“Some are protected in the dark, others become it.
Only those who carry light within,
will make it out alive.“
…
Please, take this to heart.
tick-tock
…
Candice ambled over the dry bones of the suburban street. The houses slept at either side, not a light in their glazed eyes to brighten the desolation of the midnight hour she crept through.
She stared into the distance decompressing into the quiet from a night full of loud music and demanding customers. A chill ran down her spine as the icy fingers of changing seasons traced little slivers of ice over her skin. Her teeth chattered as a shiver raced from crown to foot. She stopped under a dim streetlight to pull her phone from her pocket and switch on the podcast she’d begun to listen to before her shift.
“According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons (NamUS) database, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 600,000 persons of all ages go missing every year, and approximately 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered every year.”
The deep voice interrupted her thoughts. She stuffed the device back into place and gratefully allowed herself to be swept into the narrative it relayed. Anything was better than rehashing the cringy bar shift she’d left behind.
“Marshia never expected to be listed among them, but, who among them ever does…” She rolled her eyes at the cheesy foretelling.
Her earbuds switched to noise-canceling, effectively blocking the sound of dead leaves tumbling over the pavement as a frigid gust closed in around her. She wiped a fleecy glove over her numb nose to collect the building moisture at its reddened tip.
A streetlight just up the drive flickered, bringing her attention to the present. Oak Haven Dr. The street sign boasted. I haven’t ever been down that road for a while. She glanced both ways at the crossroad. She looked past it to Peaceful Grove BLVD, suddenly craving a peaceful walk through the small forest connecting the three neighborhoods surrounding her own.
A walk through the park wouldn’t be the worst way to wind down. She followed the whim and turned to the right. It wasn’t like she’d be able to fall asleep right now. Even if she’d wanted to her mind was running a mile a minute.
It had been a long shift. A long weekend of shifts if she was honest, even the enticing storyline pouring into her ears couldn’t pull her away for long. She reflected above the droning voice retelling Marshia’s fatal mishandlings leading to her disappearance.
A lone car slid through the dim streetlights on the street she’d just left behind her, its brake lights shuttered before it continued slowly on its way. Candice didn’t seem to notice, she shoved her hands deeper into her jacket pockets.
“Jack, I told you I wasn’t going to serve that guy. He came in last week.” An echo of the heated exchange with her shift lead surfaced.
“Candice, he comes here all the time and he requested your section.”
“Fine. He can sit there but Miles already offered to switch tables with me and take him.”
“He is a great tipper.”
“And an even better creeper… I’m not taking the table, Jack. That’s that. He’s on my shortlist of absolutely will not. The only reason he ever comes here is to wait for the strip clubs to open. He’s absolutely gross.”
Jack hadn’t been happy but it was a full house and he didn’t have time to argue the point. Candice shook her head, she watched a rock skip silently off her sneaker. It bounced erratically out in front of her before coming to a standstill at the edge of the curb.
She glanced up to watch the silhouette of lofty pine trees looming into dark giants.
“… Once again proving, if her family had alerted the authorities any sooner there might have been hope of finding her alive.”
Candice rolled her eyes. Yeah, blame the family. That’s great, who writes these things. Her lip lifted into a snarl.
“… But how could they have known. According to their testimonies and text conversations, she hadn’t mentioned her struggles.” She nodded along, That’s better. She thought absently.
“The same can’t be said of her place of employment. Miss Hampcamper had complained about the man who eventually kidnapped, raped, and killed her, more than once, which begs the question, why was nothing done to keep the stalker from entering the establishment she worked for?”
Again, Candice thought of the customers she’d dealt with. It was the end of tourist season, yes, but it was turning into an annual joke between her and the other bartenders. This time of year seemed to bring the cockroaches out of the woodwork. Creeps who seemed almost desperate to find, something, before going into hibernation for the winter season. She chuckled bitterly, stopping at the edge of the treeline. The black trunks seemed to block all light past them.
Candice pulled out her phone. 12:12 AM. A sigh slipped through her lips, sending a wisp of steam to swirl in the deep autumn air. She looked at the sidewalk extending to either side behind the rows of houses, and then back at the one swallowed by the towering Pines and Aspens. The latter lept out toward her. They swayed and danced like slender ghosts in the low light. Instead of finding it eerie, Candice felt a sense of peace. She paused the audio and tapped her left earbud to dismiss the noise-canceling feature. The leaves shuddering in the wind sounded like falling water or a river hidden within the thick insides.
She took a deep breath, smiling as a friendly face appeared through her memories. The scene reminded her of a thousand night-hikes with her father and close friends back home. She suddenly missed them terribly and decided on the spot to call them in the morning.
