The wind was flowing her hair around as Margaret and they both stood outside of the house, near the front door.
“So, I guess you didn’t like our summer house, huh?” – she said.
Margaret looked at her wild eyed.
“No, no, I love it. Just want to go home, thank you for inviting me.”
“It was my pleasure, miss.” – he said, bowing before her.
“No need anymore, Gilbert.” – the woman exclaimed.
Margo smiled at him graciously, afterwards turned around and asked:
“So, where do we go? What is the way back to the city?”
“Yes, of course, we’ll go through the land then pass the forest.”
“The forest?” – Gilbert asked.
The Sun shined on her face as she turned around and calmly said:
“Yes. The forest.”
…
Menny forest – where you go and never come back. No outsiders are allowed. You remember right?
No one who’s NOT right for the forest is ALLOWED OR WELCOME!
‘Oh, poor Margaret. You really thought you’ll change something? YOU REALLY THOUGHT YOU’LL MAKE THE FOREST COLLAPSE AND DISSAPPEAR? You just made it more bloodthirsty.’
But maybe she’s not wrong… after all.
…
He looked at the ground and went back inside not saying any more words. Margaret saw his demeanor change as he went back.
“Is the forest dangerous?”
“No, don’t worry about it, even though he’s a big guy, he’s always been scared of that forest, just doesn’t like it for some reason.” – she said while her blonde hair was still even though there was some wind, and the Sun shined at it making it very bright. They smiled at each other, and Margaret turned her head to look at the distant road in front of her again while she kept staring at Margo without her smile disappearing, but it went away slowly as she turned her head and stared at the ground before going inside in a following minute.
“Well, I guess I’m going home.” – Margo thought to herself and peeked inside of the house and went in to grab her bags.
…
“Something about this forest. It just doesn’t sit with me well, Josey.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely creepy.” – she answered Smith, her expression taking on a wry look as she widened her eyes in an understanding way. She continued. – “Didn’t you notice that Atlas was barking the whole time he was on the site and not only there, in the whole forest?”
Smith looked at him as he was distressed and wiggling about barking from time to time.
“Maybe he senses something, don’t you think?”
“Yes, of course, lots of dead animals, that’s what he senses. And only God knows what else.”
“Yeah,” – Smith answered. – “By the way, I’m really curious about who’s responsible for the tapes that you found at the doorstep and why’s it your videos? Who has access to your videos?”
“I don’t know, don’t really give my tapes to anyone and also those tapes are very personal, and I even forgot they existed.”
It was quiet as only animals could be heard in the distance; it was afternoon. Walking around in silence for 5 minutes, Smith said once again:
“Do you remember those times in the city? We all lived near each other and were seeing each other almost every day coming back from work.”
“I mean those times were still a part of reality up until she went missing, but I understand you, those days were amazing.”
“I remember that day. It was crazy seeing that in the news: ‘Famous military pilot went missing yesterday at’. Don’t really remember the time, but…” – he said and stopped and as Josey looked at him, she saw that his eyes welled up.
“I know you too were extremely close and I’m sorry for your loss.”
“No one’s lost yet! We’ll find her, NO MATTER WHAT!” Smith objected immediately. Tears rolled down his face and Josey understood looking at him that she blurted.
“I’m sorry Smith, we’ll definitely find her. I misspoke.”
He didn’t answer but just stopped and crouched, petting Atlas.
“You want to go to the bay? Let’s just sit there at the bench and talk about life.” – she said.
“Yes, let’s do that, Atlas wasn’t at the bay for a long time.” – he answered.
“Let’s go and meet with the group faster so we can go to sleep at the right time.”
“Why’d you need to go to sleep at the right time? Is school tomorrow?” – he said mockingly, chuckling at the end. She seemed disappointed.
“No, just to have energy next day for activities.”
“I mean, you can just drink coffee.”
“No, we shouldn’t. It’s not good for you.” – she said and looked in the distance, in thought.
“Oh, so you’re one of them ‘healthy diet-healthy body’ experts.”
They both started laughing as he stood up and continued to walk towards the group again, laughing about it for 15 m constantly repeating the joke.
Chapter 9
He was looking at the sea standing by the guardrail separating them from it. They were almost on a platform, looking down at the sea, gradually appearing as you step forward. The weather was sunny, which made it harder for them both to look up. Smith looked at her face as it was the safest place to look under the bombardment of the Sun. She smiled looking back at him – they smiled looking at each other and he put his head up looking at the sky where the Sun hid under the clouds for an instance. She didn’t look away. But she was not smiling anymore, just looking – with the compassionate look of a mother which was at the same time filled with despair. His abandoned of much attention face with hair growing on his neck and his facial hair was not taken care of although remained that childish feature – some kind of hope, light in his eyes that was always there, but hid deep within him.
“You know, I’m sorry I never told you about her flying. I should have before. Really.”
