I lived in a relatively small town in northern America. Aside from the groaning teenagers complaining it was “dead as hell” there, everything was relatively calm. But of course theres an exception, what would the point of the post be?
A few years back, I was hitting the bars with some of my friends when we all suddenly overheard the news broadcast talking about a little boy who got abducted, in another small village a few miles from home. Gone, out of plain sight. As if the alcohol wasn’t doing enough to my wellbeing, news like these, my simply drunk mind couldn’t handle. Thinking back, it seemed like the feeling was mutual between my peers and I, because suddenly all of us rowdy, drunks got quiet and didn’t know better than to stare at the bottom of our glasses. So I excused myself and went to go freshen myself up.
When I came back, I saw the peak of a livid discussion breaking loose in the group. As soon as they saw me, they all went quiet again. Now would be a good time to tell you that they were talking about the grand mysterious myth of our city, which I passionately hated. “The hiding deer”. To be honest I didn’t know the origins of it, I thought- probably some elders who were bored and started gossiping, but what I do know is that a large number of citizens believe there is someone, or rather something hiding in the ring woods. In order to get out of the village, you have to drive through a forest which is surrounding everything and out city. It is a good place for camping, hunting and hiking, but is not such a good place at night, when darkness falls upon it. Because that is when they come out, slowly and aimlessly wandering the woods looking for something to pick up. Sounded extremely cheese and lazily made up in my opinion, so I never believed it. But my friends were convinced that it was the “deer”. The oldest of us, Nick, offered a solution to our disagreement. A bet. We could go out and see for ourselves instead of sitting and debating like “fighting ladies”. Drunk, cocky and stupid I made a goddamn, stupid, mistake. I agreed.
First few steps in to the wood and we all felt happy, some of us laughed, joking around. But the deeper we got into the forest, something, and god do I not know what, but something changed. Now I don’t know, maybe I was just imagining this feeling, but it felt off. Like we shouldn’t have been there, not at that time or place. Interrupting my thoughts, Jared, the reasonable one, suggested we’d call it a night and all go home. I was about to speak when Nick loudly exclaimed that we could all go home, but he would stay and “find out” himself. Oh, how I wish I could’ve screamed, cried, begged for them to run out and drag them out of this mess, although I didn’t. For god knows what reason, we all continued, when no one left.
This next part is a frenzy, and hard to believe, even for me. There were four of us, including me. The other three were Nick, Jared and Ali. Nick was all bouncy and happy, racing infront of us, seeming to not get affected by the invisible atmosphere all the other of us went through. I saw him turn his back and give us a wide grin, for the last time, before he disappeared into the woods. When we all realised we couldn’t see him anymore, we thought he was pulling our leg. We played along and thought he was going to come back. Until it went a few minutes and we realised he wasnt. A low call for his name, suddenly turned into a frantic screaming. As you might know from the pattern of the story- that everything is built off of stupid decisions, our next step was to split up. For a few minutes I could only see tree branches, darkness and the only voice, being my calls for Nick. Then I heard Alis screams coming closer to me, and a wave of relief washed over me. I swear I could see his face for a split second before his voice suddenly got cut off and, a thump. There i stood completely fucking stupid and started walking backwards. A mistake, maybe we are just drunk and we’ll find each other again, I’m getting the fuck out of here, were the thoughts that rushed through my mind, trying to justify the act of me helplessly running out of the woods. Then I stumbled and fell as well. When I opened my eyes, and to this day that moment scarred me, I saw a shoe. A small dirty, bright blue velcro shoe, with yellow laces, a white sole and a sewed on “sticker” of Wolverine. Next thing, my hands flew to my phone as I dialed 911, screaming and, eyes filled with tears, running and running until the dispatcher promised that I was safe, and that help was on the way.
Blue and red lights, a blanket over my shoulders and somehow I made it to bed. Next day our local news were flooded with the news of the three missing boys. The nearest reporter made their way to my door but I never bothered to open. A few days later I gathered up enough courage to get out of bed and try to go out. But the reminders kept coming. “Have you seen him”, “Please help us find..” “Find …”. For closure, I returned back to the forest. It was prohibited from entering, since a police investigation was going on, but outside of the forest edge, three high mountains of candles, flowers and pictures of my dearest friends were flooded, in a way I will never seem to forget. In the end I realised I couldn’t forget and that my small city was suffocating me with memories and guilt. Some nightmares and panic attacks later, I decided to move. As I am writing this I am far away from that city, from those memories. But let this be an important lesson for all of you all.