So often are we guided by our devotion, our love, our affection…
A bond that pulls us down paths not bargained.
And when you find yourself alone as HE casts out that bedeviling gale…
How far will it carry you?
A silver Volvo sped down a remote highway on the outskirts of Oakside, a small town located near the Rocky Mountains in the province of Alberta, Canada. Despite her job being situated firmly within it, the woman behind the wheel lived about half an hour away from the town and had been driving for more than twice that amount of time before she finally neared her destination. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon when she flicked on her blinker and pulled into a long, winding driveway that snaked through a hilly landscape speckled with trees. She quickly realized that she would be walking instead of driving when she saw that a dead tree had fallen across the path just beyond the wooden fence that separated the property from the road, letting out a sigh of annoyance as she parked her car a few feet away from it. She already knew that she wouldn't have any reception all the way out here, so there was no point in taking out her phone to call her friend for help. She took her keys out of the ignition and stepped out of the car, the chilly autumn air hitting her far more quickly than she would've liked. It was early October, 2013, and the woman in question was not a fan of cold weather. She was in her mid-twenties and had an athletic build, her fair skin still retaining some of the tan that she'd gotten over the summer. She had deep blue eyes and black, neck-length hair, and her clothing consisted of black pants and a dark gray v-neck, brown boots, a light gray jacket, and a black necklace.
"Well, this is off to a great start," she muttered, looking at the fallen tree. Her best guess was that the storm that had blown through the previous night was responsible for it, but she had no idea why her friend hadn't at least warned her about the obstacle. "May as well make the best of it," she said, reaching into her car and retrieving a camcorder that she'd set in the passenger's seat. She locked her car and stuck her keys in her pocket, stepping over the fallen tree before switching the camcorder on, knowing full well that recording it wouldn't do her any favors. Seeing that the device had retained its full charge and had more than enough memory to spare, she pointed the camera at herself and started recording, a friendly smile spreading across her face. "Hello, my name is Lauren! I'm an agent from Oakside Realty and I'll be giving you a full tour of the house and property that Kate Milens has put up for sale!" Truthfully, she didn't know if that would turn out to be an accurate statement or not. She hadn't planned on walking the entire length of Kate's driveway and wasn't sure if there'd be any sunlight left by the time she got to her house. Preferably, she would've gotten here hours ago, but things rarely went according to plan in her hectic life. Still, she was deadset on making the best of things, and so when she was finished talking into the camera she pointed it ahead of her and started walking down the driveway, glancing at the yellow sign that had been set up by the road.
LAND FOR SALE
20 +/- ACRES
PLEASE CONTACT KATE MILENS
(a) 555-7273
Lauren was very familiar with this property and knew exactly where she was going. She also knew that the driveway was at least a mile long, probably longer, and while she hadn't intended to go hiking that day, she was happy to get more footage than she'd originally planned on to show any potential buyers. It would definitely help her make the sale, so she made sure to get good shots of the scenery. She wanted nothing but the best for the seller, for this was more than just a regular job to her; She and Kate Milens went way back, all the way to elementary school. The two of them had met in the fourth grade and had become fast friends. They'd spent the next several years growing up together and forming a deep bond, eventually growing so close that they felt like they were sisters. That bond had only strengthened when Kate's mother, Beth Hayes, had passed away in 2009, leaving her alone in their house, as her father had died when she was just a kid. Lauren and Kate weren't blood, but they were family, and she'd done everything in her power to help her friend through that tragedy. She missed Beth almost as much as Kate; she had been a wonderful woman and a great mother. Even though she'd kept her own last name instead of changing it to Milens, she'd loved her husband more than life itself and had been devastated when he'd died. Even so, she rarely took time to grieve herself and instead focused on helping their daughter through the death of her father. Beth had been so happy to meet Lauren, so grateful that her daughter, who often had trouble making friends, had somebody to socialize with. Beth had treated her like her own daughter, and she'd been just as devastated as Kate when she'd died.
Beth had left everything to Kate, including the house, and for the past four years, she had been living there by herself… for the most part. Something had happened about a year and a half ago, something involving the old park in the woods behind the house. Kate was secretive about a lot of things, and that incident was no exception. Whatever she'd experienced that night had resulted in her spending a significant amount of time in the psychiatric ward of North Cross Hospital, a nearby medical center. Eventually, she'd been released from the hospital and sent home with prescriptions to help her deal with her newfound anxiety and paranoia, but Kate had never been quite the same after that. Lauren wished she would talk to her about what happened, but Kate had no interest in it, shutting the topic down whenever it came up. Lauren had respected her privacy and stopped asking about it, but it hadn't helped much. Kate had grown distant for some time, and it had gotten to the point where Lauren hardly ever heard from her at all despite her efforts to stay in touch with her friend. She'd been riddled with paranoia, constantly seeing things that weren't there and freaking out the few times they'd actually hung out, often claiming that someone was watching them. It hadn't been until the past month or so that Kate had bounced back to some degree; She was still paranoid and fearful, but far more stable and more social. She'd asked for Lauren's help with selling her house, the one her mom had left her, because she no longer felt safe all the way out in the wilderness. She wanted to move closer to the city where she felt less paranoid, and Lauren had been more than happy to help her out. Actually finding a buyer was proving to be a bit of a process, but the two women were happy to have something to bond over once again. Unfortunately, Kate's habit of not answering her phone calls and forgetting to respond to texts was more prevalent than ever, which was why Lauren wasn't worried about the fact that she hadn't heard back from her for a couple of days.
