Help Me

  It had to be done.

 Staring into the enveloping darkness of the trees, Nathan’s stomach did a flip. He’d lived in this small, middle-of-nowhere town his whole life, but tonight these woods, his woods, were alien to him. Behind him, Andy was yelling out insults while Jack leaned against the brick wall of his house, arms crossed and smiling suspiciously. It was now or never, Nathan told himself. He turned his       flashlight over and over in his sweat-soaked hand and took a deep breath.

He’d agreed to the dare and at the time, it hadn’t seemed so bad. Go into the woods on a      Saturday night and spy on Elizabeth Thomas, the crazy girl from school. According to the rumors, she liked to dance naked around the woods on Saturdays. As always, Andy was quick to dare Nathan to find out and Jack went along with it. Nathan had no choice but to agree. 

“Come on, Nate. Don’t be a chicken,” Andy hollered.

“The flashlight won’t turn on,” he lied, pretending to fiddle with it. After a few seconds, he flipped it on and yelled over his shoulder, “Got it!”

“Good. Now go before Jack’s mom finds us.”

“Don’t be such a wuss, Andy,” Nathan taunted, stepping into the trees. He shone the flashlight at the ground as he picked his way over tree roots and around thorn bushes. 

Barton Hollow, a small town in Ohio, was surrounded on all sides by thick forest. Its only ties to civilization were the doctor and a dirt road that connected them to a slightly bigger town ten minutes away. It was in these woods that Nathan Gray had grown up with his partners-in-crime, Andy White and Jack Reid, and it was in these woods that his life would be changed forever. Only, he didn’t know it yet.

Lost in thought, he stumbled over a root and nearly fell. When he regained his balance and looked up, he was on the edge of the Thomas property. A back porch light, just like the one on every other house in town, illuminated the obviously empty backyard. Disappointed and somewhat relieved, Nathan turned to go. Then he saw the lower window was lit up. He’d been told once by Tommy Lewis that Doctor Thomas kept his crazy daughter locked up in the basement after dark so she wouldn’t get out. Staring at that window, he wondered if maybe the story was true and he’d locked his daughter up for the night.

He turned away from the house and was ready to walk back to Jack’s when he saw the scrap of white fabric dangling on the branch of a thorn bush. It was less than an inch wide and when he untangled it, a flowery scent hit his nose. His mother had told him that girls that smelled flowery were no good witches. Or maybe she’d used a different word. Either way, he had a bad feeling. Fear blossomed in his stomach when the beam of the flashlight dropped to the hard-packed dirt. Several paw prints crossed the ground, as if a large animal had been pacing. Wolf prints, he guessed. Too large to be a domesticated dog’s and too small to be a bear’s. As far as he could tell, not much else lived in his woods with paws that size. 

He swung the flashlight beam in front of him, scanning the trees and the patches of grass beyond them. No sign of Elizabeth, or anything else for that matter. He pocketed the scrap and debated going after her. What if she wasn’t out here? Had Jack and Andy set him up? And what about those prints? Something was definitely out here and he didn’t want to trek through the trees blindly searching for a girl while something else searched for him. 

As always, curiosity and the need to be sure won out. He took a step forward, then stopped to listen. The wind picked up, rattling branches and whistling through the trees. An owl hooted in the distance and the sounds of the night surrounded him. Then, an ear-splitting scream pierced the air. He tore through the woods, running until his chest ached and blood ran from his arm where the branches had scratched him. Then he ran some more because she was here, in these woods. Crazy Elizabeth was outside and he was going to make sure he had a story to tell the guys when he got back. Another scream erupted from the trees to his left and he swerved to follow. Soon, he could hear thrashing, as if something or someone was dying.