I own nothing but the story.

The whistle sounded three times before going silent, and we were left with a steady, ringing echo. A second passed before I turned to run. However, before I could even take a step, Ronin's hand gripped my shoulder, keeping me in place.

"You stay here," he said, pressing his walkie talkie into my hand, "If we need you, we'll call. Just don't move."

Before I could speak, the whistle sounded again, followed by some static on the walkie talkie, and he took off in the sound's direction at a heavy jog. As he disappeared over a gully I turned, making to throw the walkie talkie into the dirt. Again, I found myself back at home on that rainy night, looking from behind a corner at a kid I was told not to worry about. Only this time, there was no corner to look around.

I paced for several minutes before I caught Lloyd biting at his knuckles.

"What're you so worried about?"

It was a little rude, but it was difficult to control my emotions when my whole body felt wound up like a toy.

Lloyd looked up at me, his mouth slightly open, "S-same as you, right? What do you think they've found?"

Good question. One that made me feel sick. "I don't know," I admitted. I couldn't hear any voices, or worse, any screams, so at least that was going for us.

"Has this ever happened before?" I said offhand, trying to fill the silence that had overtaken, "People disappearing?"

Lloyd's hesitance made me turn. "Not to anyone out of town," he whispered.

I remembered his face at the café a few days ago. "It's happened in town?"

Lloyd shrugged, pulling apart pine needles from their sheafs, "Sometimes. There's lots of wilderness. They wander too far, y'know?"

"Did you find them?"

"...eventually."

The tips of his ears were red, and I suspected they weren't from the cold. I went back to pacing, turning the walkie talkie over in my hands.

Minutes passed at the rate of a snail. That, or time only went slower the more I checked my watch. What could possibly be taking this long? I grumbled and growled, picked at leaves and kicked at pine cones. The list of things to yell at Ronin about only grew larger the longer we waited.

"Try not to walk too much," Lloyd said with a tone that revealed he was desperately trying to lighten the mood, "You'll wear yourself out."

There was a time and place for Lloyd's opinion, but now was not that time, and certainly not the place, if he wanted to avoid getting clocked in the nose. Turning on my heel and facing him, I held up a finger and inhaled, preparing to speak when something behind him caught my eye.

"Hey," I exhaled, turning my finger towards a peculiar grey Scots pine several meters away. As I walked towards it, Lloyd turned, following my gaze and staring for a second. He bolted to his feet.

"That's probably nothing," he said, his voice suddenly high and urgent.

I ignored him, approaching the tree and placing my hand on it. Marked with an air of furiousness across from my face were five long, jagged lines from where something had torn away at the bark. They extended from the far right of the tree and trailed off when it curved away. I ran a finger down one of the lines; they were as thick as my thumb.

Lloyd's footfalls thundered up behind me, "Uh, I wouldn't touch that."

"Why?" I questioned, scanning the rest of the tree for evidence.

"The—" Lloyd struggled to come up with an excuse, "The tree is poisonous!"

That was ridiculous enough for me to look at him, "We..." I began, "We have these kinds of pines where we live."

"Dammit," Lloyd punched his fist through the air as he twisted back and forth on his heels.

"Do you know what did this?"

"I dunno, the mountain lion? Just get away from it!"

I didn't move, "This was no mountain lion," I frowned and kept my hand on the tree's coarse bark, "And you know it!"

"Well then—a bear!" Lloyd threw his hands in the air, "How should I know, anyway? Don't touch it!"

"A bear!" I flouted, looking back at the marks.

I ran some more fingers over them, trying to memorize every detail I could about them. Then I noticed a large, ebony smear lining the start of the middle one. Furrowing my brow, I leaned closer. Was that—?

The walkie talkie came to life with a burst of static as Ronin's fuzzy but distinct voice rang through, "Jay, Zane, you there?"

Scrambling for the device, I held down the button and breathed, "Yeah, yeah, I'm here. We're here. I think—"

Lloyd approached my side, leaning so close to my face I could smell the green apple bubblegum he'd been chewing for the past hour.

"Alright—good. Zane?"

More static, then, "Present."

Lloyd huffed.

"What's going on?" I said, "What's happened? What did you find?"

"We're going to need both of you to come here. We found something we need you to identify."

"On my way!" I shouted before throwing the device into the air. I took off running down the path Ronin had taken.

Unfortunately, Lloyd seemed determined to get on my last nerve, "Wait!" he called, reaching for the abandoned device, "What do I do?"

I stopped, looked at him, looked at the trail I needed to follow, looked at him again. Cringing slightly, I pushed out, "Oh, just come."

At Lloyd's nod I took off, refusing to wait for him any longer. Hundreds of thoughts raced through my head as I drew closer to the detective. Had they found Cole? A sign? Anything?