Lauren was happy that the two of them had been able to pick up where they'd left off with their friendship, even if Kate's late responses were a bit frustrating, and she was more than happy to help her friend with this latest endeavor. She was eager to get to Kate's house and see her, but she'd always liked being out in the wilderness, so she let herself enjoy the beautiful scenery surrounding her as she filmed her promotional video. The wild grass was changing from dark green to dull yellow, and the leaves on the trees were various shades of deep orange, bright yellow, and crimson red. Birds chirped innocently as they fluttered back to their nests for the night, squirrels and other rodents skittered about on the ground, running through the grass and up the trees, and multicolored leaves slowly fell from their branches as a light wind blew across the landscape, carrying with it the smell of the forest. The bright-colored leaves and dulling grass contrasted heavily with the deep green surplus of conifers in the distance, as well as the few that stood nearby. Deciduous trees were few in number compared to the large amounts of pines, spruces, and cedars. Far to the right was the same wooden fence that separated Kate's property from the road, now separating it from a farmer's, and hay bales dotted the vast landscape on the other side. Defunct telephone poles stood tall on both sides of the fence, and far off in the distance was the glowing red light of a radio tower, its crimson hue barely visible above the dark mountains. She could see the fence a ways to the left too, but it wasn't long before the structure ended, the rock formations it brushed up against acting as a natural barricade. However, the formations quickly outlived their usefulness, and so a brick wall had been constructed on the opposite end of them to continue the barrier. It stretched far ahead, eventually becoming hard to see behind the trees dotting the property line.
Lauren kept her pace, trying to enjoy the few remaining minutes of sunlight before the world was plunged into night. Although living in a place so isolated could certainly get to someone over time, there was still one advantage to it, and that was the beautiful scenery: Mother Nature in her full glory, undisturbed by the workings of mankind. The sun dipped lower and lower in the sky, and as shadows swelled and the air got colder, she picked up her pace, not wanting to be caught outside in the dark. Eventually, she reached a point where the dirt road veered to the left and snaked down a small hill, revealing something… curious. It wasn't the resurgence of the brick wall that had caught her attention, nor was it the fact that it had once again been replaced by tall rock formations; it was the lone jeep that was parked at the bottom of the hill, right in the middle of the driveway. Intrigued, she went to inspect the vehicle, subconsciously recording her findings as if she were performing an investigation. The jeep had been parked for a while, something that all of the leaves resting on top of it made obvious. "Who's car is this?" Lauren muttered, circling the vehicle to get a better look at it. "Does Kate have someone over?" She didn't recognize the jeep and hadn't heard anything from Kate about anyone else coming over for a visit, and she had no idea why they would've parked so far away from the house. "Maybe the thing broke down?" she pondered, unsure of what to think about it as she continued her trek down the driveway, dimly aware that she'd have to cut this part out of any footage she wanted to use. "I'll have to ask Kate when I get there." A few minutes later, the rock formations to her left disappeared and an old cobblestone fence continued the barrier for the remainder of its length. Soon, a familiar brick wall came into sight, as well as the equally familiar house that peeked out over the top of it.
Night had fallen by the time she finally neared the house, bathing the landscape in darkness. Lauren could no longer make out the multicolored leaves or the dull tinge of the dying grass, for everything had become a universal shade of black. The dim moonlight did very little to help her see, and her camcorder was having an even harder time making out her surroundings. She wasn't sure why she was still recording, as such dark footage would be useless for her promotional videos, but she kept the camera rolling anyway. Following the driveway up to the opening at the front of the brick wall, she barely even noticed the familiar sight of the cobblestone fence seamlessly connecting with the side of the tall structure. The wall enclosed Kate's house and the entirety of her yard, acting as a barrier between her property and the countless miles of forest surrounding it. As she was walking, Lauren glanced at a familiar red and white sign, one that hung from a single-arm post that stood just to the left of the brick wall's opening.
FOR
SALE
Please contact Kate Milens at
555-7273
The house itself had two stories, white siding, a gable roof, and windows in just about every room. A short ways away from Lauren, on the wall's opposite edge, were several fallen trees. They were accompanied by a lone hay bale that had blown all the way over from the neighboring property, resulting in a mess that would've been an annoyance for multiple people to take care of, which explained why Kate hadn't done anything about it yet. However, when Lauren looked over at the house itself and noticed that the front door was half-open, she had a feeling that a few fallen trees were the least of her friend's worries. Yellow light flooded out of the door like a beacon, stretching across the front yard and reflecting off of an old metal swingset that she and Kate had always played on when they were kids, its rusted swings creaking in the wind. "What the hell?" Lauren muttered, an unsettling feeling beginning to creep over her. She approached the house nervously, grabbed hold of the doorknob, and slowly opened the door.
