Chapter Five

A Walk in the Woods

The sound echoed through the Crawford Mill again. I jumped and clung to Andy; he squeezed my hand. I could hear my own heart thudding against my chest. Morgan stepped closer toward the noise but still stayed behind Andy, both of us relying on him for some form of protective or another.

"What was that?" He questioned, peering through his glasses' lens into the darkness.

I shuddered. "Probably something that wants to kill us. The rustling noises always come before the screaming and the dying." I ranted and Andy looked over at me, raising an eyebrow. "They'll find pieces of us all over Texas for months."

"I think we get the picture baby." Andy mumbled and I shut my mouth, holding tighter to his arm.

Erin was ushering Kemper toward the head of the group and he grudgingly took a step into the darkness. "Okay," he shouted, "If someone's out there, stop fucking around and just come on out!" He was pretty convincing.

We all waited in silence, Kemper's threat still echoing through the mill. More rustling and I jumped; it was coming from the right, where light managed to slip through the cracks in the boards. And finally, I was able to see what had been making the noises; it was a child, a small boy, too skinny and too dirty to be healthy. He was sitting on a dirty mattress, stained with God knew what, staring at us with round eyes that peeked out from beneath his bangs and the rings of dirt on his face. Erin sucked in a breath and I felt the sight of him tug at my heart; who would leave a poor child out here all on his own? Who would be that cruel?

The boy blinked and crawled across the mattress, a little closer to us, his long legs almost spider-like as he moved. "What did you do to her?" He questioned, voice thick with a southern accent and curiosity.

"Who?" Andy questioned. I couldn't take my eyes off that poor boy, wondering how he had ended up in this abandoned, heartless, creepy place all on his own.

The boy blinked again. "That girl in your van." He answered, staring at each of us in turn.

Kemper sighed. "We didn't do that to her, she did that to herself." He answered, looking over at Erin, who was looking at the child sadly.

"You poor thing." Erin mumbled and stepped toward the boy. "Why are you in here all alone, this place could be dangerous. Why don't you come out here with us."

The boy eyed her skeptically. "Promise you won't hurt me?" He questioned.

Erin smiled. "Promise." She held her hand out to him and after a moment's thought, the skinny boy stood and walked over to her, taking her hand.

I looked down at the boy as we headed out of the mill (thankfully) and into the sunlight once more. "Do you live here?" I asked him. He reminded me of the kids in Mexico, the ones that have no money and have to sell whatever they can find on the streets just to eat dinner every night.

The boy shrugged. "I live around." He answered and would say no more after that.

Once we were outside again, we headed back to where the van was parked; I wasn't too eager to be around the corpse again but I was even less eager to be around this part of the mill. What if boys and possums weren't the only thing inside of there? Plus, I've heard that possums can carry rabies.

Andy swept me into his arms when we were at the van again, wrapping his arms around my waist and I laid my head against his chest, watching Erin and the small boy, who sat down beside her. Andy trailed his fingers absently down my back and I let him, enjoying the way he seemed to make me shiver without even trying. I couldn't wait to get out of this hellish place and to Dallas, where I could get to know him a little better.

Erin studied the child. "My name's Erin." She introduced, hoping that the boy would do the same.

He was a strange looking kid, the way his upper jaw seemed to almost jut out from beneath his lips and his dirty hair stuck straight up into spikes. Every part of his body was skinny, gangly and dirty. "Jedidiah." He said, licking his tongue across his teeth and spitting into the dirt.

Morgan snickered and rolled his eyes. I knew exactly what he was thinking; could this place be anymore Beverly Hillbillies? Well, as far as I remembered, there were no creepy mills with animal skulls hanging on the walls in Beverly. I sighed; I was never going to watch another show about the country ever again.

"So, junior," Andy said, trying to get the kid's attention. When Jedidiah continued to stare off into space, he decided to continue without a response. "We're supposed to meet the sheriff here, do you know where he is?"

I watched the kid closely, hoping that this tiny bumpkin would know the quickest way to get us out of here. He nodded and I could have jumped for joy. Andy's squeezed my hand slightly and smiled out of the corner of his mouth, a smile only I could see. "So, where?" He pressed.

Jedidiah drew in the dirt with his toe. "At home." He answered. "Getting drunk." That was not the news I wanted to hear.

Morgan sighed and got to his feet, clapping his hands together. "So, cool, let's split." He said and I looked over at him. "If the sheriff doesn't give a shit then why should we?"

We were about to have the conversation about the dead girl again; I was stick and tired of dealing with that idiot girl. Why couldn't she have just shot herself on the side of the road and left us the hell alone? I could be halfway to Dallas by now, cuddling in Andy's arms, instead of in the Texas heat, surrounded by animal skulls and creepy kids. Maybe we should just dump her.

