Rell and The Rose

Ch. 3, Fear the Darkness

Bastien

Carter finally found his voice again, his eyes blurry, barely able to stand. He's drunk out of his mind. Great. "We found a Shadowglen jacket... you don't think?"

Another student had gone missing? My stomach twisted, suddenly feeling sick myself. That would bring the total up to seven missing students, within the last two months. Seven, with no explanation, the police dumbfounded, parents enraged... and me, trying to figure out if I wanted to know the truth. "Take me to it," I said, narrowing my eyes and hardening my heart.

Carter stared up at me, eyes wide and terrified. "But..."

"Now, Carter." My voice was firm, and instantly he caved. Somehow quitting the team, dumping (or being dumped, depending who you asked) by the hottest girl in our year, and becoming a recluse, had somehow made me the most talked about person in school: the exact opposite of what I'd been aiming for.

As he led us into the forest, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, even though the night was cool. Maybe he didn't see anything. Carter's not exactly known for being the sharpest tool in the shed. As we walked, I pulled out my phone. "Did someone call the cops?" But I realized as my phone lit up that it didn't matter. No service. Not out this far out in the woods. And I highly doubted a group of high schoolers would call the cops on themselves.

Carter looked like he was going to be sick again. "You think we need to? I came to you first... but, it's prolly nothing right? I mean, it's just a jacket. There wasn't even blood."

No blood. My heart pounded faster.

"Why were you out here?"

Carter swallowed, looking at me nervously when he said. "Tina said she wanted to go somewhere quiet..."

Of course she did. He led me deeper into the trees, every creak and moan of the trees setting my nerves on end, until he stopped and pointed. "Down there."

I followed his hand down into the where the thorns and weeds had grown thicker, the moonlight barely reaching through. Yet there, shining in the moonlight, lay the remains of a Shadowglen letterman jacket. I took a slow, deep breath, and forced myself to push past the thorns and briars and walk down the incline and lift the jacket and turn it over.

No name.

Carter's voice called out from behind me: I'd forgotten he was there. "Maybe someone just left it here? Or maybe it's really old?"

I didn't answer, because we both knew that wasn't true. The jacket wasn't covered in mud or rain, the gold and green colors still bold. I lifted it to my face, but the cold scents of the forest had overwhelmed any clue as to who the owner was. After a moment, I stood, and spun in a slow circle, keeping a careful eye on the ground and the soft mud.

And then I saw it.

The second thing the forest had either chosen to reveal, or failed to conceal tonight.

A paw print the size of my head.

Just seeing it here, so close to where we were partying, so close to the highway, set my heart racing. I spat on the ground, the lingering taste of beer in my mouth suddenly sour.

The forest holds secrets old as time, Bastien. Never forget that.

Then I stepped forward, wiping the print clear from the mud, till there was no trace of the animal that had been there.

I took a slow, deep breath, fixed a smile on my face, and made my way back to Carter. He was still drunk, so I wasn't too worried about acting, but the night air and fear must have sobered him up a bit, because his eyes were worried when he said. "What do you think?"