Ever wonder there could be anything in the thunderstorm? The thunder rolls in through town like it usually does. Our town has one rule, a curfew our town lives in fear of the thunderstorm. When you see the storm in the distance, an alarm goes out throughout the whole town, letting everyone knows including the local police, everyone must stay in wherever they are.
And you watch and let the thunderstorm go by, one rule we all abide by without a word. This curfew had been in an effect for nearly a hundred years, no one in history of our town has ever asked why? why do we have to be afraid of the thunderstorm that only covers our town only.
I pulled into the parking lot of the local sheriff station, I shifted in my driver seat, still feeling unsettled after the guy in the white hoodie hiding in my backseat. I stared at the station and sighed. slowly I got out of my car, that low rumbling sound caused me to flinch as I whipped my head up to see in the distance, the dark cloud rolling in. the thunder that seemed to roar, I could slowly hear the warning alarm that seemed to echo throughout the entire town.
I grabbed my backpack and ran inside the station, the receptionist, Cathy, with her long fake pink nails, her bottle bleach blond, but the moment she saw me walk in, she gave me a big bright smile. “Hallie! Nice to see you, what can I do you for?”
“Detective Stacy asked me to come. and you know a thunderstorm . . .”
Cathy leaned over the receptionist desk, and she let out a sigh of frustration, “great,” she huffed. And officer went to the door and stopped and stared out the glass door and looked at us. “I know, we have to stay here for the night, don’t you worry. I’ll get everything ready for the night.” she put on a bright red lip smile. the officer nodded in sighed, he turned and went back.
Detective Stacy walked out and saw me and gave a nod, “take a drive with me,” he said.
I stared at him, so did Cathy. “Sir, Detective, we are in a state of emergency, we cannot leave the building.” Cathy said in her nicest tone.
Detective Stacy scowled at her and stared out into the parking lot where the wind was starting to pick up, and the thunder let out a low rumble in the distance. “I don’t see the problem, its just a little thunderstorm.”
Cathy pouted her red lips, “the town is in lockdown until the thunderstorm passes.” She stared at him, knowing Cathy, she has that crazy eye look when she wants to stare someone down.
Detective Stacy let out a sigh, “care to explain? I’m not from around here.” He shoved his hands into his suit pants, showing his badge clipped on his belt.
Cathy let out a small whine, and I smirked. I sighed; I pulled my hair into a ponytail. “it’s a town curfew, it’s been in effect since 1900 or so, but down here we get really bad thunderstorms, people go missing or body parts are found in backyards if people stay outside during the thunderstorm. Anyway, all and any residents within the town must go in doors and stay where they are including grocery stores, the police station, or even schools. You can call the mayor if you want, but it’s been in effect for years.” I say with a small smirk, knowing Detective Stacy had no idea about our weird town quirk.
Detective Stacy licked his lips with confusion lining his sight, he squinted at me, “pry tell me why people go missing or body parts are found in backyards during thunderstorms if anyone is outside?”
Cathy cleared her throat, “sir, we don’t question it. its just how we do things,” she gave me a look and then turned and walked towards the back in her bright red heels.
Detective Stacy scowled, “that was weird, here I think this town is normal, and weird stuff keep being thrown on my desk. I’m starting to realize why the previous homicide detective went crazy for that reason alone, I’ve got three cases already with people being killed by man eating deer’s, ever heard of that? now thunderstorm massacre?”
I turned to look out the glass doors, the sky grew darker and darker, the dark grey clouds already causing it to look darker than it was before. “Sounds about right, my dad used to complain about it all the time,” I sighed. “he’d ask me, ‘ever heard of a bunny eating the neighbors’ dogs, vicious little bastard nearly took my fingers’ I thought my dad was joking. But welcome to our little weird town. where all the weird things start and end with that forest that surrounds us.”
“Your dad?”
I gave him a pained smile, “he used to be the sheriff,” I clarified for him. “He used to handle all the weird things. Anyway, we can talk here, about the man in the white hoodie?”