Erin wasn't going to have it though. "Does the sheriff live around here?" She questioned, looking at Jedidiah.

The kid nodded. "But the road don't go there." He added and I sighed, feeling frustration boil in my blood. It was my least favorite emotion, I hated the feeling of uselessness, of not being able to do anything productive. Throwing a tantrum and kicking up Texas dust with my new cowboy boots, two sizes too big Andy had pointed out, but I hadn't thrown a tantrum since I had been five. Yelling at my parents about joining the Peace Corp didn't count.

Erin looked over at Kemper and her boyfriend simply sighed. "How do I get there?" He questioned and Erin's face brightened.

"Whoa, Kemp," Andy said, pulling away from me and heading over to his friend. "You're not thinking of going over there and finding the sheriff? He's supposed to be here; we already came all the way out here to find him."

Kemper sighed again; Morgan saw this as another opportunity to plead his case. "I think we should dump her and get the hell out of here." He repeated and this time not even Erin said anything against him.

I looked over at the van and then turned back to face the others. "Well, what about that old woman? The one at the gas station? She could have gotten our license plant number and then if the sheriff does show up later, looking for us, and finds the body, then we could all go to jail." I pointed out. I'd been to jail before, it wasn't something I cared to repeat.

Andy glanced at me. "That lady doesn't care. She made it perfectly clear that 'what we do is our own business'." As he spoke, he mimicked the old lady's shaky, screeching speech and I couldn't help but smile.

"We can't leave her." Erin wasn't complaining, she wasn't whining, she was simply stating a fact. "I'll go find the sheriff's house if I have to." She looked at Kemper to see if he would challenge her words.

Kemper looked at Jedidiah. "How do I get there?" He asked again and Jedidiah told him as best he could, gesturing toward the woods and saying something about a house with a big porch.

Erin and Kemper started off in the direction Jedidiah had pointed them, leaving Andy, Morgan and I to sit in front of the Crawford Mill with Jedidiah and a rotting corpse for company. Or, at least we had the corpse; Jedidiah took off as soon as Erin and Kemper had disappeared, vanishing around the other side of the mill.

I sighed. What were we supposed to do here until Erin and Kemper returned with the sheriff? Maybe there were more houses around the other side of the mill that we hadn't seen before; maybe one of them would have a phone that we could use to let the sheriff know that Kemper and Erin were coming so he could get his butt in gear and meet them. Or at least they might be willing to extend a little southern hospitality and offer us some cold drinks; my throat felt like it was filled with dust.

"Andy, I'm going to go see if there are any more houses around." I said and extended my hand, the way Erin had done earlier, smiling slightly so that he could get the idea to join me.

Andy bent down and picked up a handful of pebbles and rocks. "Be my guest." He mumbled and hurled one of the rocks into the grass, nearly hitting Morgan, who didn't look too pleased by the near miss.

My brow knitted and I lowered my hand; that wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind. Andy was supposed to offer to happily join me, be my knight in shining armor in case there were any snakes or anymore possums. But he went right on throwing rocks into the grass. "Fine." I snapped. "I will."

I stalked away from the mill, wounded even further when Andy didn't say anything to stop my going. Now I wasn't so sure that I wanted to go poking around through the grass and spidery trees, even if there was the chance that I'd find another house. All I could see was rolling hills, dying grass, leafless trees and, of course, the creepy Crawford Mill. No houses. I thought about turning around and heading back to where Andy and Morgan were but I quickly changed my mind; going back would just show Andy that I was too nervous to go anywhere without him. Hell, I was from Texas, I shouldn't be afraid to go poking through the woods; I'd done it enough times while growing up.

But that was before girls shot themselves in vans, I reminded myself and shuddered. I didn't want to think about that poor girl, especially not right now. With a determined sigh, I continued away from the mill and into the grass, heading toward a thicket that successfully hid whatever was waiting on the other side. Every so often, when the wind would blow particularly strong, I could smell the rot and decay from the meat packing plant we had passed after picking up the dead girl. The smell reminded me of being inside the van and I felt the familiar sensation of preparing to retch; I swallowed, forcing the relax down and covered my nose until the breeze died down and the smell with it.

I finally arrived at the thicket and wasn't surprised to find that there was nothing to see. In Texas, there was a whole lot of nothing to see and this place was no exception. I trailed my fingers along the trunk of one rotting tree as I headed into the small groove that could have at one time been an orchard. Nothing was growing on the trees now and it didn't look like anything had grown for a long while.

Dry twigs and leaves cracked beneath my boots as I continued, peering up at the trees and into the cloudless sky. It was silent here, aside from the low humming of bugs that buzzed around my ears and eyes, and almost comforting, the way the trees seemed to form a secluded, almost safe place. I wished Andy had come after all, it would have been nice to share this strange, peaceful place with him.

