Whisper

Chapter 1, Truths

I step into the flat topped monument of architecture that is my father's workplace. My mind filled to the brim with questions. My eyes wander around, searching for a hidden file among the many in plain sight, the answers to all of my questions. Eventually I find that I am not the only one with this longing for knowledge, for there is a long line of fellow citizens waiting for the reassuring evidence that the head detective doesn't have. Members of the local newspaper shout questions to the Chief of Pine's Police Department. Getting no answers, members of my own community ask questions of their own. The Chief responds to them with the simplistic phrase 'We have no comment on questions relating to  these disappearances.' I know enough from listening to my father drunkenly ramble on about how the department doesn't have any leads on the increasing number of disappearances.
Stealing a quick glance toward the desk that stands beside me; my eyes find what they're searching for. In a swift movement I swipe the vanilla folder from the desk, and slip away from the chaos. Backed by the wall, I unfold the file that I'd been clutching, and examine its contents. Gregory Roe, reported missing after not showing up at an important meeting in town hall. Suspected area of disappearance, three mile radius of Carsle RD. Hmm, that seems like a short distance for someone to travel, then appear to be missing, especially in the middle of the day. Closing the folder, I gently slip it back in its place atop the cherry stained desk from which I got it from, and head for the door.
Taking a page that I'd swiped from the file out of my messenger bag, I compare the photo attached to my surroundings. This is it. I can feel my heart beat heavily in my chest as I climb the stone stairs up to the faded white house standing before me. After taking a long pause, I knock on the door, and my heart skips a beat when I hear the steady movement of steps coming from inside. I now see a faint outline of a man reaching toward the handle, his hand quivering as if to be afraid of what may lie behind it. As the door gradually opens, exposing the interior of the house to me, I see a face emerge from behind it.
Disturbing the small moment of silence, I begin to ask,"Hello Mr. McKey, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" Just as I finish asking the question his face turned from an expression of relief to a smile, that of which only lasts a moment before fading away.
He pauses for just a few seconds before replying,"Sure, would you like to come in?" His face forming into a small smile for an instant as if to comfort me. Extending his arm from the open doorway, he gestures for me to enter his home.
While smiling softly I reply to this invitation by saying,"Sure." I do this knowingly that it would've been flat out rude to say no. As I pause for a brief moment prior to my following my invitation into the house to exchange a similar smile to the one before, followed by me slightly nodding my head in a respectful manner. Walking through the doorway, a scent of freshly baked cookies fills my lungs. Standing in the entryway I wait for McKey to close the door, and step aside for a moment so that he may go in front of me. He leads me into a cozy looking room filled with family photos. Finding myself a spot on a flower patterned couch, I sit, eventually scooting my way to the edge of the cushion. I look to my left to see that a woman has entered the room carrying a silver platter, resting on it are two china cups, as well as a china kettle, accompanied by two smaller cups containing cream and sugar.
Taking one of the cups in my hand, I have a small sip before asking,"The morning that Gregory Roe disappeared, he was working here, correct?" He nods in response to my question. Continuing on I ask a following question,"Did anything unusual happen while he was here?"
McKey repositions himself so that he is facing me, before responding to my question. Beginning in a fairly quiet tone he replies,"Yes, in fact, now that I think of it. As you probably know he was fixing up our generator that had some issues the night before, and after he'd been working on it for a few hours it just started up for no more than a few seconds before going out of control again, exept this time was different, it seemed to have a mind of its own, almost as if it was living. It hummed then there was a large explosion of sparks, then it just went still." McKey states pausing to take a drink from his cup of tea, before continuing on,"I asked Greg if that usually happened, and he told me that it must have just had some left over juice that was stored somewhere, before it gave out. His words sounded realistic, however his face was so stunned that I knew something must have been up...I guess I was right about that." Mr. McKey's voice trailed off after that, and his eyes glossed over. It was only reasonable for one to assume that he was thinking about his memory, reliving it in great detail.
After taking a small note of this I continued the conversation by asking,"Did anything else out of the ordinary happen?" Unexpectedly, a boy no older than ten draws my attention as he gets up from his perch on one of the bottom stairs.
Answering my question the boy steps into the room and then says in a small timid voice,"The man fixing daddy's power machine looked at Auntie Natalie's Woods before he left." The child looks from me to his father with wide fearing eyes, before walking over to an empty chair that had been sitting near by.
Confused I ask the child,"Who is Auntie Natalie" My voice tunes itself to be a higher pitch as it tends to do when I am speaking to someone of a younger age than myself.
Turning to my attention to the right of me I hear a short sigh followed by the words,"It's just a story." He pauses his speech so that I am able to adjust myself so that I can see the both of them, and then continues,"Supposedly in the eighteen hundreds, Pines was home to a woman, Natalie, who was accused of being such a creature as a witch. Unable to prove that she wasn't a witch, Natalie was burnt at the stake. Her last words were, I am the aunt of this town for I will never be gone. Supposedly if you walk into the woods and repeat those last words, her ghost is supposed to appear before your eyes. Sounds a lot like Bloody Mary if you ask me."
Hearing this I respond almost instantaneously with the question,"So, you think Auntie Natalie is causing this?" My voice hinted with a soft chuckle, as I know that such creatures as ghosts and witches don't exist.
"No, it's just a superstition." Mckey attempts to cover up his own curiosity about the possibility of this being true with such a straightforward answer. However you can see the idea shimmer through his mind as his eyes become increasingly distant.
I look outside, and then conclude,"Well, it's almost sunset, I should be getting back." As I exit the house I thank the McKeys for the tea and for their assistance in solving this case, and begin walking back to town, along the edge of the road. Looking up into the sky, drifting off into thought.
Feeling the gravel shift underneath my shoes, I'm broken out of my trance, and am now aware of my surroundings. The sky is now a coral pink, hinted with orange, tinted from the sunset. My eyes glance the nearby vegetation, I am greeted not by shrubs and bushes, but trees and vines. I must have been so deep in thought that I walked right past my street, strange. I am drawn from my thoughts when the night air whirls around my body, causing me to shudder. Wrapping the ends of my sweater around my waist, I let out a sigh and head back.
As I collapse onto my bed, I begin to ponder the odds of Maggie and the other people missing still coming back to Pines alive. While reaching for my headphones to drown out the large mass crickets living in my yard, I am alerted back to my senses as I hear the high pitched scream of a woman outside. I rush to my window to investigate, and I easily see what has frightened her. Hanging in the tree is the corpse of yet another victim.