She looked at the horizon and said while Sun kissed her face:
“It’s ok, Smith, it’s ok. I’m happy you at least told me.”
Atlas jumped on the foundation before the guardrail, where they stood and looked too at the blue horizon, wiggling his tail happily.
“Of course, you know, I really care about you, and you helped me through all of this. I don’t know if I could do this without you.” – Smith said.
The clouds hid the Sun behind them, covering it in their arms.
“Stop it, we’re not even done yet. We’ll find her.”
He smiled slightly.
“Yeah, we will.” – he said and after taking a pause for a minute, continued. – “Do you ever think about your Mom? You miss her?”
“Yes, of course. There isn’t a day I don’t.”
“Do you really think there’s something else that took her away? Like, supernatural powers?” – he asked.
She sighed and said, coming over to his left where Atlas was sitting, looking at the sky. Sitting almost like he was also in the conversation:
“Yes, I do. I do think something happened, just don’t know what though.”
Smith took out some pills from his pocket in his jeans and swallowed two of them as Josephine watched him, not saying anything.
“You want to go for a walk?” – she asked, standing away from the guardrail, behind Atlas. He looked in the distance once more, turned his head to look at Atlas who was doing the same thing and petted him behind his ears as he was getting closer to Smith, so he continued and started licking his hands, putting a smile on his face.
“Why not.” – he answered.
…
Feline was standing in the place near the forest. It was empty, empty for a long time as she looked around the building and it grew all sorts of plants.
“No neighbors, no gardeners, not one soul living in this place – interesting.” – she said to herself.
“Let’s walk in, guys.” – she said to two helping investigators behind her – Alex and Isaac.
The breeze from the sea in the distance wiggled her hair around and not only that, also her coat – beige coat over the dark blue polo-shirt. As they walked in, they saw a small place. Feline’s attention took the small corridor which called for the person walking in to take the stairs and not the left turn into the other room. As Feline investigated the room on the left that attracted her just because it was unassuming and kind of made to seem uninteresting, she thought like, she saw an empty white room, with no furniture, only the couch on the far left – a brown, kind-of moderately new couch and that’s it. She heard both guys walk upstairs to search for other rooms as she walked up to the couch and gently breezed her hand across it looking for some clues – clues from her surroundings or intuition. She stood there for a moment, eventually looking from the glass balcony door outside, into the garden as she didn’t hear anything inside. But nothing stood out, only a singular shoe outside of the balcony door. Feline opened the door after putting some pressure on it. She squatted down and looked at the shoe – a darker shade of green with untied shoelaces with a ripped tongue. She took a picture and left a yellow evidence marker as a place of evidence. She walked back inside and walked across the room as she heard a sound from her right side and looked at the couch – it was a short whistling sound, but it went away quickly, and she couldn’t hold on to it long enough, so she didn’t pay much attention and kept walking to the staircase leading upstairs. The staircase was very old and dusty as were the walls that looked fragile.
“Hey, detective, you got to see this immediately.” – Isaac shouted from one of the rooms on the right where a long corridor opened as soon as you walked in. As she made a turn, Feline realized that the noise came from the balcony, so she rushed through the kitchen which opened a view of the sky and was quite space, also on the way to the balcony she realized orange shelves on top before stepping in the balcony. As she walked in, Isaac was squinting his eyes looking at something very small almost facing the door back to the kitchen. He saw her walking in and immediately reached, showing it. As she came closer, she saw that it was a coin. After looking at it for 20 seconds, she stated:
“That’s… that’s the exact same coin we found in the forest, on those birds.” – Feline said and looked back at them.
“Detective, that’s not a coin. That’s an auspice.” – Alex said, standing on the side with his arms crossed. They all stood silent.
“Where did you find it?” – she murmured, breaking the moment of silence. He turned around and walked to the edge; an amber colored sky stood in the distance, but the clouds started turning violet while the sky was slowly changing into a darker shade of blue – an afternoon was coming in the following couple of minutes. She looked away from the sky at him pointing to the hidden place behind the guardrail.
“Interesting, very interesting.” – she said to herself and put it in a plastic bag as evidence.
…
Margaret was standing near the road looking at the distance and the road to the forest. The car was ready as they both sat in it with him sitting in the passenger seat. She turned her head standing behind the car and looked at the sea on her right far away then looked back forward with her hair disturbed by the wind, but not even disturbed – just carefully played with. “Come on, Margo. Whenever you’re ready.” – she said sitting in a car looking at her from the rear-view mirror.
“I need to call my Mom and tell her that I’m on my way.” – she thought to herself and continued. – “Fuck it, I’ll do it after I arrive, I’ll call Mom and Dad at the same time, also Smith.”
She went forward and put her bags in the open trunk and closed it after placing two bags carefully. She went and sat in the backseat, quite an uncomfortable backseat and as she sat down something stung her on her ass, it was a sharp feeling, but she brushed it off as an accident because it disappeared quickly.