Candice stepped onto the sidewalk, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Her gut summoned her forward, a sense of urgency took hold as she mapped the route in her mind. She knew from previous trail runs that the path extending in front of her came out just behind her neighborhood. She stood at the entrance until her eyes adjusted to the darkness. With a final glance down the empty road behind her, Candice disappeared into the thicket. Just as she took the leap, a vehicle with its lights off turned down the street she’d left in her wake. It crept slowly up the river of concrete to the mouth of the sidewalk leading through the pocket of trees, where it stopped. The purr of the engine quit. Not long after a shadow poured from the open door, closing it softly behind.
…
The morning came too quickly. The sun struck a pose through the open curtains and shone straight into Candice’s face.
She groaned, not quite ready to accept it she rolled away and covered her face in blankets. Ten more minutes…
…
“Hey pops! I tried calling you Sunday.”
“Hey, kiddo! Yeah, sorry I meant to call you back sooner but the week kind of got away from me, How’s it going over there?”
“Uh, good, it was a long weekend, this week has been a little slow so far, but I have today off finally, so that’s nice.”
“Oh yeah? Sorry about your weekend, rowdy customers giving you a hard time? Need your old man to come throw some bows, put ’em in their place?”
Candice laughed. “No, it’s alright, there was one, in particular, that had me a little edgy over the weekend, I didn’t like the vibe I got from him but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
“That’s my girl. Don’t give guys like that an inch. Have you told anyone you work with? Is he handsy or has he said anything you could get him 86’ed permanently for?”
“Well, nothing outright, but the first two times he came in he kept trying to get me to come out to his car with him. Offered me a ride home, even asked me if I smoked weed and wanted to meet up after work and smoke with him.”
“Ah, ah? See? That’s why your mother and I taught you the age-old saying, don’t take candy from strangers.”
Candice laughed. “Yeah well, it worked because I didn’t. But then the last time he came in he pretty much demanded that he’d asked and been polite and that I was being rude denying his offer so many times. So weird how angry he got.”
“Did you take that to management, that seems like a good enough reason to kick the guy out?” She could hear his inner father coming out across the phone.
“I talked to Jack. And he basically wanted to have me fired after I refused to take his table.”
“Wait, Jack did?”
“No, the guy I wouldn’t serve.”
“Did Jack deal with him? Tell him off for you?”
“Actually no, he was pretty upset with me for making a busy night more difficult, but I stuck to my guns. The guy was a total creep and I got the idea that if I was even so much as nice to him he might take it the wrong way.”
“Oh, Jack… Now that you mention it, you’ve told me about him before guy’s kind of a dipstick, huh? Good for you honey, way to use your brain.”
“Yeah no kidding, A few of my coworkers complained about him too, actually, I haven’t seen him since. So, I think the situation kind of resolved itself. I was going to tell you, I needed to blow off some steam on my way home Saturday night, I was a little fired up by the time I left but it gave me a reason to check out the little wooded area behind the house on my way home.”
“Oh, come on Candy, you just got done telling me you have a potential stalker on your hands and you go and do something like that?” He chucked but she could hear the exasperation in his voice as she pictures him shaking his head at her through the phone. “I wish you wouldn’t do that out there. It’s different than adventuring out here, please tell me you at least take someone with you?”
“Nope, flew it solo and lived to tell you all about it but it made me miss you, dad.”
“I miss you too bonehead! Promise me you won’t do that again,”
“Okay, I won’t go by myself next time.” She bargained.
“I’ll take what I can get, I’m going to have to get you one of those bulldogs.”
Candice laughed. “I don’t think a bulldog is going to scare anyone, do you mean a pitbull?”
“Yeah, whatever will put a robber or stalker in their place.”
“I can’t believe you did that kiddo, you’re smarter than that. It’s a big city out there, your mom and I are halfway across the country. You have to do our job and take care of yourself extra now…”
She could hear his concern through the phone. “Sorry dad, I don’t want to worry you, I was just missing home and it felt like a little slice. But I’m safe.”
“Alright, maybe I’m just a little uptight, you got your mom on those true crime podcasts, maybe I’m seeing a little bit of crazy around every corner. That stuff sticks to your brain. There are some real weirdos out there.”
“Yeah, no kidding, crazy to think you never know who’s who these days.”
…
Ranger Dillain had checked the parking round at the mouth of the city park two days running. He was a little annoyed that his supervisor had gotten on his case about not handling the Honda situation but overall he understood. A job is a job and sometimes people have to learn to store their vehicles properly, especially in areas with large numbers of children and families.
He generally tried to be considerate, if cars parked overnight he liked to leave a little leway in case local kids were out for a lark and ended up carpooling. It hadn’t been that long since he was one of them. But this vehicle had been called in three times in the last hour as suspicious or overstaying its welcome. It was time to tag it for towing.
