Be Home Before Sunset

III: The Whistling Woods

"Krissy!" shouted the boy as he ran towards her, stopping at one of the trees near the edge. "There you are! What are you waiting for? Let's go. I want to show you something."

Krissy glanced back towards her house for just a moment before she ran into the woods. She met Eric where he leaned with his back to a tall Douglas-fir, fumbling with a fallen cone the size of his fist.

"I was worried you wouldn't come," said Eric as he stood up.

"Of course I came!"

He smiled as he took her hand, guiding her into the woods.

"It's a long walk, but you are going to love this."

"What is it?"

"A surprise! Trust me."

They chatted happily as they clambered through the woods, navigating small ravines with cool streams cutting through, leaping over fallen branches, and crawling through the animal trails that weaved through the dense underbrush.

They stopped to rest on some rocks beside a trickling brook, silence for the first time breaking their conversation. Krissy idly studied the scratches she'd collected from the sharp leaves of the holly bushes. A few rays of sun pierced the canopy, darting through to the colourful arrays of dead leaves scattered across the ground, the sharp beams of light creating patterns in the otherwise gloomy atmosphere.

"We're almost there," said Eric, breaking the silence. "We just need to follow the stream that way."

Krissy only smiled as she washed her hands and face in the cold water.

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" blurted Eric.

"Okay," she answered after an appropriately long moment of consideration.

Eric stared at her with an expression hovering somewhere between shock and happiness. Krissy had been hoping he would ask her, had expected him to do it sooner.

"Okay," he said after a few moments. "Um, now what?"

"Now you take me to see the surprise you have been promising me!"

"Oh, yes," he said, uncertain.

After a slight hesitation, he took her hand again, and led her along the side of the stream. They walked in silence again, with an unexplained tension. A dark feeling.

"Where do you think they go?" asked Krissy. "During the day I mean?"

"The monsters? They hide, of course."

"They hide?"

"From us," he said. "We can see them in the light, so they need to hide during the day. They are scared of us."

"That's silly. Why would monsters be scared of us?"

"I don't know. That's what I heard. Where do you think they go?"

Krissy didn't answer. Her gaze wandered between tree trunks scattered haphazardly to either side of the stream. The thick underbrush provided plenty of cover, and wind whistled through the branches – easily loud enough to conceal the crunch of footsteps on the ground. She shuddered at what could be hidden in there, watching her. But the monsters never came out during the day.

"Here we are," said Eric.

Krissy stopped and followed the direction of his pointed finger. There was a cave entrance, the source of the stream, water trickling out onto the mossy rocks. Blossoming dogwoods surrounded the entrance, snow-white flowers catching stray beams of sunlight piercing the verdant canopy.