He nodded and leaned against one of the walls nearest to the doors. “Yes, the prime suspect to Mr. Cull’s death. the autopsy reported that Mr. Cull’s body was not killed by an object or rather something large took a bite out of him like a shark or something. A large animal attack is what he Corner said, and what I heard, this person in the hoodie claimed he saw Mr. Cull die. Sheriff Saint Clair is going to write this case off as an animal attack.”
“Oh,” I said softly, I stared at my shoes. “It feels wrong. . .”
“My gut tells me a lot of cases like Mr. Cull who go missing or Adam are written off.” he sighed. “Speaking of which, I looked more into Adam’s case. Did you know that he had been regularly going into the forest the last three weeks before he went missing? In which one of those incidences, he was seen going in with a fellow student. I thought it was you until the witness told me it was another guy. A redheaded guy looked kind of nerdy, so I did some digging into your film class. there’s a new student in your class, his name is Edward Sten, he recently transferred over from New York.”
I looked up at him and scowled, “yeah, I was just at the diner with him before the guy in the hoodie spooked me. he—wait he went into the forest with Adam? but he’s told me he’s never been. He thinks there’s some environment thing that’s causing the weirdness in the forest.”
Detective Stacy scratched his jaw, “well what can you tell me about him? besides him trying to get you in that forest, if I’m assuming right?”
I shrugged, “he said he’s an editor and that he helped Adam edit our footage and photographs which I saw some. Said he used to be a hacker of sorts, he said he was the last person to see Adam.”
Detective Stacy nodded slowly, “interesting, I interviewed him a couple days after Adam had gone missing and he’d said the same thing everyone else said. he barely knew Adam; basically, said you were the last to see him. I’m waiting on his background check; I’ve been following him around. he’s hiding something from you and me.” he shook his head.
I had a bad gut feeling about this Adam especially how the guy in the hoodie warned me not to go into the forest. Said that the forest will try and get me to go, why was Eddie trying to get me to go tomorrow morning. If he had been in the forest with Adam beforehand, why would he want me to go too. that is suspicion at best.
Detective Stacy stared at my backpack. “What?”
“The tapes, you two mentioned something about them, the man in the hoodie wanted you to get rid of tapes you found. I had asked you if you found anything that could help in Adam’s case. You lied to me.”
I tightened my grip on the strap on my shoulder, “these tapes are important, I know, but I can’t just hand them over to you. They’re more important than you think. Listen, what I said about the forest its weird, strange things happen. But I know from what I’ve heard on those tapes, it’s something about that radio tower, or what I know could be a ranger outpost for something. And whatever its for, Mr. Cull knew, his family knew about it. whatever it was. you can believe me or not. But—”
Suddenly thunder clapped so thunderous overhead it nearly shook the building, causing both I and Detective Stacy to crouch down. The roar didn’t sound like a thunder at all, more like something huge was walking by. The police station was close to the forest, the thought of what was described on the tape ran through my thoughts.
The lights overhead flickered off, and we were plunged into darkness. It was so quiet we can hear each other breathing. I glanced out the glass doors, the rain was coming down in heavy drops, until I saw it. something dark and moving out in the streets, the cop cars alarms were going off.
Thunder roared so loudly something dark threw one of the cars across the parking lot, and I put my hands over my mouth. I glanced at Detective Stacy, who already had his gun out, he was peering around the wall out of the glass doors, his eyes clearly spoke in volumes, he put his finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet.
I nodded, I was in the open space of the lobby, if anything could look inside, they’d see me. I glanced at the locks on the glass door two at the bottom and two at the top. Slowly I crouched walk over to the class door, as I could feel the vibrations of the glass door rattling.
Another cop car flew across the parking lot, and I nearly let out a yelp, but I didn’t. slowly I put the lock down on the bottom of the door it made a loud clacking sound, it felt like it was so loud, that what was outside could hear what I had just done. I bit my lip hard as I stared out into the pouring rain, and the thunder clapped, and suddenly a flash of lightening lit up the sky, and my eyes widened as what I saw. Just over a hundred or so feet tall, six legs, all with hooves.
Swallowing in my throat slowly, the lightening dissipated, and I closed my eyes and glanced over at Detective Stacy whose eyes were just as wide as mine. Slowly I stood up and pushed the lock upward, so the glass doors were locked but doesn’t mean anything if that creature right outside decided to kick a cop car into the building.
