When the masked man dropped the knife, I watched as Martin scrambled over to pick it up. With two dogs viciously biting him and the knife in the hands of my friend, he turned to flee. As he ran off, Bella snapped at his face pulling off the mask. But it was too dark for me to make out his features as he fled. Martin sprang up, rocking on his feet, obviously indecisive about whether to give chase as he disappeared into the forest.
Wagging her tail, mask in her mouth, Bella came over and sat beside me as I raised myself up on my elbows. Martin was still staring after the retreating man. With a sigh his hand holding the knife fell to his side, and he turned away and looked over at me and Bella, as Barney laid down on my other side, panting. My body and limbs were throbbing from hitting the dirt, and the adrenaline from fear that made my pulse loud in my ears was beginning to subside. Having my dogs back felt like I had just been wrapped in a warm security blanket.
“What you got there, girl?” I said, and gently took the mask from her mouth.
It was not easy to make out the details of it in the gathering gloom, but it was black, with wide open eyes and mouth. It had tufts of feathers on it. It looked like it was intended to be intimidating. Martin watched me, and then held out his hand and I gave it to him. He held it up, in front of his face silently for a moment.
“I think this is Native American,” Martin said. “But I don’t think there are any living around here anymore.”
I felt the blood drain from my face in fear. I was glad Martin could not see me. You see, he was right. I knew exactly when the last Native American’s left this area. My family were the first and only settlers at that time. And when they left, we were entrusted to be guardians by them. To keep evil away. So, what was that Native American doing here, and why did they attack us? I had a very confused, sick feeling about this.
“No,” I said. “There have not been any of them here in over a hundred years.”
I struggled to stand up, and Martin pulled me to my feet. As I got my bearings of where we were, I was hit by another shock. Of all the places to end up, we were in the one part of the forest I dreaded most. I felt my breath catch, and my shoulders bunch up as I slowly turned and surveyed the meadow. I knew it was there, close to the opposite side of the by the tree line. A chill went through me. Bella and Barney stood up, watching me, and panting softly.
“Audrey, we should leave,” Martin said. “We need to report this to the police.”
“No!” I said, my voice strident from fright. I felt guilty about my reaction immediately.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Martin, raising my hand to my face and slowly shaking my head. “There is more to this than you know….it has to do with my family.”
I had done it. I felt nauseous. In over a hundred years, I was the first in my family to implicate to an outsider that we had a secret. I could not take it back now, but honestly, I was too scared to be alone with what was happening. Then I finally saw it, even though the thought of approaching it now made me queasy, I had to check. All my instincts urged me to flee, but I just knew my dad would want me to stay true to the duty of my family. It could not be a coincidence that we ended up here, chased by a Native American.
“Before we leave, I need to take a look at something,” I said.
As I headed off towards the roughly hewn rock that gave off an eerie, otherworldy aura in the dark, my dogs began to whine. They followed behind me, tails, and heads down. I stood before it, and a shiver went through me. I had only been this close to it a handful of times. My dad used to let me stay back by the tree line when we had to come here, most of the time. Martin walked up next to me and shone his flashlight on it.
“Are you going to stop being so cryptic soon?” Martin said. “It’s kinda freaking me out.”
“I promise I will explain,” I said. “Please, just trust me on this.”
Martin sighed, then nodded.
The light illuminated the ancient thing. If you look at it up closely, you can see that it is not a rough-hewn rock. It’s old, and weathered, but obviously it was created for a use. And up close you can see the remnants of carvings. My dad told me the Native American’s had created these hundreds of years before my family had ever arrived here. Looking at it now, I gasped, covering my mouth with a trembling hand.
“What’s wrong?” Martin said. “What is this, Audrey?”
There were fresh carvings on the altar, obscuring the original ones. I did not know what they were, but I knew this was very bad. Altering what had been used to keep people safe for such a long time was frightening. It all started to make sense, but in the worst possible way. After all, who else would know about the altar, except my family and those who built it – or their descendants. This was the culmination of everything that had happened, it could only mean one thing. The worst fear I had been trying not to think about was real. Someone was trying to free the evil….
We carefully made our way out of the forest, on high alert, dogs in tow and arrived back at my farm with no incident.