The Ricewood Murders

Chapter Three: The Hunter

The Rice Woods were as silent as death. Some of the trees in it were a century old, straight, tall, fluttering in the quickly advancing cold. They had been planted many years before by the Rice family, and a legacy grew alongside the roots within the ground.

The silent giants were majestic, but the thick, grassy foliage that grew beneath them provided a rather unsightly, ungoverned coverage. Large bushes and thick grass and pale ferns spilled out underneath the wavy ripples of dusty moonlight that filtered through the leaves. It was soft, and quiet, and dark. It was the perfect hiding place for people with secrets to keep.
Yes, the Rice Woods were as silent as death.

But they were not empty.

--●--

Mira was pretty sure the note was a prank that Zach and Andrew Miller were pulling. There was no way that it could be true.

After all, Isaac was in the library. She'd just been there. He was safe. He hadn't even been there when the bullies had mentioned Rice Woods, at least not the last time she'd been there. And he hadn't mentioned anything to her about taking up the bullies' latest offer to go to the woods. He wasn't that stupid.

But Quinn, he was different. He was sensitive. Easily riled. And while those assholes hadn't exactly been targeting their energy towards him when they'd brought up the Woods, they still had an obvious effect on him. After all, he went to school with them. He withstood their abuse as much as any other kid. So maybe he would act on
it.

And quite frankly, Levi wasn't stupid enough to take the bullies up on their dare either. But look what had happened to him.

Her heart was screaming in her ears, and she shook herself.

Simply put, this was a fairly horrible idea. Probably the worst she'd ever had. It was a stupid prank. It had to be.

But if there was even a tiny chance that it wasn't...Mira shuddered. She could see the woods from here, and her legs brought her determinedly closer to them. The thought of Quinn's parents coming home to the police interviews and the matter of the funeral and the grief counseling and all of it drove her forward. Maybe she could find him before the bullies did. Maybe she could convince him to come home.

If it wasn't a prank.

Which it had to be.

She pressed forward, gritting her teeth. Around her, small snowflakes were starting to drift down. She hadn't noticed the dramatic drop in temperature at first, but seeing fresh snow put a disturbed ache in her chest.

The woods grew steadily closer.

Mira stopped on the side of the road and looked up at the trees. Her heart was heavy in her throat. The shadows, all she could see, were terrifying.

Suddenly, Mira noticed something strange between the trees...something flashy, bright yellow in the dim, fading light. When she recognized it, she almost pitched forward onto the ground.

Caution tape.

So that was where Levi was murdered; not more than 200, 300 feet off of the side of the road. Whoever had written this note, knowing what had happened, was cruel. It was unacceptable. No, no, no, she couldn't do this, not in these woods, not where he had been last.

But the note...it was still clutched in her sweaty left hand. It was a prank. Those idiots were bluffing. This was for their own entertainment. Quinn was fine.

Surely he was fine.

Mira realized her eyes were focused on the tape, which was fluttering softly in the wind, and a horrible, morbid need came over her mind, like a vise.