She stepped onto the dark wood floor within, letting her eyes adjust to the light. Her heart began to pound as she took in her surroundings; something was very, very wrong. The house was cold, colder than it should've been even with the door left open. It felt as if the heater had been turned off for days. The first thing she saw was a backpack that had been dropped at the bottom of the stairs in front of her, and when she looked up from it she noticed strange drawings of pine trees littering the wall to her left along with a crude sketch of a tall man who was wearing a suit, but oddly enough, had no facial features drawn on him. One of the shelves under the drawings was broken, and the framed pictures on the staircase were crooked, with some having been knocked clean off of the wall. She didn't quite understand why, but the drawing of the suited man seemed almost… familiar to her, as if she'd seen it somewhere before. "Kate?" Lauren called out, dread quickly overtaking her when no response came. After a few moments of thinking, her eyes widened in realization of what she'd just done; If something bad had happened, if someone unpleasant was in the house, she'd just announced her presence… and given away her location. Silently cursing herself, she quickly darted through the door to her right, finding herself in the dining room. She would've called the police right then and there, but the situation with her reception hadn't changed, nor was it going to. She prayed that one of the landline phones still worked, but she needed to find one first.
Aside from a few overturned chairs and scattered books on the floor, the room was in peak condition. A dark oak dining table stood at the center of the room, surrounded by the chairs that were still standing. A dark brown chandelier hung above the table, and two empty china cabinets stood against the right wall. A square, black coffee table holding a flower pot stood at the top left corner of the room, accompanied by two wooden armchairs with white cushions. The room might not have been completely ransacked, but that didn't exactly make her feel better. As quietly as she could, Lauren left the dining room and entered the dark kitchen, barely able to see the tile floor's various shades of black, gray, and white. Flicking the light switch had no effect, something she found especially strange since most of the other rooms still had power. Not wanting to be blind in the darkness, she made her way over to the counter and opened a drawer that she knew was full of flashlights, and before long she'd swapped out its dead batteries with brand new ones from an adjacent drawer. She picked it up and flicked it on, releasing a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding as its bright light illuminated the dark room. It wasn't long before the flashlight's beam fell upon one of the phones she'd been looking for, one that still held a charge.
She placed her camera on the counter and picked up the phone, intending to call the police, but the line was dead. At first, it was frustration that surged through her, but it was quickly replaced by fear as she realized what this meant; she was completely isolated. Nobody was coming to help her, and if there was someone else in the house with her, then… Lauren swallowed nervously, trying not to think about it. It was then that she noticed that an old voicemail was still saved on the phone, and wondering if it could give her any hints as to what was going on, she turned the volume down and hit play.
"Hey, Kate, it's CR again. I hope everything's okay.
I know there's been a lot to take in and wrap your head around.
It'll be good when Lauren gets there to help you sell the house…
Take a little load off your mind.
Give me a call when you get the chance and we can talk.
Take care."
"Who is CR? I've never heard that name before," Lauren wondered. "And what exactly did Kate have to take in and wrap her head around?" With far more questions than answers, Lauren set the phone down, picked her camera back up, and started clearing rooms, now using the device to gather evidence of what she was witnessing. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to find, but she was willing to use a flashlight as a weapon if she had to. She took the hallway to the right of the kitchen table, entering the garage. The only vehicle inside was Kate's rusted gray car, and Lauren thought back to the jeep covered in leaves out in the driveway. Suddenly, a terrible thought crossed her mind; "Does that car belong to CR? Did he do all of this?" Whoever this man was, Lauren found it unlikely that the state of the house was his doing. The voicemail had made it sound like he and Kate were on good terms at least, but that only raised more questions, questions such as "Who the hell is he?" and "If he didn't do this, then who did?" Something had gone down here, that much was obvious, and because of the terrible reception and dead phone lines, Kate wouldn't have been able to call anyone for help. As Lauren struggled to understand what was going on, intense emotions welled up inside of her, but they were more anger than fear. Something had happened to Kate, someone had done this to her house, and they weren't going to get away with it.
Having found nothing of interest in the garage, Lauren went back inside, clearing a small side room with a radio in it and an adjacent bathroom before heading back to the kitchen. It was as she was looking over the room a second time that her flashlight fell upon something that had previously evaded her attention. A small, magnetic whiteboard was stuck to the refrigerator and had what appeared to be a checklist written on it.
