Him And The Forest

Chap. 2 The Man In the Black Trenchcoat

~The Man In the Black Trenchcoat~

I stared outside the window at the rustling trees. The clouds turn grey as the night falls. It begins to rain a little.

Mom already left for work before I woke up. I've pretty much just sat home alone all day in my room dying of boredom.

I decide to go to the kitchen and grab a snack. (When in doubt, eat when your bored)

I open the fridge when I hear the doorbell ring. My eyes widen. Why would someone be at our door? We don't even know anyone yet.

I walk to the front door cautiously and look through the peep hole. I let out a sigh of relief when I see the house cleaning lady instead of Crazy Conroy or whatever.

I open the door and give her a smile.

"Good morning! My name is Rosie from your local house cleaning service!"

"Oh hey, yeah come right inside,"

Before closing the door I look at the sky and see it's beginning to drizzle a bit.

After creating some friendly small talk, I make sure to show Rosie where everything is located before starting to my room.

Before I can disappear into the hall, she stands up abruptly while unpacking her things, "Oh! Honey could you do me a favor and grab my purse from the car real quick and bring it inside for me? My phone is in it and I just remembered I have to text my husband back."

"Sure thing" I walked up and took the keys from her hand and turned around to head for the door and outside. It was now dark and misty droplets sprinkle on my face as I walk down the steps of the front porch. Her car is parked close to the dark forest a few yards away.

I wasn't really scared, but the dark made me a bit nervous. I walked toward the car and pushed the open button on the key. The car blinked and I opened the front door. I scanned the area and saw the purse on the passengers seat.

I climb over the drivers side and go to grab the purse when I hear a large clasp of thunder that startles me and sends my head banging into the roof of the car.

Groaning in pain, I snatch the purse and pull myself from the car. I shiver when I feel the cold hard rain drops hit me.

Gosh I should've thought of bringing a jacket.

I turn around and begin to walk back to the house, feeling relieved when thinking about the heater in my bedroom.

Thunder strikes again and this time a streak of lighting. Startled, I start running the rest of the way but slip and fall into the mud. Dropping Rosies purse and getting it muddy along with the rest of me. Fantastic.

Thunder and lightning strike again and more rain begins to poor down.

I get back up and snatch Rosies purse from the mud puddle as well. I walk the rest of the way and finally reach the porch with a sigh of relief.

Im about to open the door to go inside when I hear some yelling in the distance. I turn and squint through the darkness and the rain to see a man with a fishing hat in the far distance of the street thats by the forest. Oh man, he looks awfully familiar...Is that Conroy?

I'm about to bolt inside when I see something else.

I watch as a man wearing a black trench coat approaches him. The man hands Conroy something. I can't tell what it is, but Conroy takes it and shoves it into his pocket. They say something to each other before the man quickly walks away to his black Ford Explorer. Getting in and speeding away.

Conroy looks around to make sure no ones watching. Not seeing me since my porch light isn't on. When he's made sure no ones around he turns around and enters into the forest.

I open the door and place Rosies dirty purse inside and then pull a raincoat off of the coat hanger before running through the mud and rain and into the woods to find Conroy.

I finally see him waltzing through the thicket and make sure to follow close behind.

I try to avoid stepping on any sticks and occasionally hide behind a tree to keep caution.

As I follow him the weather gets worst. More rain poors down along with heavy winds and the thunder and lightning terrorize the cloudy skies above the trees.

The hard rain is blasted into my face and I can barely keep my eyes open. Where we are going, the ground is getting more uneven and harder to walk on.

No, I'm gonna keep going.
So I do, I follow him for I don't know how much longer. It seems like its taken forever. Until I see a cabin. I hide behind a tree and watch as he enters inside.

The windows turn yellow as he turns on the lights. I run to hide under the cabin window that has the best view of what he's doing.

I watch him walk to the kitchen, grab an apple and take a big nasty bite out of it. Then walk to the dining area/living room and sit at the table. He pulls the thing that the man in the black trenchcoat had handed him out of his pocket and was about to put it on the table for me to see until he turned his head and looked strait at me. I stood up and began to run towards the woods. I was almost there until he stepped outside, pointed a gun at me and shoots.

I stumble into the mud when an intense pain accumulating from my back. I lay there for a moment, shaking in immense pain until my vision blurs, and all I see is darkness.

....

I shake my head to snap out of my crazy imagination. No way in hell would I ever be dumb enough to follow a random person into the woods. Although it'd make for a good story wouldn't it.

I hurry back inside to my warm home.

Rosie steps into the front room and gasps as she sees my dirty self standing by the doorway, dripping with mud and rain water. Her purse looking just as bad as me.

"Oh geez what happened? Are you okay?" She asks rushing over to me.

"I'm fine...the weather just got bad and it was muddy so I slipped and...yeah I'm so sorry about your purse. I'll clean it up for you right now"

She picks up her purse and looks over it "Oh honey its alright, I'll take care of it. I'd rather you go take a warm bath now before you get sick" She says with a little chuckle.

"Set your clothes outside of the door and I'll put them in the washer for you" She suggests with a warm smile.

******

That night I thought about my new home and this new, odd town. I thought about Dan and what it'd be like to go to one of the lakeside parties him and his friends throw on the weekends. If that ever happens.

I thought about how much I miss my dad and how much I wish he was here. How since he left there's been this weird emptiness in me. I never thought I'd miss seeing my parents be all disgustingly lovey dovey in front of me. Whenever it'd occur I'd just cringe and tell them to stop, but now I wish I could see it every day.

Seeing my mom the way she is, it hurts. I can tell she's in deep pain from loosing the love of her life, and the father of her child. She doesn't show her pain anymore to me. At the beginning she did, and I like to block a lot of it out. For what seemed like forever, she'd cry herself to sleep on the couch because she couldn't sleep in the bed that she used to share with him knowing that she'll never share it with him again.

It's not easy knowing that the person you love won't be around anymore. All you have left is memories, pictures, and apparently an emptiness that never gets replenished.

As I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling, tears rolling down my cheeks, I push all of those thoughts away. I can't keep crying like this.

I think of the weird old man I met at Cammy's Café, Conroy. The man I saw outside meeting with the man in the trench coat looked awfully like him. I wonder what was being exchanged. Was it drugs? Who knows.

My mind wanders and I start getting pretty tired.

The restful silence of the forest that sleeps outside of my homes' walls invites me to join as I close my eyes. And soon enough I'm out like a light and into a deep peaceful slumber.