Haunted in the Night

Chapter Eight- Part Two

She tried to keep her breathing quiet but it was no use, she was terrified, it had finally come for her, she should have never come back to this town.
She froze, a twig snapping right beside her on the left, she could feel it’s breath on her cheek, it reeked, it was foul, like death and rotting.
Slowly she turned to face it, she didn’t get a chance to see what it was because suddenly it was on her, it was eating her, tearing away at her flesh and she let out an ear piercing scream.

Claire screamed, jolting up in a fright, grasping at anything she could, trying to grip at reality, as her mind slowly came back to consciousness.
Nothing was on her, her skin was still intact, she was still inside the cabin, the door and windows were still locked.
She breathed, slowly filling her lungs with the air they desperately needed, that was when she noticed she was shaking, trembling like a leaf and it hit her, all at once and she burst into tears.
She was terrified, it had all felt so real, she could still smell it’s breath, feel her skin being ripped from her body, she could still hear it chewing it and she cried, she couldn’t stop, she cried because she was scared, she cried because she was happy, happy she was still alive.
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door and Claire jumped, screaming out in fear as she scrambled to her feet.
“Claire? What’s going on?” Bob sounded on full alert and acted quickly, he kicked open the door, completely busting off the lock as it went flying onto the floor as he rushed inside to see Claire standing there horrified.
“Claire what is it? What’s the matter? Are you hurt?” he asked worriedly, looking her over as he took hold of her shivering shoulders.
She couldn’t speak, nothing would come out so she only shook her head as the crying continued.
Bob looked at her in complete concern but upon seeing that she wasn’t injured he slowly pulled her into his arms and held her, letting her cry out all her fears and such.
It took a while for her to calm down but when she finally had they sat down on the couch and he made her a cup of tea, the door however still wide open, he had also broken the hinges from the impact so they would need to be fixed before it could be closed again.
“Here you are little one" he said as he handed her the small cup and sat down next to her and watched as she took a few soothing sips, closed her eyes and breathed.
Her eyes were red, swollen and sore, her lips and cheeks puffy, her hair sticking up all over the place, she was a mess.
“What happened to you?” he asked gently, not wanting to speak to loudly as she had a pulsing headache, which anyone would after the amount of crying she had just gotten through.
“It was a monster, a night terror” she managed to mumble out before quickly taking another sip of coffee.
“You had a bad dream?” he asked, making sure she was taking sense.
“Yes, I was out in the woods looking for my parents and it came for me, I couldn’t see it, it hid too well to see, moved too fast, the next thing I knew it was on me, ripping my flesh apart, it was eating me" she gasped out, stopping to take in deep breaths and another sip.
“It’s alright, it wasn’t real, I’m here now, your alright" he said comfortingly as he reached out and patted her gently on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry I screamed when you knocked, I had just woken up from it, my mind was still a mess" she explained to him and he just shook his head.
“No need to apologize or explain, I’m sorry I frightened you, I should have called first" he said as she finished her cup of tea and placed it down on the little coffee table.
“I was going to suggest breakfast but I doubt you want to be see out with your face like that, how about you have a shower while I cook us something up?” he suggested and she smiled slightly at him, he was much like a father figure to her and she appreciate that and little did she know he felt the same way, even before her parents had gone missing he had still seen her as a part of his family, the daughter he’d never had.
“I’d like that thanks" she said as she slowly got to her feet, her whole body tense and aching.
“I’ll talk to you what I came here about once you get back" he told her and she nodded before heading to the bathroom, hoping a nice, warm shower would help loosen her muscles and calm her throbbing headache.
After her shower Claire put on a white tank top with a light blue leather jacket and black skinny jeans with black converse shoes, she had her hair dried, brushed and put up in a ponytail, thankfully her face had returned to it’s normal skin colour now with only lightly flushed cheeks from the heat of the water, her eyes were a little bloodshot but nowhere near as red or swollen.
“Feeling better?” Bob asked her once she entered the lounge room and made her way to the small square dining table placed half in the kitchen, half in the lounge room and sat down on the dark brown wooden chair.
“Yes thank you" she said grateful to him for being here for her, she didn’t normally let people see her like that so it meant a lot that he didn’t judge her.
“I’ve made pancakes with raspberry syrup” he smiled as he plated them up and brought them over to her before grabbing the syrup and putting some on his then handed it to her before he sat down.
“I appreciate you doing all this" she told him kindly as she poured the syrup over the two pancakes, grabbed her knife and fork and dug in.
They were great, soft and fluffy, just the way there meant to be and the raspberry syrup added a little tangy taste to it but also a sweet one, his a good cook, she noted in her mind.
“Anytime, Chad called me this morning to ask me to look in on you, he told me how you two might have been being watched last night and how you were scared to be alone, if your going to start having night terrors I’m glad I listened and came by" he explained to her and she blushed.
“Chad called you about me?” she asked nervously, the blush heating up her cheeks as she put another piece of pancake into her mouth.
“Yes, he said he took you out to dinner, I’m glad, we forgot to have lunch yesterday with everything that had happened and his a nice bloke, he seems very taken with you" Bob said and she shuffled in her seat awkwardly.