The park ranger pulled up next to the relatively new Honda Accord parked outside the woodland park under his jurisdiction.
“Hey Johnson, I just pulled up. The car is still here, I am going to sticker it now. Do you want me to go ahead and search the main route through, just to make sure there isn’t anyone that got themselves tangled up or injured?”
“Yeah why don’t you, it’s probably nothing but it’d be good to check all the boxes in case anything comes up, you’ve covered all the bases.”
“Alright, sounds good, I’ll call in as soon as I’ve looked around the place.”
“Sounds good Dillain. Talk soon.”
“Roger.”
“I hate it when you say that…”
“I know…” The ranger’s smile widened.
He tagged the vehicle and started for the woodland entrance, disappearing into the chilled morning air under the shadow of the heavy canopy. Not half an hour later Ranger Dillian flew from the mouth of the woods as if it’d spit him out. He launched for the radio and hit the button breathing heavily into the speaker.
“Johnson! Are you there??” He pulled away, heaving and lurching forward as if he might throw up. His face was drained of all color and his palms were drenched in sweat.
“Dillan is everything all right, sounds like you’ve been running from a bear.” The man on the other end of the radio chuckled as it cut out.
“Call in a deputy sir! We have a situation.” He suddenly regretted tagging the vehicle, as if it had been an act violating the deceased man he’d stumbled over.
“Hold on, hold on, what happened in there.”
“Sir there is a dead guy, probably early to mid-thirties. I can’t quite figure out what I was looking at, looked like he had pantihose over his face,” The ranger’s voice shuttered as he recalled the scene, his cheeks puffed up again as if he might puke. “It’s been cold the last two days, that’s when I first noticed the vehicle there, was two days ago sir… I didn’t do anything about it ’cause I was sure it was nothin’ but.” He pulled away and wretched violently. “But the smell when you get up close is something awful!”
“Alright alright, Suzanne is calling it in now boy, just calm down if you can and try to breathe,” The radio went dead for a moment. “Alright, Dillan. Tom. Listen up, I need you to calm down alright? The Deputies are being dispatched shortly and they are going to need a statement from you. They’ll probably ask about the timeline and any details you might have collected. Don’t go back in until they get there. Can you keep an eye on the trail? Make sure no civilians head down that way?”
Tom gulped in air, the image of the bloated figure plunged through by a sharp branch like a shishkabob plagued his mind. “whoooo, whoooo, whooo.” He wheezed before clenching down on the button once more. “Yeah, Alright… Okay, I can do,” he turned away, gagging again before continuing. “whooo… Alright, I can do that.”
“Good, good,” His superior offered softly. “Hey, you did good, be glad you are the one who found it first, not some local kid, yeah?”
Tom nodded, strangely the statement eased his mind. “I’ve never seen anything like it, not even in horror movies Johnson.” The words came out childlike. He brushed the cold sweat from his brow.
“I know Tom, you did good. We will talk more once the deputies get there, do you want me to head over, or are you going to be okay?”
“No… No, I, I think, I’m fine, I’m just a little shook up, I was not expecting to see that.”
…
Tom stood guard at the entrance of the wooded area until the sheriffs arrived shortly after. Residents of the neighborhood started to trickle curiously from their homes drawn by the flashing police lights. Each doing their best to catch wind of any detail they might share among themselves.
The detective leading the investigation took Toms’ testimony of all that he’d witnessed and led them into the bowels of the forest. Their reaction was muted but the imagery was haunting. The man had been skewered through by a rogue bough in what appeared to be a tragic accident.
Upon further investigation what they found only deepened the mystery. The man was indeed wearing a nylon sock over his face which had caused deformation. As the corpse had grown cold and rigor mortise had set in the expression of horror on his face had been immortalized. He was wearing a black backpack and all of his clothing and his cap had matched as if he were trying to blend with the shadows naturally cast by the woods surrounding his corpse.
Upon opening his backpack in search of identification they found more than they’d bargained for. There was a gun, two rolls of duct tape, and a large hunting knife that didn’t appear to have been used. Along with his identification, they found a receipt from Happy Go Lucky’s, a popular bar just beyond the neighborhood. While searching his car, they found the trunk lined with a brand new, still-creased-from-the-packaging tarp laid neatly out as if to capture whatever he’d planned to toss in. The backseat was lined in garbage bags.
Before the detective took off, Tom stopped him, “Sir, what do you make of it?”
“Only time will tell Son, but from the looks of it, this character was on his way to no good.”
Tom nodded, suddenly feeling less bad about tagging the vehicle after all.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Fear is a fatal defence mechanism, never let it lead the way.
Be courageous
… and your contenders will fall on their own sword.