As I topped a hill I spotted Mom, the female officer, and Nya at the bottom, crowded around something invisible to me. Ronin was standing off to the side, examining breaks and fractures in the pine straw. I tripped and slid as I ambled down.

"What'd ya find?" I said as I stumbled and tried to keep my balance.

"Careful," Ronin mumbled, not looking up from the straw.

Both Nya and Mom tried speaking to me at once:

"We found a sock!"

"Is it Cole's?"

"Was he wearing this kind that night?"

"Hold on, hold on!" the officer cried, "Don't influence him before he sees it!"

I waved a hand and stepped forward, scanning the earth until I found what I was looking for: a large, worn, woolen black sock. My breathing hitched.

"Hey!"

Zane's voice cut through the air as he appeared with Lloyd and the rest of his group over the hill. Upon seeing us, he slid down in a sideways shuffle, hope shining like a beacon in his eyes.

"Zane!" I said, "Is this Cole's sock or not?"

He leaned down and picked it up, turning it over and pulling away small bits of pine straw. I clutched Nya's hand as he examined the garment. That had to be Cole's. It had to be. Only Cole cared to wear woolen socks as soon as the temperature dropped slightly below temperate.

Zane smiled. "I think it is. It's wool, and it has that hole in the top."

Mom cheered, "So we know he went this way, right?"

We collectively looked towards Ronin, still crouched and rubbing a hand at the stubble caking his chin. Much to our surprise, he looked to Lloyd, who stepped back at his stare.

"How good are you at reading tracks?"

"Um," Lloyd blanched under our curious gazes, "Not good. Dad always did the tracking when we went hunting."

"Come here."

As Lloyd and Ronin's own officer bent down to speak with the detective I turned to Nya and Zane, a smile stretching the corners of my face. We found a sock. After so long with nothing, this was a victory worthy of a feast.

Now we had a general idea of where Cole had been going. But that still left so many questions, such as which direction he was traveling, and why...

"Why did we find just his sock?"

Nya tilted her head just to the right, "Hm?"

I looked at the lone garment, still lying sadly on the ground, "Where's the rest of him?"

Mom, who this whole time had been looking excitedly between each of our faces, gasped. "He's been dragged off!"

"No, no," Zane held up a hand, "He has been spending the night in the cold. He probably used them as mittens for his hands and accidentally dropped one."

"So he's been going to sleep with a cold hand and a cold foot?" Mom placed a hand on her heart, "My poor baby."

I grimaced.

Before we could say anything more, Ronin stood and the cops came over and moved the sock into a little black bag. Then they took a small orange flag and stuck it deep into the dirt, leaving it to fly.

"So we know where it was," the big officer explained to me.

"Alright," Ronin said to the whole group, "I know you guys are tired by now—"

"No we aren't!" I protested with my friends.

"—it's nearing dusk," said Ronin. He raised his arm and pointed towards the west, "We think he's moving this way," he turned to face us, his one good eye flickering from person to person, "He's gotten close to the Westside highway. The team and I are going to continue tonight."

I began to speak, but I was shushed before I could say anything more than a vague noise.

"We'll send you civilians home to rest."

This time my mom spoke, crying that she wasn't going to quit until she found her boy, but she was met with opposing views on all sides, even Nya's, to my surprise.

"Nya," I said, "We're so close to finding Cole. We can't stop now."

"We can," argued she, "We won't find him today, and if we go any further, it'll be dark by the time we try to leave. Besides, we need sleep, and food."

I looked to Zane, but he gazed silently at the forest floor, concentrating on something only he could see.

"The police will still be searching..." Nya continued, her shoulders sagging, "I don't want to stop either, you know."

I sighed, unable to believe that we were stopping when we'd just found something wonderful. Around us, Ronin managed to talk my mother down, speaking to her in a surprisingly soothing tone. Then he pulled out a pocket compass and began leading her back out of the forest, gesturing for us to follow. We didn't leave immediately, but after a look, a statement, and a gentle reassurance of their diligence, we all left the officers behind.

It really had grown dark by the time we reached the cars, where everyone who stayed in town stood waiting. I didn't remember much of what happened once we got back there, only that once I got into the car and began to head back to the motel, I fell asleep with the images of trees dancing across my eyelids.

I dreamed of inky shadows and long, gnarled limbs, reaching out of the darkness.

This has nothing to do with anything, but today I learned that "serpentine" is a term describing the movement of most types of snake, rather than being another word for the snakes themselves. The more you know, huh?

Anyway, thank you for reading, reviewing, and following this story. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you continue to enjoy what I have to offer. Have a wonderful day!