The Girl From The Woods

3.

Sheriff Jacob Winfree brushed the crumbs from his sausage and egg biscuit off of his uniform jacket and reached for the coffee cup in the cupholder. It was barely even luke-warm. He chugged the rest of it and threw it in the back of his patrol car. He had begun a collection of empty coffee cups back there since the woods closed down. The edge of the woods had to be patrolled around the clock. With only 6 officers in the patrol department, they took shifts, but shifts were long. Jacob would start his patrol at 7 am and switch off with the next on schedule at 7pm. It was tiresome. He patrolled every other day. On the days he was off, he slept all day. Winter patrol was all consuming. As Sheriff, it was his responsibility to make sure the people in this town were safe from the woods. Each year, they would lose about 3 people, give or take. One year they lost 7. The woods were dangerous, and everybody knew it. But it doesn't matter what you know. If you got too close to the edge, you don't know what you know anymore. Nothing makes sense. People get too close and wander in and we don't see them again. The bodies aren't found in the summer. It's like the woods just takes them and eats them. Even driving along the outside of the woods, Jacob could often feel his patrol car veering to the right as if it were being pulled. It used to scare him to death when it would happen. It happens less in the day than at night, so he mostly patrolled day time.

The route along the woods had been ground down from tires and looked more like a race track now. The track they drove on was about 6 feet from the woods edge. Sometimes they were lucky enough to see someone making their way to the woods and could stop them in time. Other times, they just saw the missing person's reports.

There were 7 days left until the winter solstice. The days were growing shorter now and the sun was setting around 3:30 pm each day. On the solstice, the winds would howl mightily, and the pull from the wood's edge was almost impossible to steer away from. Each day he could feel his car etching a new tire mark in the ground further and further away from the edge.

"Winfree, you there?" his radio startled him from thought.

He picked the radio up and offered a quick "yea, what's up" in response.

"We've gotten a report of a young man believed to be Mason Albright heading towards the woods edge, near the south side. Are you nearby, or should I get Anthony on it?"

Jacob could get there in about 6 minutes so he knew he could take the call. It was the second report today and it was only 2:30.

"Yea, I'm on it." he assured the dispatcher. He veered left off of the route and made a U turn and headed south to look for Mason. Mason had worked at Turner's Pharmacy since he graduated last May. A good kid, he assumed.

He idled along the way, shining his spotlight into the woods and checking for any movement. The mist made it hard to see any further than a good three feet into the woods.

"MASON ALBRIGHT" Jacob blared over the car's public address system. "MASON CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Jacob strained his eyes but could not see past the overgrowth that gnarled and twisted into itself, hiding the floor of the woods. The mist acted as a barrier that protected whatever was going on in there from the eyes of the town.

His breath paused for a moment as he saw a flash of a deep red about 50 feet away. He steadied his gaze and finally made out the hood of Mason Albright's pullover as he disappeared into the outer edge of the wood.

"MASON!" Jacob yelled into the darkness. He put his patrol car in park and opened the driver side door and stood up on the edge of the car, not daring to step foot on the ground. "MASON ALBRIGHT!" He watched as Mason heard his name and looked back to see who was calling him, and just as he did he was pulled into the woods by something unseen. It was as though a magnet had attracted him in and a vacuum sucked him up. Mason was gone. The woods had claimed him.

Jacob stood there a moment longer - he wasn't sure why. There was nothing he could do. He couldn't go after him. It would do no good to call anybody else for help. He was burdened with the responsibility of having to go back into town and report that Mason Albright had been taken. He knew Mason's family well and he knew what grief this would bring to them and the community as a whole. It was hard every time they lost somebody.

He sat back down in the driver's seat and shut the car door. He picked up his radio but couldn't bare to press the button. He felt a heaviness in the pit of his stomach that radiated into his chest. This felt hopeless. How long had this town been losing its loved ones to the woods? Would this ever stop? Who would be next?

The thoughts ravaged his mind for a while, and he let them. Then, just as he remembered his duty to this unfortunate town, he cranked his patrol car and pressed the button on the radio. "Mason Albright is gone. Over and out." he solemnly told the dispatcher. A moment or two passed in silence and then he heard a small "over and out" from the other end of the radio.

Jacob threw the car in drive and traveled further along the edge of the woods. His shift ended in 4 hours. In those four hours, he prayed he wouldn't have to see that again.