The foliage seemed to be thinning, and the slowly increasing greyness could almost be visibly detected filtering into the darkness before us. As I forced my way through the thicket, I tilted the flashlight up then panned it around and saw its focused beam disappear into nothingness. Pressing forward, I crunched through the carpet of fallen leaves and aimed myself in what I imagined to be a straight line.
After several steps, the landscape began to lighten more noticeably even if it was still a muddy twilight. Pushing through the brush, I continued down the incline and soon found myself unceremoniously sliding the last few feet down a vastly sharper drop. Fortunately, I didn’t fall far, landing in what at first appeared to be a shallow clearing.
I heard Ben skidding down the slope behind me and twisted out of the way just in time to avoid being run over by him as he stumbled out into the open space. I quickly panned the light around, trying to get my bearings and realized that we were standing on a service road.
It was somewhat overgrown and didn’t appear recently traveled, by vehicle at least. I tilted the flashlight down and scanned the ground, looking for any sign that Felicity might have come through. I harbored no belief that I would find anything so obvious as footprints, but at this point, I was willing to accept anything The Ancients would see fit to bestow upon me.
Their gift came in the form of an audible clue, although it was connected not with her directly but with my own pet theory about where she would be heading. I listened closely as in the distance a low rumble was beginning to build in both volume and tempo. Unfortunately, the sound was echoing through the woods in a haphazard pattern.
“Whaddaya think?” Ben asked.
“Sounds like a train,” I replied.
“Yeah, but I mean, which way?”
I sighed and shook my head. Then I pointed the flashlight to my right and began to speak, my tone unsure, “Well, it looks like the road curves up ahead there. Assuming we followed a relatively straight path coming over the ridge and didn’t get turned around, that should take us deeper into the park and toward the train tracks. I’m guessing that’s where she’d be heading.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Just a feeling.”
“Okay. I’m good with that.”
“Of course, as I recall, the tracks curve,” I added, second-guessing myself. “So she might have gone back the other way. That is if she came through here at all.”
“So whaddaya wanna do?”
“I’m pretty sure we kept on a straight course,” I finally said, a tremor of uncertainty still underscoring my words. “If nothing else, going right should take us farther into the park. I think.”
“Then let’s go,” he urged.
We started walking, and I twisted my wrist up then pressed the backlight button on my watch. The blue glow lit the dial, and I peered quickly at the numbers. “Five-thirty,” I said over my shoulder. “If she was being guided by some ethereal force, then she knows exactly where she’s going and has probably had plenty of time to get there by now.”
I was amazed at how calm my voice suddenly sounded because internally I was a wreck. My stomach was twisted into a double knot, and nausea had become a constant companion. A sickly sense of dread was raping my spine and wrapping its cold fingers around the back of my brain.
The only thing that kept me from completely losing my sanity at this very moment was the fact that I had not felt anything happen on an ethereal level. Felicity and I had a very tight connection with one another and would often share experiences as if we were one person. At the very least, I was sure I’d be able to feel it if she was already in immediate danger.
At least, that is what I kept telling myself.
The buzzing annoyance of myriad insects was beginning to fill the air, and we both found ourselves randomly slapping at mosquitoes. Birds had begun to chirp their staccato songs to greet the onset of morning, and I could hear squirrels chittering in the branches above.
The distant rumble of the train was coming closer, but I still couldn’t pinpoint a direction due to the echo, and that made me even more unsure of my choice. We continued along the unused service road for several yards before I began to slow my pace, eventually coming to a complete stop.
“What’s wrong?” Ben asked. “You goin’ la-la?”
“I don’t know, Ben,” I replied, my agitation growing rapidly. “I don’t know if… I’m not… I’m just not sure we’re going in the right direction.”
“You wanna turn around?” he asked.
“Gods, I just don’t know,” I replied, fear suddenly bubbling to the top in an attempt to overtake me.
“Just calm down, Row,” he told me, then looked upward. “Sun’ll be up in less than twenty minutes. It’s already gettin’ light, so why don’t we do this. You keep goin’ this way, and I’ll backtrack and go the other way.”
I shook my head. “I still don’t even know if she actually used this road, Ben.”
“Listen, Row, I know you’re upset, but you gotta get a handle on it,” he said. “I’m tellin’ ya’, man, we’re gonna find her and it’s gonna be okay.”
“How can you know that?” I snapped.
“Because I’m tellin’ ya that’s how it is,” he responded in a stern voice. “It’s gonna be all good, Rowan. Now go.”
He turned and started back down the service road, heading quickly away from me through the overgrowth. I watched after him for a moment then swallowed hard and mutely kicked myself for the display of emotion. Where Felicity’s safety was concerned, I had a hard time being rational, and he was correct- I had to stop letting it get the best of me.
I turned in the opposite direction and started up the road, pressing forward into the almost ninety-degree curve, my head down to follow the spot of the flashlight along the ground. I stepped carefully around a deep rut and continued walking until I rounded the bend.
When I looked up, the road stretched out before me in a straight line, and the overgrowth was knocked down as if the pathway had been frequented far more recently. In fact, it even looked somewhat maintained. In the distance, the lane passed beneath a short train trestle and beyond that, disappeared into the forest.
I was mentally debating whether or not I should call Ben back this way when I focused on something slumped against a tree along the roadside, just before the trestle.
My heart froze in my chest, and the sudden onset of blind panic made my skin prickle hot then cold. The flashlight struck the ground with a thud, its beam now directed against a clump of tall grass off the side of the road. I felt a heavy thump in my chest as my heart reacted to the dump of adrenalin, and my legs began pumping hard against the ground.
I wasn’t sure if I heard myself screaming or if it was simply the whistle of the oncoming train as I sprinted madly toward Felicity’s motionless form.
CHAPTER 25:
What I heard wasn’t just me screaming, nor was it only the whistle of the train. It was both. A pair of disharmonic tones blended into a single horrific chord. I don’t know what it was that I was screaming, but my guttural shriek had joined with the blast of the air horn to shatter the pre-dawn calm.
It could have been the word ‘no’. It could have been Felicity’s name. I might have been calling for Ben. A flagrant curse aimed at the Dark Mother wasn’t out of the realm of possibility either. Perhaps it was even all of them at once, I really cannot say.
The simple fact was that the chilling wail was just exactly that- an unintelligible cry of lament in a single drawn out breath. I suppose the second round would have been just as terrifying to hear as the first had it not been drowned out by the now overwhelming roar of the approaching freight train.