I backed away from the door, and in the distance, I could hear music, it sounded almost faint, but I could make out a base guitar. I slowly peered out of the glass door; there I saw a car playing music the thunderous roar called out again. it didn’t kick the car, it steered away from it.
“The hell . . .?” I whispered.
“What?” he whispered back.
“It doesn’t like music.” I backed up and ran towards the receptionist desk, I looked around until I found a stereo that took batteries. I lifted up on the desk, and turned it on to the radio station, all I got was static. I hissed until I kept flipping through until I found a channel that was broadcasting. it was the exact same music the car outside was playing, so I turned it up loudly.
“Turn that shit off . . .” he hissed through his teeth.
I picked up the radio and set it just by the glass doors, the building shook and followed with screeching, whatever was out there didn’t like the sound, the thunder roared more frequently but it got further away. the rain seemed to pelt the windows harder as the fierce wind could be howling outside. I kept the music going, until the rain finally settled down, I glanced over at Detective Stacy.
“The music.” I spoke. “It doesn’t like music.”
“What doesn’t?”
“Whatever that thing is out there, the radio tower isn’t just for decoration out there, that tower is out there for a reason. And somehow Adam knew.” I spoke.
Detective Stacy grunted, “I don’t know about that, I don’t know what was out there, but you weren’t kidding about it being an emergency thunderstorm.”
“didn’t you see it? the thing?!” I pointed at the glass door.
“I don’t know what I saw, Hallie.” He scrubbed at his face.
I shook my head and started to walk away. I heard him calling out for me, but I ignored him and went into the bathroom and threw my backpack down on the floor and turned the water on. splashing cold water on my face and stared at my own reflection, and I saw the backpack. I stared at it. Eddie wanted to go out there, but if what Detective say is true, why did Eddie want me to go out there with him. why didn’t he tell me he went out there with Adam?
Turning around I opened my backpack and pulled out the tape recorder and popped in the next number, three. I slid the earbuds into my ears and leaned up against the bathroom wall and pushed play. this is what I heard:
“I found these tapes, and I’ve got to say, its something.” I paused the tape and my jaw dropped, I recognized that voice. It was his, the man in the white hoodie. This was his tape. My thumb hovered over the play button; I took a deep breath in pushed it again.
“My name isn’t that important, but I suppose you can call me Owen. I am not exactly a DJ working for the radio tower in this weird town. I’m a P.I. I had been contacted to look into the disappearance of Julie. I found this tape with a note wrapped around it, that said listen to me. so, I had. these stories are something else, I don’t know if there is a monster out there, to be honest. Something has been happening to these people. as an Investigator its my job to find the truth wither that unveils some skeletons. Sherrif Caine has a lot—” I stopped the tape.
Tears gathered up in my eyes, my father. Of course, he’d be involved in this. when I was thirteen my father died. Died in a horrible car crash, I had learned that day no one leaves town. this town sinks its claws into you, and holds on tight, the more you try to pull those claws out the more you bleed. I took another breath and pushed play.
“Of skeletons in his closet, I know he’s dirty. But I know he’s hiding something about that forest that surrounds this town. I think he’s covering up the bodies, the missing. These cases had been going on for years, I didn’t know how deep it goes, its more then Julie, its more than Chase, it goes all the way back as far as the founder. A man named Stanford. I’m going to continue the investigation until I find the truth or if I end up like the next victim. But I will give you who ever is listening to this, the radio tower was put in the forest not as a radio tower, but as an outpost. I was able to get an interview with Ethan Cull, the current owner.”
“He had informed me that music has to be constantly playing from the radio tower, no matter what, thunderstorm or not. He said that if music is played constantly and consistently the thunderstorms will disappear, I didn’t believe him until it happened to me. he had told me there is a certain frequency that the keeps the forest from acting up. as per usual a thunderstorm had rolled in.”
“I was in the radio tower, I saw it. it was as if the thunderclouds were alive, I saw the six glowing eyes emerged in the clouds, I turned on the music. Whatever was previously playing at the time, I cranked the volume as high as I could. at first, I didn’t notice it, but the thundercloud stopped and started to retreat back wherever it came from in the mountain range, and the sky went back to normal, the thunderstorm never happened.”