-FLASHLIGHT -LIGHTER
-BATTERIES -KEROSENE
-EXTRA TAPES
LOCK THE HOUSE
Lauren wasn't quite sure what to make of it, especially the part about locking up the house, which was circled and underlined for extra emphasis. She made a mental note to look through the backpack by the stairs and entered the next room, doing her best to fight back the dread welling up inside of her. The small living room contained two green armchairs, one of which was overturned. A leather couch stood near the door she'd come through, and in front of it was a fancy black coffee table holding a chessboard, standing on top of a circular white rug. On the other side of the room, next to the still-standing armchair, was a brown piano and two white stools, one of which was overturned. She remembered the beautiful melodies that Kate's mother had once played on it before her death, as well as all of the times that she and Kate had been scolded for trying to play the piano without permission when they were kids. Placed next to the wall, between the room's two doors, was a desk that held a small lamp, a pot of flowers, and a box of antique cigars. The cigars had once belonged to Kate's father, and Beth had held onto them as a keepsake after his death. It was fitting that Kate had put both the piano and the cigars in the same room, as they were all she had left of her parents.
Suddenly, Lauren's camcorder emitted a strange noise as she pointed it at the windows, and a wave of discoloration and distortion rippled across the screen before quickly normalizing. "Don't you die on me now. I just bought you," Lauren whispered, still unsure if she was alone in the house. She stepped over the various books scattered across the floor and entered the next room, which could've been combined with the one she'd just left to make one big living room. The only thing holding the potential expansion back was the thin wall that separated the two rooms. A black television stand stood over a gray, rectangular rug, and the flat-screen TV on top of it had been knocked over and was leaning against the aforementioned wall. A white couch and armchair stood side by side in front of the TV, the former of which held both tan and white pillows. A floor lamp had fallen on top of the couch, and just behind it stood a black, square table that held a gray tea set. On the opposite side of the room was a tall bookshelf that held numerous books, some vases, and a picture of Kate and Beth. Just like in the last room, books littered the floor, but this time there were a few pillows joining them. Lastly, a brown, wooden coffee table stood between the furniture and the TV, a dead phone and a bowl of fake fruit sitting on top of it. There was something else sitting on the table too, a thank you card addressed to her that Kate had either forgotten to send out or hadn't had the chance to.
Thank You
I can't thank you enough
for coming out all this way to
help me out! It's been a pretty
rough road trying to sell this
old place, I wish I had turned
to you sooner. You have no idea
how happy I'll be once this is
all behind me! :)
Love you always,
Kate
Despite the circumstances, Lauren couldn't help but smile to herself when she read that. Kate had always been a great friend to her, and she was more than happy to return the favor. Now that all of the rooms downstairs were cleared, she found herself standing in front of the staircase once again, the house's layout having looped her back around to the front door. She opened the backpack resting at the bottom of the steps and looked through it, but found none of the supplies that Kate had listed on the whiteboard. In fact, there was nothing in the backpack at all. She tossed it aside and stared up at the second floor, growing more uneasy by the second.
Lauren was terrified of what she might find up there, and it didn't help that the power appeared to be out across the entire floor. If she'd learned anything from the kitchen, it was that the lights wouldn't be coming back on. She took a deep breath and began her slow ascent, doing her best to ignore the loud creaking of the wooden steps. After what felt like an hour of climbing, she finally stepped onto the thick, gray carpet of the second floor, still recording everything she was seeing. Her flashlight was the only source of light upstairs, for everything else had been consumed by darkness. The master bedroom that Kate's parents had once slept in was directly to her left, and to her right was a hallway with several doors, both of which seemed equally unfriendly. Since the master bedroom and its adjacent bathroom were the only rooms on her end of the second floor, Lauren cleared them first, finding nothing of importance. She then nervously entered the dark hallway and began searching the remaining rooms, which consisted of a small office, a guest room, and another bathroom, but she once again found nothing. She'd barely even noticed that while the second floor was certainly in disarray, it wasn't nearly as bad as the first floor had been. There was only one room left to search now, and that was Kate's bedroom. At the very end of the hallway was a single window, and to its left was the bedroom door. As Lauren approached the room, she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. Shining her flashlight out the window, she looked for the figure she could've sworn she'd seen standing in the yard, but there was nothing. Looking back at the door, she saw that it was ajar, and she could feel a cold draft creeping through the opening, but it was hard to tell what was inside. "Kate?" Lauren whispered, a fearful tone in her voice. "Are you in there?" When no response came, she cautiously pushed the door open, her breath catching in her throat as she looked upon the disturbing sight within.
Aside from the dull, flickering light of an overturned lamp on her desk, Kate's room was as dark as the rest of the second floor. However, it contained something that the other rooms didn't, something unsettling; Countless sheets of notebook paper were spread across the floor like leaves and covering the walls to the point where they were almost completely hidden. Strange, cryptic writing and frantic sketches were scribbled on the papers, with phrases like "STOP IT NOW" and "WHAT IS IT?" appearing frequently. One phrase, "CAN YOU SEE IT?" was written in what appeared to be red marker on one of the only uncovered sections of the walls, to the right of the bedroom window. It was accompanied by a drawing of a radio tower, the same radio tower that she'd seen from the driveway… that was clearly visible from the bedroom window, shining bright red in the night sky. Sketches of the man in the suit like the one she'd seen on the wall by the stairs appeared frequently, and one had been drawn alongside the tower and crossed out as if the structure was somehow harmful to him, something that was further indicated by other drawings of the tower having words like "SAFE" and "ESCAPE" written beside them. "Who is this guy, and why is Kate so obsessed with him? Is he even real? Why is she so fixated on the radio tower?" Lauren wondered as she stood in the doorway, struggling to understand what she was looking at. "Whoever he is, Kate seems pretty scared of him… but this wouldn't be the first time she's seen things that weren't there." She'd known about her friend's mental health issues for a long time, but her friend had never given any indication that things were this bad. She had no idea what could've suddenly driven her to vandalize her own room, and most likely the rest of her house, when she had seemed fine only a few days ago. The only thing she could think of was that Kate's mental state had taken an abrupt turn for the worst. Was this why she hadn't been responding to her messages?
