me, and was climbing down the ladder. I got back on the ATV and drove away. Right when I was halfway through, I ran out of gas. Behind me, footsteps.
“Kid, hold on. I see you met my wife earlier. What a fine woman she is.”
My head was pulsating. “Don’t fucking come near me.”
“Come on. You wanna find your dad or not?”
“You wouldn’t know where he is.”
“Bullshit. I spoke to him this morning.”
Rage filled me and replaced the fear. I got down and turned to the old man, who had been limping behind me, and hit him. “Don’t speak about him! Don’t you dare!”
The old man laughed, and I saw his only tooth staring back at me. I pushed him away and started running back to the post. I ran, and ran, and ran, without looking back, until my limbs ached of a pain I’d never known before. I got to the post and climbed up the ladder, then locked the trap door and called my mother, who was worried sick about me. I barely managed to get a word out before I collapsed from exhaustion. When I woke up, morning was creeping in. I called my dad, one more time. The phone rang a few times.
“Yeah? Kev?”
Tears gathered in my eyes. My throat hurt to speak, but I did. “Dad? Dad, is that you? Where are you?”
“Kev, get out of the forest. They’ll let me go. They want you.”
