Raven's Song

Fifteen Hours

After Tylor didn't show up at school for the rest of the week, I'd done all of the research I could on Tessa's case. Nothing new came from it. All of the media sources had just found different ways to say the exact same thing, which was why I turned my attention back to the boys in the woods. It wasn't going to do me any good to stare at the same news articles when I needed to talk to the one person I knew who was directly involved.

I picked my way through the wet grass and into the woods. The trees provided some relief from the rain. I was prepared that night, though. My pepper spray was clutched in my hand, and I had the stun flashlight my dad had bought me when I started being left home alone. I wasn't going to be the one being chased. I was planning to do the chasing. I just wasn't sure how well it was going to end.

I stayed away from the path, watching the handful of people out in the rain. I could hear a group of kids playing at the basketball courts. It wasn't very late, but the gray sky had turned everything darker earlier.

Leaning against a tree so I could see all around me, I couldn't pick out anyone that fit the description. There wasn't anyone lurking off the path that I could see. No one that seemed to be looking for someone else. Just a man sleeping on a bench. A couple walking as they huddled under an umbrella. A stray dog sniffing around the trashcan. A middle-aged man jogging. Three kids standing in a circle with a faint scent of marijuana drifting from their direction.

I was about to leave when a stick cracked behind me. I whipped around, pepper spray ready, when the person held their hands up.

"Easy. I'm not here to hurt you."

I didn't lower the spray. "Were you the one chasing me the other night?"

"No."

"Who the hell are you?"

He slid his hands into his pocket. The shadow of his hat and hood kept me from seeing his face. "I can't say."

"You weren't the one chasing me?"

"It wasn't me. If I were the person who had been chasing you, you probably would be dead."

I turned his words over. There wasn't anything alarming in them, but maybe that was just what he wanted me to think. I still lowered the pepper spray, but I didn't take my finger off the button.

"What do you know about that?" I asked. "I can't think of a reason why someone would be stalking me through the woods to hurt me other than, you know, the typical reasons."

"I don't know. Honestly. Except that maybe they were after me and tried to make it look like they weren't by going after you."

"Because that makes sense. I'm pretty sure that if they had been after you, they would have left me out of it."

"Yeah...that was also the conclusion that I came to," he said as he kicked at a rock. "I don't know if they were even after you or just trying to hurt you in order to hurt someone that they couldn't get their hands on."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I don't have a lot of people like that in my life."

"It doesn't take a lot, though," he said. His head raised so he could look at me, but his face was still shielded.

I sighed, closing my eyes briefly. "I never did anything to anyone. I've always done what I was told. Why does it have to be so messy?"

"I'm working on finding out how to stop them," the boy said as he took a step closer to me. Not close enough to reveal himself. "You don't need to worry. No one is going to lay a hand on you."