It was while she was trying to make sense of it all that she took a closer look at the window, or rather, what was left of it; Shattered glass littered the floor, and a few jagged shards still clung to the broken frame. "Oh shit…" Lauren gasped, walking over to the window and fearfully looking out of it, pointing her flashlight down at the ground and revealing more broken glass glittering in the grass. She breathed a deep sigh of relief, having fully expected to see her friend's body lying in the dirt. As she surveyed the rest of the yard, she noticed that the back gate was wide open, revealing a dirt trail leading into the forest. It was as if Kate had fallen through the window and then managed to get back up and run off into the wilderness. "Oh god, she's out in the woods by herself having a mental breakdown," Lauren realized. "I have to find her before she gets hurt out there." As she was turning away from the window, she noticed that a single sheet of notebook paper was sitting on the desk along with half of a pencil. It featured a crude drawing of the house with an arrow pointing to the forest behind it, and the phrase "TO THE WOODS," was hastily written at the top of the page. It was only seconds after picking the paper up to take a closer look at it that Lauren's thoughts were interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. Goosebumps shot up her arms and her breath caught in her throat as she whipped around to stare out the window, letting the paper fall from her hands. She'd never heard her scream like that before, but Lauren immediately knew it was Kate.
The scream had sounded faint, as if it was coming from far away, and a thousand thoughts went through her mind in only an instant as she found herself wishing that she could call for help now more than ever. She could've tried driving back into town instead of calling someone, but by the time she managed to get help, it could very well be too late. Nobody was coming. She was all alone, isolated from the rest of the world, and her best friend was in danger. Whether that danger came from Kate herself or someone else, she didn't know, but in that moment it didn't matter. She made her choice quickly, sprinting out of Kate's room, down the stairs, and out of the house, letting the door hang open behind her. She ran into the backyard and past an old wooden playset, then bolted through the open gate and down the dirt path, heading in the direction she'd heard the scream coming from. The overgrown trail proved difficult to traverse at the speed she was going, forcing her to slow down to avoid breaking an ankle on a thick root or loose stone. She was surrounded by dense forest now, and found herself even more grateful for her new flashlight, for the ancient trees had snuffed out the last of the moonlight, as dim as it may have been. The bite of the cold night air stung her face, and wicked thorns and jagged branches threatened to cut her open with every step, but she soldiered on, eventually reaching a break in the trees. She burst through the treeline and out into the wide-open space ahead, stopping for a moment to catch her breath as she took in her new surroundings. It wasn't a simple clearing that she'd stumbled across like she'd initially thought, but a massive logging site full of barren hills littered with twigs, pine needles, and wood chips. The landscape was dotted with fallen trees and dying stumps, the rest of the forest forming a natural barrier around it, and a lot of heavy machinery had been left lying around, giving Lauren the impression that the work she was witnessing was far from over. Gripping her flashlight tight, she followed what was left of the dirt path, making her way through the wreckage.
Kate's scream had come from much further away, and Lauren was thankful that the night was so quiet, or else she might have never heard it. She still held her camcorder in front of her and recorded everything, capturing as much evidence as she possibly could. She wasn't quite sure what to make of her current situation or the events that had led up to it, but pondering the details wasn't at the top of her priority list when her best friend needed her help. Navigating the logging site was rather difficult, as the debris strewn across the ground made the trail difficult to see, sometimes swallowing it entirely. However, she eventually made her way through the destruction and located the trail once more, following it over a hill and onto some relatively undisturbed land. The trees were fewer in number now, the thick vegetation having been broken apart by rolling hills, and Lauren was surprised to see the makeshift path she'd been following merge with a winding dirt road, one that looked long abandoned. One end of the road appeared to lead back in the direction of town, and the other led somewhere else, somewhere she wasn't familiar with. Before she could so much as wonder which way Kate had gone, a flock of crows suddenly took flight from the nearby trees, squawking indignantly at the woman who'd disturbed their slumber. She let out a yelp of fear and waved her flashlight around frantically before realizing that it had only been birds. It was as she was taking a moment to compose herself that she caught a glimpse of something peculiar; Just ahead was an old bridge that crossed a small river, and stuck to a tree nearby was a tattered, yellowed poster. It featured a picture of a smiling little boy, as well as someone's contact information.
MISSING
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CHILD?
CHARLIE MATHESON JR.
