Kelly clutched the withered flowers tightly in her hands. She was walking quickly through the woods behind her house, seeking a specific destination. Fall was coming early this year, as evidenced by the dead and dying leaves already starting to litter the forest floor. The sound of their crushing underfoot sounded very harsh and grating to her ears. It was late afternoon, but enclosed within the woods, it felt later than that. She had to hurry. She was due to meet up with Nikki in an hour and she didn't think Nikki would fully understand what Kelly was about to do and Kelly really wasn't up to explaining her actions at the moment. She could hardly comprehend why she was doing this, but it was too late to turn back now. She was almost there.
A rather powerful gust of wind tore through the wooded area, stirring up the crisp leaves in front of her and she was forced to halt her progress and take shelter against the trunk of a nearby tree. She cursed herself for not pulling her long dark hair back before setting out, but there was nothing to do about it now. Or maybe there was... Shifting the flowers to one hand, she started exploring her pockets, looking for a stray hair band, or a rubber band, or even a piece of string. She sighed in relief as her fingers closed around a rubber band. Pulling it out, she carefully set the flowers against the base of the tree, tucking them out of reach of the howling wind. Turning towards the wind, she let it blow her hair away from her face and she hurriedly moved to tie it back.
She crouched down to pick up the flowers and as she went to stand back up, movement from down the path caught her eye. The leaves that had been caught by the wind were now drifting towards the forest floor in the wake of the wind, but there was something...else...moving among the leaves. Standing up, she caught the movement again and was so startled by what she saw that she dropped the flowers. As if fate had a cruel sense of humor, another gust of wind blew through, scattering the flowers all across the forest floor, but she made no move to run after them. She was fixated by the figure who was standing down the trail, almost taunting her in his pose. He flashed her a wicked smile that sent chills running down her spine, before disappearing behind the tree.
From the moment she had first recognized him until he disappeared, only a few seconds had elapsed. Enough time for anyone else to claim it was just her imagination—but she knew better. This wasn't the first time she had seen him. It wasn't the first time he had haunted her footsteps and stalked her dreams. The only problem was, nobody believed her. She remembered when she had first seen him after the murders. It had been in a setting almost exactly like this one. She had seen him away in the distance and when she had tried to tell people what she had seen, they all shrugged her off. She should have seen it coming. Her entire manner had changed after Wakefield and she had simply set herself up for disbelief.
Everyone had looked at her like she was crazy—everyone except the sheriff... He had looked at her with different eyes. Eyes that chilled her to the bone. When she had first gone to him to tell him that she had seen Wakefield in the forest, he actually looked as though he believed her. For a split second, she had seen a flicker of fear and belief in his eyes. And that scared her more than anything else.
For some inexplicable reason, she started moving forward. Her mind was screaming at her legs to stop, but she couldn't. Something was drawing her forward. When she reached the spot where she had seen him, she looked around. There was nothing, not even any evidence that anyone had ever been there. She collapsed against the nearest tree to catch her breath and get her wild thoughts under control. He was here. He was waiting for something...or someone.
Gathering up her courage she continued on. Some part of her mind convinced her that if he really wanted to harm her, he would have done it already. Unless he was waiting for her to reach her destination, before attacking. She faltered in her steps, but didn't stop. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Kelly, go back. Go back to where you're safe. Even as her mind was pleading with her to turn around and flee the woods, she arrived at her destination.
The tree, that should have been just like any other tree, loomed over her. Her breath caught in her throat as she just stared up at it. It used to have such a beautiful history associated with it, but now it served only as a reminder of the tragedy that had struck exactly seven years before. Kelly shivered. She had a horrible feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
Kelly fell to her knees in front of the tree. She had never been very close to her mother, though they had never been enemies, but she felt she needed to talk to her, here. Even if she couldn't talk back, and even though Kelly wasn't a religious person, she needed to believe that her mother could listen to her. For the first time in her life, she prayed. Not to a God she didn't believe in, but to a mother that she did.