FOREST OF THE LOST

PART TWO

On the second day of April 1983, at about half past seven in the morning, a young lady went on a run with her dog and entered a rather large park densely populated with trees mixed with shrubbery, walkways, trails, hills, and a history that is as present in the future as it is in the past. There are a number of routes to embark upon, and she has previously run each of them a number of times. On this particular morning, the young lady settled on running the canal route, the shortest flattest and least strenuous of all the routes to run.

The dog, a German Sheppard named Collie who is kept on a leash when outdoors, usually came along on these running sessions unless the young lady was – forgive the pun – running behind schedule. Her weekly routine consisted of three early morning runs, two evening runs, and if time allowed it, one afternoon run. This would only alter due to circumstance though her routine was generally ... routine. She didn't always go down to the park, time, weather, and level of light usually dictated where it is she would run.

On this morning, the park seemed to call for her, it had so often called for her in her dreams before she woke, it called her on this day as she readied herself, subconsciously she answered the call just as if she had done before and will again, ... and Collie the dog appeared to know what the route of choice would be this day before the run had even begun. On this particular day, or at least on this version of it, neither young lady nor dog would make their way back out of this park.

Suspicions began to arise when she failed to turn into work that day, she had not rung in sick nor was she the kind to simply not turn in and things grew from a slight to a serious worry when it was discovered that she had not returned home after having left to go on that morning's run.

Her partner, of two and a half years, officially reported her missing the following day, allowing for the whole twenty-four-hour period to pass so he could at least be taken seriously. He knew he would only have been given the runaround if he had rung any sooner. He had been looked at, though at no point was he ever considered a suspect to foul play.

No body was ever found, and no body was ever recovered be it human or canine. This lady and her dog simply just ... vanished. Or did they simply just vanish? A certain Terrence Williams, when caution set him on a path of investigation, would propose that she is still in that park with her dog and further to that he would propose that they both are as alive and exactly just as well as they were at the precise moment they entered that park, and this is despite the fact that close to thirty-five years have passed since she was reported ... missing.

On the nineteenth of May 1997 Cecil Lynch, a sixty-four-year-old local man, went missing. Over the weeks prior to him going missing he regularly spoke ... to those who would listen to him ... of hearing voices call his name from within this forest like park as he often passed by its pedestrian entrance. Every time he came close to and looked beyond this park entrance, he would be unable to see anyone at all let alone see anyone he might have known or anyone near enough to him to call out for him.

Is has often been said and theorized that on that afternoon of May nineteenth, 1997, that Cecil may have once again heard voices call out for him and that on this occasion, he made his way beyond the park entrance only to never been seen or heard from again and just like the young lady and her dog, no identifying remains would ever be found.

It could also be theorized that maybe Cecil Lynch was losing his senses and had been for some time prior to going missing, but many who knew him have said that Cecil was as sharp as the sharpest of swords. The oddest fact about Cecil's disappearance was that he had been walking with his forty-one-year-old daughter when he simply vanished. He, as it has been declared many times, was beside his daughter one second and gone the next. Her story was never taken seriously for one just doesn't vanish into thin air. And at that, daughter also says her father is not missing at all. If he is not missing, then where is he?

There are many other stories just those of the lady jogger and of Cecil Lynch. One such story is that of fourteen-year-old friends Jeremy Wright and Ken Torrance who both had gone on the hop from school on March the thirteenth 2000. It is believed that they too made their way to this park as it would be as good a hiding place as any to keep out of sight of anyone who may rat them out. Safe to say that both of these boys went missing and have not been seen since that day either alive or anything otherwise.

Now what could be considered worse about two boys going missing is that the town community, not quite as a whole, went in search of the two boys with further disaster arising from such a thing. Some of the older townsfolk warned that any search would be futile especially if it were to go anywhere near that park, for they say the park is haunted, that some higher force has a hold onto that place. Such people did not gather in any way to support any search. Warnings were not heeded, and a search of the park got underway.

Thing is too that those older townsfolk appeared to not want to say anything at all. The futility warning would be as far as they would go. What is it that they are afraid of? What is it they know, or believe they know?

A teacher from the school the two boys had attended, having joined a search team within the park, along with a local store owner, temporarily went missing as they individually broke away from their search groups. It is thought that neither teacher nor store owner exited the park quite as they had been prior to having had entered it. Some say the search changed them as if a part of each of these two individuals was left behind.

Then there is seven-year-old Todd Grogan. His sister Mary, a grown woman by the time of a certain investigation came to be, was nine years of age when Todd was seven. She can't stay away from that park or surrounding town. It is not her hometown though it is the center of her universe. Her need to know what happened to her little brother consumes her. Too many questions went unanswered for her to move on and accept that her brother is simply just ... gone.

That forest park has taken from her, and it continues to take from her. I haven't known her all so long, Terrence would write in that journal he began keeping the night of the storm, there is however something about her that really reaches inside me, and I am at a loss to explain this, well maybe not a total loss ...

So, what is it about that place? Whatever is going on, one man became ever so determined to find out its secrets.

It may not be wise, but I have done some homework, and this Mary lady has even gone as far to help me out with that. She has lost her brother after all, though she does not want me to listen to the comments I have received on numerous occasions to stay away; I guess she believes I can find her brother or at least provide some closure.

How I might accomplish such a thing ... I have no idea.

Anyway, I have spoken to family and friends of those I have mentioned so far, surprisingly most of these people tell me to stay away just like older towns folk have told me, though I am sure that if I were a friend or a family member of one of the missing, then I would want to know what happened to them and if there really is some way of bringing them back, then I would be all for doing just that.

I may not be the first person ever to think that something needs to be done, and I may be about to become just another of the 'lost' though I am as ready as I am ever gonna be to do this, so let's give this thing a go ...

Bring them back? Whatever could he mean by such a thing?