He sucked in his breath sharply, “I don’t have much time, Mr. Cull needs people in that radio tower not to just listen to music but to keep the town safe from whatever is threatening it. if you are the next DJ you need to heed this warning, don’t be afraid of it. focus on helping the town.” he swore under his breath. “I mistakenly left the radio tower after I stopped playing the music, it doesn’t matter what happens to me. if Mr. Cull or his family line dies, this town will be in danger, it will swallow the entire town and everyone inside it.”
The recording stopped, furrowing my brow, if Owen died. Then why was he helping me, why was he running around with a white hoodie on? I stood up and shoved the recorder in my backpack and hurriedly out the bathroom door, glancing around I saw the record room. I peeked around the corner to see Detective Stacy keeping his attention on the parking lot, the other officers had their attention on keeping each other company.
I snuck over to the door across the hall that said Archive in bold print. I tried the doorknob and the door open just like that. I slipped inside and pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. The whole room was line with cabinets after another. I walked down the nearest little aisle, shining my phone flashlight at the title, they were alphabetical order.
I looked until I found the ‘C’ and pulled that one open. I started to finger through the files, until I found one almost in the back that said ‘Cull’ on the tab. I glanced at the door and pulled out the huge file, it took me two hands to pull it out.
Sitting on the floor I opened the file to the Cull File, the first picture I saw was Luca Cull, and the autopsy report of his death. I skimmed through it, the Corner had found fur that doesn’t seem to belong to any animal species, it was nonhuman as well. I flipped through the pages that documented when he went missing and the CD, he had taken with him.
until I got to another one, Ethan Cull, Luca’s older brother. He was killed in a car accident; he was found dead on the edge of town with vines wrapped around his car and bent the car in half. His chest was ripped open, and his heart was missing.
There were photos of his gruesome death, and my eyes widen. the picture was in black and white, but I can tell instantly, Ethan Cull was in the passenger seat, his chest ripped open, but it wasn’t that caught my eyes. in the corner I noticed, he had a tape recorder in his hand, and the tape recorder was popped open with not cassette tape in it.
did Ethan make a recording? I flipped through the other photographs of his death, I noticed something as well. a tattoo on his forearm. It looked like a simple two-inch tattoo of a pine tree with a circle around it, I turned my flashlight off on my phone and I turned on the magnify to get a better look at the tattoo. And that’s when I realized the trunk of the tree were words.
What I could make out were: Into the Forest I Go to Lose My Body and Find My Soul.
Then I flipped back until I pulled out Luca’s photo of his corpse, that’s when I saw he took had the same tattoo, but it was on his other forearm. the one not eaten. I continued to flip through Cull after Cull that had died over the years. And I saw the consistent tattoo. Interesting. I took a few photos on my phone and closed the case file and put it back. standing up, I started for the door and stopped.
Turning I looked at the cabinets and went through the alphabet again and found my father’s file. I was about to open it when heard footsteps outside the door. Hurriedly I shoved the folder into my inside jacket and quietly as possible shut the cabinet and walked to the door but before I could get to it, the door open to Detective Stacy standing there.
“What are you doing in here?”
“I got turned around, I was looking for the bathroom.” I lied.
He squinted at me and nodded, he opened the door wide for me to duck under his arm, and he shut the door and locked it. as I walked out into the lobby, I wasn’t sure how to describe this feeling, but it was a calling. I walked to the glass door, and I saw Adam standing on the edge of the forest. The lightening cracked across the sky, and Adam was looking at me. when the lightening lit up the sky once again, he was gone. all I saw was the inviting darkness to the forest.
I put my hand on the glass and the thunder clapped along with the lightening again and Adam was standing just on the outside. He didn’t reach for the door, it was as if I wasn’t seeing him fully, it was a reflection, I wasn’t seeing him outside but merely his reflection behind me. he opened his mouth and the lightening disappeared into the darkness and Adam’s reflection disappeared as well.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was unlocking the door, Detective Stacy wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back as I screamed and kicked. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I wanted desperately to go outside, something was calling to me, wanting me to go out there.