“He does?” she asked not making eye contact but he wasn’t either, he was looking down cutting his pancake, oblivious to Claire’s nervousness.
“Then I remember he did always have a thing for you, even when you were children, of course you were always off doing your own thing so you probably never noticed, he used to go to the hardware shop nearly everyday just to say hello to you" he continued babbling on about it and Claire looked at him confused as she tried to remember what he was going on about, she vaguely could.
“So is this what you came here to tell me?” she asked, noticing he had managed slightly to get the front door mostly closed and made a note to ask about it later, she hoped however that Chad wasn’t the subject he came to discuss as she tried to steer the topic away to something less awkward.
“Oh no, I got the results back from the letters and the footprints and soil sample" he told her and she instantly looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.
“The letters as usual are deer blood, no fingerprints, dead end, the footprints I’ve been told by my deputy that there a woman’s shoe, size 8, but something interesting is he can’t find the make, almost like they have been made by hand and not sold in any store” he told her and she quickly grabbed her notebook and wrote it down.
“Like the kidnapper made them herself? Interesting, so size 8, woman’s, we’re thinking kidnapper is a woman right?” she asked looking up at him once she finished writing and he nodded.
“Well we don’t know for certain if it was the kidnapper out there that night but with the fact that the shoes are handmade and no one in town does or have those that I have noticed I’m guessing it’s a good possibility” he replied.
“And the soil samples?” she asked hopeful, just having anything right now would help, no matter how big or small the clue.
“There was traces of coarse fluvial sediment, meaning gravel, and also guano which is consistent of bat droppings” he told her and she scrunched up her forehead as she tried to think before scribbling it down.
“Where do you find that sort of stuff around here?” she asked keenly.
“Well that’s the question I’ve asked the rangers, I emailed them the file, I just have to wait to hear back from them, their going to be busy the next couple of days though, someone is setting up a hunt to go out in the woods and they have to supervise" he told her and she remembered the flyer she’d seen last night.
“I saw something about that, it’s happening tomorrow isn’t it?” she asked and he nodded as he grabbed the plates and placed them in the sink.
“Sure is, damn idiotic if you ask me, this stalker is a good hunter, I bet my badge it’ll probably be hunting them instead of them hunting it" he said rather frustratingly, he didn’t want them going out there, whether they were skilled hunters or rangers.
She shivered, remembering her nightmare, the creature hunting her, and she remembered Chad telling her about what the town’s people think it is.
“Do you believe in phantom attackers?” she asked Bob, curious to see what he thinks and if he knows about the rumours.
“I see you’ve finally heard about that, I was wondering how long it would be until somebody told you" he said but technically didn’t answer her question.
“Chad told me, so what do you think about it?” she asked again and he sighed as he leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms.
“Honestly if you had asked me that question many years ago I would have said it was crazy but now...” he paused, thinking carefully on how to speak his mind.
“After everything that has been happening, how long it’s been going on, I honestly don’t know anymore, all I do know is something’s out there, something evil and it’s not going to stop, it’ll haunt this town until the end of its time" he spoke, chills running down her spine and she nervously fiddled with her fingers.
“So what do you want to do today? Until we hear back from the rangers we’re pretty much still at a dead end" Bob said sadly as he looked at her expectantly, hoping she’d have something for them to do.
“Maybe not, we still have that knot tying book that Katherine Pearl had at the library, I want to look more into that" she said and he looked at her confused, not fully understanding how it could possibly hold any clues.
“It’s down at the police station, it’s been dusted, the only finger prints on it belonged to Katherine" he told her but she still stood up, carefully opened the front door, cringing as it creaked and hissed from the hinges before she walked over to his police cruiser.
“I’ve called the landlord about this and his sending someone over to fix it" he told her once he reached her and opened the driver side door, referring to her front door.
“Thanks" she said as they both climbed into the car and headed off to the police station.
Officer Peter Lewis said hello to the both of them when they entered, they exchanged quick hello’s back before walking to the interrogation room again where she sat down while Bob got her the book, she put on gloves and he let her take it out of the protective slip and sat it down on the table.
Slowly she flipped through the pages, hoping, almost willing there to be something for her to find, half way through the book and nothing, she was feeling uneasy, especially with Bob hanging over her shoulder watching as she looked for something, for anything.
She sighed, having nearly given up hope when she was 3 quarters through the book when she quickly stopped, one of the pages had been corned over, nearly almost completely, carefully she folded it back out straight.
It was the Fisherman’s Bend knot, and it looked worn, like someone had looked at it many times over the course of years, the rest of the book looked almost new, but this page was browning from age and use, it also looked like specks of dirt was dried onto it.
“Can we get this off and send it to the lab?” Claire asked and Bob quickly nodded, rushing to get a sample cup and tweezers.
Slowly, carefully he scraped some off the page and into the cup, quickly putting the lid on and labelling it.
“I’ll send this off right now" he said as he left, leaving her there looking curiously at the knot tying book.
“What are you trying to tell us?” she wondered out loud.
Where had this book been?
Why was it in such a condition?
Who had been reading it?
And what does this knot have to do with the case?
All these questions and still no answers.