Something snapped somewhere off to the right and I felt my body tense up with fear, all thoughts of peace and quite disappearing. Something else was close, and somehow I doubted that it was Andy. I looked around for some sort of weapon to defend myself with but didn't see anything aside from the gnarled, thin branches that I had recently stepped over. That would have to do. As I bent down to retrieve one of them, something snapped again, closer this time and I jerked upright, holding the stick out in front of me, the way I had learned how to fence in the fourth grade. At least I remembered something from school.

"Okay," I said aloud, trying to sound as tough as Kemper had when we were back in the Crawford Mill. "Whoever's out there, just go away, because, I'm warning you: I know how to fence." Not very threatening. "So just leave." Not too much better. "You mother fucker." Okay, now that was tough.

But not tough enough. The snapping continued and it was getting much closer; the thorny bushes that were only feet in front of me began to rustle and I knew whatever was around was about to come out of those bushes. I had a feeling those fencing lessons weren't going to come in handy at all when that someone or something finally showed its hideous face. Maybe it was just another possum but I didn't think they came out during the day; Morgan would know, if Morgan was here. But he wasn't, he was safe, back at the van with Andy, where I should be.

The bushes continued to rustle and I gripped my stick tighter. This is it, it's all over. The skinny branches on the bush finally parted and revealed....nothing more then a cute bunny with long legs and floppy ears that dragged the ground as it hopped out of the bushes. I let out a deep breath, relaxing and laughing at myself; for the second time today, I had let a cute, Snow White woodsy creature nearly scare the shit out of me. There was nothing this deep in the forest beside the animals; I was alone but that didn't mean that I wasn't too keen on sticking around much longer.

I turned around and found myself face to face with the creepy little hillbilly kid, Jedidiah, who was standing behind me, just staring, waiting for me to turn around. I screamed at his sudden appearance before I could stop myself and stumbled backward; my reaction must have amused Jedidiah because he started laughing like I was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

"God." I breathed when I was able to speak, my heart pounding in my chest. I ran my fingers through my hair and exhaled again. "Don't do that." Jedidiah continued to laugh. I almost threw my stick at him but forget all about retaliating when I looked past the country bumpkin and saw Andy running in my direction, looking concerned, with Morgan huffing and puffing behind him. How sweet! He must have heard me scream and come to be my knight in shining armor after all. I couldn't help but smile; every time I misjudged Andy, he always did something to let me know I had made a mistake.

"Are you all right?" Andy questioned when he arrived, looking down at Jedidiah for a second before looking back up at me. He looked genuinely concerned, even after it was obvious that I was nothing but shook-up.

I nodded. "Jedidiah surprised me." I admitted. "I didn't mean to scare you." Though I was glad I had; at least I knew now that Andy cared about me after all.

Morgan finally arrived, holding onto his sides like he was about to have a hernia and leaned against the trunk of a tree. "Pepper," He panted. "Are you dead? Hurt?" I shook my head to both, raising an eyebrow. "Then why the hell did I just run all the way out here?"

Neither Andy or I even bothered to think of something to say to him. Andy turned back to look at me. "What are you doing out here?" He questioned, the worry disappearing from his face once he was satisfied that I was indeed all right. Jedidiah continued to stare at us, silently, as though he was watching the greatest television show ever created. Creepy kid.

"I told you, I was looking for any other houses around here." I answered, stepping past Jedidiah and joining Andy. He put his arm around my waist and I smiled again.

"Did you find any?" Andy questioned, though I'm sure he knew that I hadn't. There wasn't anything else around since that gas station; we all knew that. Unless Erin and Kemper really did manage to find the sheriff's house, if Jedidiah hadn't just sent them on a wild goose chase.

I shook my head. Morgan finally managed to compose himself, straightening his glasses and standing up as straight as he could, forcing himself to take a normal breath. "I'm glad you're all right Pepper," he started and I could tell that there was something not so kind was about to follow. "But next time you go wondering off by yourself and something scares you, do me a favor and don't scream." He grumbled, turning and heading back the way he had come.

Andy and I followed him and after a moment, Jedidiah jogged after all, trotting behind like an obnoxious stray puppy. That kid was really starting to get on my nerves. Andy's arm remained around my waist as we walked. "I should have come with you, Pepper; what if it had been someone else out there instead of Jedidiah?" He said and I frowned.

"Do you really think there's something bad out here?" I questioned. Sure, it was a creepy place and I certainly wouldn't want to spend the night here but it didn't seem like the sort of place where serial killers hung out and drove teenage girls to shoot themselves. But then again, looks can be deceiving.

Andy shrugged. "I don't know." He confessed. "But I really don't want to stick around and find out."