IF YOU HAVE SEEN THIS CHILD
PLEASE CONTACT 555 - 3799
"I remember you…" Lauren muttered as she read the poster. Charlie Matheson Jr. was a name that she hadn't heard in a very long time. She remembered him being the talk of the town back when she was in middle school, when his name had first appeared in the news. The boy had vanished without a trace during a trip to the beach with his parents. At first, they'd thought he'd drowned in the lake or gotten lost in the nearby woods, but there were some who suspected a kidnapping. Investigations had been launched, but none had resulted in anything beyond what was already known; a child was missing. Eventually, it was declared a cold case and Charlie was presumed dead, and the rest of the town had moved on pretty quickly. Oakside had a long history of people going missing, most of whom were never seen again. The few who had been located had been found in a pretty bad state, but the authorities usually chalked it up to wild animals or the treacherous terrain of the region since they'd never been able to come up with any evidence of anything else going on. That, and the disappearances themselves were rather infrequent, albeit numerous. The only people who hadn't been able to move on from the incident were Charlie's parents, Charles and Diane. From what Lauren had heard, the two of them had divorced sometime after Charlie's disappearance, and Diane had never appeared in the news again. Charles, on the other hand, had been made quite the celebrity a few years back when he'd died in a mysterious house fire. Nobody knew exactly what had caused the blaze, but arson hadn't been ruled out. The whole thing had been big news when it'd happened, but that was years ago, and nobody really talked about the Mathesons anymore.
It seemed that some remnants of the search effort still remained, however, and Lauren tried not to think about the possibility of Kate being the next person to go missing as she turned away from the poster and looked out over the bridge, trying to figure out her next move. At first, she considered turning back to look for Kate on the road to town, but something told her that Kate hadn't gone that way. Why would she risk being caught out on the open road if she was afraid of something like the man in the suit? Wouldn't she have instead gone deeper into the countryside to hide? Lauren shuddered at the thought of her friend being alone and manic in the Albertan wilderness, and she dearly hoped that Kate having a mental break would be as bad as it got. However, the chill that suddenly ran up her spine forced her to think otherwise as a whole new feeling stole over her; the feeling of being watched. Her blood ran cold as she caught sight of a tall, dark, humanoid figure standing motionlessly on the other side of the bridge, staring right at her. She froze in place, locking her eyes on the shadowy figure; Whatever it was, it was much too tall to be a person, or maybe it just looked that way because of the distance between them. Its arms seemed to hang unnaturally low, but it could've been a trick of the shadows. Her breathing turned raspy as she struggled to take in air, her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn't move a muscle to defend herself, she couldn't force her legs to turn and run, and she couldn't even let out a futile scream for help. She could only stand there frozen in silent horror, staring at the… thing in front of her. Lauren stood there for what felt like hours, waiting for it to make a move, but it never happened. It simply stood there watching, waiting. With shaky hands, she managed to shine her flashlight onto the figure, but to both her amazement and horror, it vanished. Where something had been standing less than a second before, there was nothing… if there had ever been anything there at all. Lauren took a few deep breaths and tried to calm herself down, shining her flashlight around to make sure there wasn't anything there. She'd never been one to believe in ghost stories or fairy tales, but now… now she was having second thoughts. People didn't just vanish into thin air, and they certainly didn't look like that.
"Wait, my camera!" she said, stopping her recording for a moment and searching for the right timestamp. There was one way to know for sure if what she'd seen was real, and that was the footage she'd been recording this whole time. To her horror, the shadowy figure appeared in her recording as clear as day, but she noticed a new detail this time around; Her video quality seemed to deteriorate in its presence, and the audio became distorted as well. When the thing vanished, a sharp burst of discoloration and static rippled across the screen before everything returned to normal. With terror coursing through her veins, Lauren suddenly remembered when her camcorder had malfunctioned while she'd had it pointed at the living room windows in Kate's house, and so she rewound the footage further back, constantly looking up from the screen to make sure nothing was approaching her. Sure enough, when she watched the footage she could just make out that same, shadowy figure standing out in Kate's yard, watching her through the windows. Once again, the video distorted when the thing vanished, and Lauren had to fight the urge to panic as she backed out of the recorded footage. Whatever this thing was, it had been watching her ever since she'd arrived at Kate's house, and she had a strong suspicion that this was the suited man who'd been appearing in Kate's drawings. Kate hadn't lost her mind, something really was following her, and now it was following Lauren too. She wanted to give in to her fear, to run away and hide, to run back to her car in terror and never return, but she couldn't. Her best friend… her sister, needed her help. No one else was coming, and she couldn't abandon Kate. She just hoped against hope that the thing she'd seen hadn't already gotten to her, that her scream had only been one of terror and not something worse.