“Alright, let’s go.” – Margo said. Gilbert looked at the lady with a worried face slightly turning his head and she nodded her head which meant:
‘Yes, drive.’
He turned his head forward and took a big gulp simultaneously, starting the car and driving forward looking up nervously for a second.
…
“Did you find any other clues? Or something suspicious?”
“No, we went in here first, let’s see what’s in other rooms.”
They went out started checking and going through all the other rooms – nothing suspicious was found in the kitchen and they went to the 2nd room.
“It looks like someone lived here not a long time ago.” – Isaac said as he looked at all the things in the room, that would be in a normal adult’s apartment – books, a guitar, bed, and weirdly a brick – and orange brick with cement on it in the middle of the room.
“What is this doing here? Everything is so ideally put, but only this brick is out of place.” – one of them said.
“Hold on a second.” – she said while squinting her eyes, totally focused on the room.
“Hey, guys, can you help me pick this up?” – she asked, standing by the bed.
“Oh, yeah,” – they both said, and went for it quickly. – “Don’t worry, we’ll do it ourselves.”
“No, I need one of you two. Let me at least try.”
“Okay, okay.” – Isaac said and backed up.
Feline and Alex grabbed the bed from both sides and even though she struggled a bit at the start, she got the hang of it. They dropped it about a meter to the side and were shocked at what they found. They were all looking at bricks sticking out from the ground that were hidden under the bed.
“What’s this about?”
“Okay, take a photo of this, we’ll come back here. Let’s go into the other room.” – she stated.
Isaac and Feline walked out and entered the third room and as soon as they entered, the scene opened – blood stains were on the ground, in the middle of the room. She kneeled and looked at it, saying:
“I’ll take a probe to compare with the sample we found in the pit but I’m sure it’s Margo’s blood. I’m guessing it’s the killers hiding here who left this stain thinking no one will check this house.” – she said and stood up, looking serious.
“Got you” – Isaac answered – “By the way, I wanted to ask you, what’s wrong with that guy, Smith, her partner? I saw you talking to him and Josephine.” – Isaac asked.
She looked at him without changing her facial expressions, unfazed.
“Don’t worry about them, you know good and well why we’re here.” – Feline said and went over in the direction of the door to leave, but before doing that she stood beside him and uttered: “Just say what we were asked to say – we found nothing in this house.”
…
Smith was sitting in his apartment when suddenly the walls started to close in on him. He grabbed his head and put it down.
“I need to take my meds.” – he said to himself squeezing his eyes, that were already closed.
He stood up and walked over to the cupboard. Smith opened it, grabbing pills while protests were still going on outside. But now they’ve changed their chants:
‘SHOW US HER BODY!
SHOW US HER BODY!
WE WANT TO SEE HER!
WE WANT TO SEE HER!’
Smith looked out of the window confused, not understanding what they were saying:
“Hold on, they haven’t found her yet, what is all that talk about the body?” – he said to himself, and then opened his eyes widely, proceeding. – “Or did they?”
He dropped the pills on the ground and ran for the phone in a rush, searching everywhere for it then seeing that it’s been on the cupboard near the bed all this time. He grabs it and rings someone. After waiting for 30 seconds and looking outside with his heart beating out of his chest someone picked up the phone, it’s Josephine.
“Josey, they found her body?!” – he said as soon as he picked up the phone.
“What? You saw…”
“Yes, they’re screaming right by my house – her fans. Where is she?” – he asked, distraught.
“Smith, listen, you took your pills, right?”
“FUCK THOSE PILLS, WHERE IS SHE?!”
“Listen, okay,” – she said and took a breath before she continued. – “Smith, listen… she was in that hole – the one we saw yesterday. She was in it.”
“What?!…But those were birds. Stop playing games with me Josey, where is she?”
“Smith, listen,” – she said as she started sobbing with her voice trembling and continued. – “She was found in that hole, and you need to take your pills, please. There were never any birds, there was never any homeless man in that forest.” – she stopped even though it seemed like she wanted to say more.
“What?!” – he said and held his head. – “So, I’m losing… my mind?” – he took a big gulp.
“Listen, you’re taking your medication, everything is going to be…” – her voice got quieter and quieter as he put the phone away from his ear and went to the window of his house, where the supporters kept screaming and chanting, demanding something with her pictures all over the crowd. He looked at her big picture in front with pink frame – it was her in a black turtleneck looking right at him with her luscious brown hair dropping down from both her shoulders. Smith stared at it for a moment as the crowd started to get broken up by security and people of the camp who were fed up, but the picture stayed put without an inch of movement.
“They killed me, Smith. They didn’t let me fly, they never let me fly away. Why didn’t you help me?” – Margo said to him as he was looking at it. He put his head down and dropped on his knees. – “Don’t… don’t cry, you treated me well. Because of you I even got a chance to fly, now I’m free.” He now lay on the ground in the fetal position, sobbing.