The Long Way Home

The Girl in the Woods

The dry leaves curled in bunches on the ground. It was quiet here in the Dead Woods at night, save for the creek's constant dribble. Out here, the glare of porch lights and passing cars seemed miles away. Sheaths of moonlight shone through the sparse autumn branches, rendering the shadows darker in contrast. Kate tried not to imagine what might be hiding within them.

Tommy was already several feet ahead, a silhouetted blob weaving between tree trunks.

"You coming or what, Kate?" It was a poor attempt at a whisper, but at least he was trying. "Don't tell me you're scared the old tree house will crumble."

Kate shivered, but disguised it as a laugh. "I wasn't...until now."

"I'm sure it will be fine. Maybe a little cramped, but I don't mind." His mouth twitched into a mischievous smirk, the kind that always made her melt.

Shaking off her jitters, she held her breath and crunched through the leaves, deeper into darkness. "Tommy, I swear if I break my neck falling from up...Tommy?" He'd stopped walking, frozen between a pair of large oaks.

"Stay there," he hissed, looking down at what appeared to be just a pile of brush and tree roots. Except when Kate narrowed her eyes to focus on the dark mound at his feet, she understood why he'd stopped so suddenly.

Under fallen branches and dead foliage, a tangle of straw-colored hair lay splayed out on the dirt. After that, the rest was easy to spot: red nail polish on pale, motionless fingers, ripped jeans and a green sweater, a pair of vacant brown eyes. The girl couldn't have been much older than eighteen.

Kate's gut twisted into a knot and it was a miracle that she even managed to breathe, "We need to call my sister."

"No!" said Tommy. Kate had never heard his voice reach such a high pitch. "She hates me, remember? If she finds out I brought you here, she'll arrest me on the spot."

"Tommy, you found a body. It's either DW or 911."

He buried his face in his hands and shook his head. "They'll send me to prison just like my brother."

Kate's heart pounded so violently, she thought it might leap into her throat and suffocate her. "You haven't done anything wrong."

"I'm the twin brother of a convicted drug dealer. How do you think it will look when the cops find me out here in the woods with a dead teenager?" He was practically sobbing.

"I'll vouch for you," Kate promised. "Please, we have to report this."

Tommy shambled away from the girl and shrank against a nearby tree trunk, but finally he nodded. Kate crouched down beside him and tapped her phone with trembling fingers. They waited in petrified silence as it rang...and rang...and...

"Kate? What the—?"

"DW, I need you to come to the Dead Woods, by the old tree house."

"What?"

Kate swallowed. "I'm here with Tommy Tibble and...we found a body."

Silence, and then, "I'll be right there."