Her breathing still shaky, Lauren started recording again and made her way toward the bridge, crossing it slowly as she kept an eye out for the tall figure. She could've cared less about the promotional video that she'd originally intended to film; Now she was recording to capture evidence of what was happening to her, to document it all and prove that she wasn't crazy. She stepped over a fallen tree that had taken out a good portion of the structure and onto the dirt road on the other side, looking around to see if anything was lurking nearby. After a few moments of nothing happening, she returned to following the road, keeping her eyes peeled for any more unwanted surprises. A few minutes passed without anything significant happening, something that Lauren was rather thankful for. The ruckus coming from the running river wasn't quite loud enough to drown out the sound of loose dirt crunching under her boots, and neither was the occasional hooting of owls and chirping of crickets. Aside from that, the night was silent… a little too silent for her liking. She could barely see the moon behind the cloud cover, and the breeze that blew through the trees brought a cold chill with it. It felt like the world was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't long before she found herself standing on top of a small hill, looking out over a dark construction site that stood only a short way away. Lauren couldn't tell if the site was abandoned or not, but it appeared to be the early foundations of a brand-new house. She considered investigating it further, but before she had the chance, she heard something that sent a chill down her spine; It almost sounded like a long, raspy breath carried by the wind, and when she turned to look in the direction the sound had come from, her flashlight's beam landed on the remnants of a dark, ominous building.
Burned trees still stood around the charred husk of a once beautiful house that stood only a short distance away from her. It was marred by fire damage from many years ago, and all of its windows were sealed with rotting boards, even the ones on the second floor. Its blackened doors somehow still clung to their melted hinges, but the entire place looked as if it was ready to collapse with the slightest gust of wind. As she stared at the eerie sight, she remembered the missing child poster she'd seen only a few minutes prior, and the realization of what she was looking at suddenly hit her. "This is the old Matheson house… the one that Charles died in," Lauren muttered. She'd always known that the place had been relatively close to Kate's house, but she hadn't realized it was this close. The more she stared at the withered home in front of her, the more she dreaded what she was about to do, but she knew there was no other choice. She had to know if Kate was in there, and so she took a deep breath and approached the ruins, stepping into the building and discovering that it looked far worse on the inside than it did on the outside. All that remained of the former household was burned, decaying boards. There was no trace of drywall left anywhere, and not even the stairs to the second floor had survived the flames. The remains of destroyed furniture were half-buried by dunes of ash and soot, and shattered glass and other small debris littered the ground, crunching and snapping under her shoes with every few steps. The blaze had blackened everything, and the few things that hadn't been completely destroyed by the fire had been worn down by years of decay.
"Kate?" Lauren called out quietly, stealthily searching the empty rooms. It had been many years since the fire, but the house still reeked of smoke, as if the foul smell was emanating from somewhere within the charred walls. She was so focused on staying quiet that she failed to notice a deep blue tint appear on her camera's screen, growing more intense as she neared the back of the house. Suddenly, she heard something other than broken glass crunch under her boot and stepped off of the object to get a better look at it. It turned out to be an old piece of paper that featured a child's drawings, stiff and wrinkled with age, and propped up against a pile of boards right next to it was something else that she hadn't noticed before; a framed picture of an old farmstead that had mostly survived the fire, although it was still as aged and withered as everything else in the house. However, while the majority of the drawing was difficult to make out, it proved to be far more interesting than the photograph. The man in the suit was a prominent aspect of the drawing, but what made it so intriguing to Lauren was that it clearly wasn't one of Kate's. The artist who'd made it had written his name at the bottom of the page; Charlie. Before Lauren could so much as wonder why Charlie had been drawing pictures of that man, or why the drawing was even there, something happened that made her forget about it entirely. She suddenly heard crying coming from the room behind her and whipped around, freezing in her tracks and gazing in silent horror at the gruesome sight her flashlight barely managed to illuminate.
A ghastly, corpse-like figure stood at the center of the room facing away from her, its withered, emaciated body shuddering and twitching with inhuman sobs and growls. Its pale, cadaverous skin seemed to be tinted a nauseating shade of light blue and was stretched so tightly over its remaining muscle that it could've passed as a skeleton. It wore nothing but what appeared to be a tattered loincloth, or perhaps the decayed shreds of pants. The creature's arms were bent at odd angles, and its bony fingers looked as if they were made for tearing flesh. It was covered in dirt, grime, and what looked like dried blood, and its long, mangy, black hair barely clung to its decayed scalp. The ghoul might have been human once, but now it was something else, something vile, and looked like it had been for a long time. Lauren couldn't move, couldn't think. The shadowy figure had been one thing, something she could've tried to excuse as a trick of the night or a weird camera malfunction if she'd really wanted to, but this… this was different. What she was witnessing couldn't possibly be real, and yet there it was as clear as day, standing only a few feet away from her. This wasn't the same as before, the thing wasn't vanishing into thin air like the tall man had, making it possible for her to write it off as a hallucination or the product of stress. It was up close and personal, and before she had the chance to come back to her senses and sneak away, it noticed the light that had fallen on it. The monster stopped crying, falling totally silent except for its raspy breathing, and when it turned around to face her, she felt sicker than she ever had before. As if its visible rib cage and sickeningly bloated stomach hadn't been enough, the creature's mangled face made her want to throw up on the spot. Its eyes had been violently gouged out, leaving only dark, gaping sockets behind, and its lower mandible was completely missing, having been reduced to an old, nasty wound. Its tongue had also been removed, and rotten teeth stuck out of a lipless upper jaw.
