Stranger in the Woods

Chapter 9

As I was driving I chided myself for not being up with the times.  Now would have been the justifying reason for buying a digital camcorder or at least a high-end camera.  Mine was suitable but nothing professional.  I had always prided myself on writing and not looking to improve my articles with too much “eye candy”.  Now, I regretted not being more prepared.  Yet, who could have predicted I’d be driving to a remote location to search for something that most people would laugh me out of town about if I said that I believed they existed.  

I thought about what I was doing.  Although I had seen the dead unicorn myself, I was having a hard time convincing myself that there was another one out there.  But, how could there be just one?  Then again, how could there be any at all.  I know though.  I knew the truth.  I was driving now to face it.  I vowed to not instantly dismiss the stories of the strange and unusual any longer.  Maybe man isn’t the all-knowing creature that he wishes to be?  Maybe there was more out there than met the eye and that the hand could touch?  Just because something could not be seen and felt did not mean that it did not exist.  I bid my old convictions, goodbye.

I pulled off the road and onto the birm along 556, not far from where the first unicorn had been killed.  I got out of the car and listened.  In the far distance, down from me toward the valley, from the road running along the river, I could hear the faint hum of traffic but other than that it was silent.  Dead silent.  

A light frost was still on the ground, and my breath plumed out as I exhaled.  The strangest feeling arose in me.  It was like a peace.  It was if I knew that I was doing the right thing.  That I was in the right place.  I knew that I was right were right where I was supposed to be.  Not like a déjà vu but more like a premonition.  I was not feeling like I had been here before, but I was about to step forward into steps that had been predestined for me to take.

Which way should I go?  I had intended on moving down the hill and into the valley since that is where the other one was seen running toward by the truck driver.  Instead, as if by instinct, I turned and began walking up the road away from my car searching for an accessible trail that would lead up the hillside.

Before the bend in the road where the accident had occurred I saw a nicely worn trail that lead from the roadside ditch, up the hill and in to the woods.  I crossed the ditch with little trouble and began my ascent.  The crisp morning air tightened my skin and dried my lips.  I realized how out of shape I was after only a few minutes of climbing the hill.  I was having difficulty breathing and my calves began to burn.  

The trail that I had  followed from the road had disappeared and I was left to forge my own way up.  That is if I wanted to continue.  I stopped to catch my breath and looked down the hill to the road.   It could barely be seen through the naked trees.  I could only see hints of the dark gray of the road.  I could not turn back.  I turned and began to climb some more without a trail to guide me.  Do not worry.  I am meant to do this.  I am where I am supposed to be, I reminded myself.

After I had walked for roughly an hour I listened and looked around in all directions.  It had started to snow slightly and my tracks were starting to become covered.  There was still the eerie silence pervading the forest.  It was as if I had violated some sanctuary and all the worshipers were crouched out of sight, hiding in silence until I departed their holy ground.  I never was one to take many walks, especially in the forest without at least a trail to follow. 

I stopped.  Something seemed wrong.  I listended.  I was not sure if it was supposed to be this quiet in the forest.  I doubted it.  It made sense that the faint highway noises I was able to hear earlier from the valley were absent.  But there was absolutely no sounds.  No birds.  No wildlife.  Not even the knocking of branches in the breeze.  I could feel my pulse begin to quicken from more than exertion.