They stood there motionless, locked in a standoff, neither one moving. Lauren could barely breathe, and her hands shook so badly that she almost dropped the equipment she was carrying. The ghoul in front of her, on the other hand, was motionless. It simply stared at her with its head slightly tilted, studying the woman who'd intruded on its territory. She took a step back, perhaps involuntarily, and it was then that it let out a ghastly shriek and charged straight toward her, barely giving her enough time to let out a scream of her own as the enraged monster collided with her, throwing her to the floor. As she hit the ground, she tried to shield herself from another attack with her arms, but the thing was gone; The creature had vanished, leaving behind only fresh footprints in the ashes. Lauren didn't know where it had gone, and she didn't intend on sticking around to find out. She scrambled to her feet and ran out of the house faster than she'd ever run before, sprinting down the road and not daring to look back. A thousand thoughts and just as many emotions clouded her mind as she fled from the horror behind her, hardly even aware of where she was going. She followed the path up a hill as fast as she could, and that's when she saw it; a long, decrepit, wooden building consisting of two separate sections.
The gap between the two sections was blocked off by a sliding chain-link fence that stood between them, stopping her from following the road right through it. She scanned over the building frantically, desperately trying to find a way in, and finally noticed an open door on the section to the right of the fence. As she was running up to it, she caught sight of a rectangular sign that was barely clinging to the side of the building, its faded letters barely legible; Oakside Park Boat Launch. Lauren froze for a moment, processing what she'd just read. Oakside Park was an old national park owned by the Albertan government, and it wasn't exempt from the unsettling history of the region it was named after; The place had once been popular among hikers and tourists, but then came the strange occurrences and suspicious activity, including multiple disappearances, which eventually led to it being abandoned by the public and left to rot. It was the place where Kate had been traumatized so badly that she'd ended up in a mental ward. Lauren had always known that Kate lived close to the place, but she hadn't been expecting to find herself there that night. Despite everything she'd heard about it, anywhere, even Oakside Park, was better than being out in the open with that thing somewhere nearby. She ran inside and shut the door behind her, doing her best to stay quiet. The building didn't house much other than a few crates and tables, but that didn't matter to her. She dropped her equipment on a table and slumped against a wall, sliding down to the floor and burying her face in her hands. There, cold and alone in the dark, she began to cry.
Lauren wasn't sure how long she sat there for, but she didn't care. Every time she closed her eyes she could see that monster staring at her with its empty eye sockets. Every time she thought about picking up her flashlight, she was stopped by the thought of it revealing the shadowy being standing in the room with her. She was traumatized, paralyzed with fear, for the horrors of the night, horrors that should only ever have existed in the realm of fiction, had reared their ugly heads. She felt sick, so sick that she couldn't help but lean over and dry heave, more tears streaming down her face as she fought to keep the contents of her stomach from spilling onto the floorboards. It was a while before she composed herself, but even then, she was still a mess. She wasn't sure what to think anymore, about any of it, but she did know one thing; "Kate needs me…" she sniffled, shakily clambering back onto her feet. Wiping tears from her eyes, she retrieved her equipment from the table, using every ounce of willpower she had to force her legs to move. Her camera had captured everything, so at least she had proof that she wasn't going crazy, not that it made her feel any better. With her flashlight lighting the way, she passed through the open gap between the sections of the building, walking through a couple of doors and entering an elongated room, immediately catching a glimpse of something to her right. At the end of the room, written on a wall just above an old wooden desk, in what appeared to be white spray paint, was a message; "FIND ME, LAUREN." Before she could react to it, she noticed a notebook sitting wide open on top of the desk, and so she approached it, reading the frantic scribbles that riddled its pages.
HE CAME FOR ME
WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN
he was right
he said this would HAPPEN
HELP ME
NEED CR
HE KNOWS HOW TO END THIS
Come find me
Don't LET HIM IN
She noticed that some pages were ripped out of the notebook between the two it was opened to, eight in total, but she doubted that was important. What was important was that Kate was alive and knew that Lauren would be looking for her, but she'd been on the run from whatever was following her, so she hadn't been able to stick around, opting to leave a message for her to find instead. That could very well have been why she'd screamed earlier; she had nearly been caught while she was creating that message and had only narrowly managed to slip away… at least, Lauren hoped she'd been able to. What's more was that this CR character was showing up yet again, and Lauren was beginning to wonder just how involved he was with all of this. Who was he, exactly, a new friend of Kate's? Were they traveling together? What did Kate mean when she said that CR knew how to end this? What did she mean when she told her not to let him in? Who was him, the man in the suit? The shadowy figure? Were they one and the same? She had no way of knowing the answers to any of those questions, not yet. She needed to find Kate if she wanted answers, and she needed to stop hiding in this building if she wanted to find Kate. She nervously fidgeted with the flashlight in her hand as she turned and approached the exit. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself and then opened the door, stepping out into the cold night air of Oakside Park.
