Mirror in the Forest: Book One

by B. Groves

  “How long have you been here Spirit?” She asked.

  “I will be here as long as there are those that need me,” he said patiently.

  Jessica put her finger on her chin, and said, “I am really not sure if I need you anymore.”

  The Spirit nodded in understanding. “If that is what you wish Jessica, then it is your decision, but I do enjoy your company.”

  Jessica smiled. No matter what, The Spirit had been her friend, even though she thought she was crazy sometimes.

  “I do too Spirit,” she said sincerely.

  Jessica smelled the odd odor again, standing, while sniffing the air.

  “What is that smell?” She asked out loud.

  She walked around the edge of the wooded area where The Spirit of the Mirror was, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. She could have sworn it was the smell of death, but she wasn’t sure.

  “Do you smell it?”

  The spirit looked around confused.

  “I’m sorry. Can you even smell?” She asked.

  “I can,” he answered.

  Jessica wrinkled her nose, but tried to ignore it.

  “My Dad said that Rick has completely disappeared. He didn’t show up to for his court hearing. Did you have anything to do with that?” She asked.

  Jessica had to know. It was true. Her dad had spoken to Dale Cooper and even though he was still busy with Mandy, he had pulled some strings with the current county prosecutor to throw Rick in jail for a long time.

  Mark did have a chance to tell her that they were searching vigilantly for him, a warrant had been issued for his arrest, but he was just gone.

  “If Rick has decided to leave Leon’s Crossing it would probably be to his benefit. I have not seen him in a long time,” The Spirit explained.

  The winds changed again, making Jessica almost gag from the smell permeating her nostrils.

  “Yuk! There must be a dead animal around here. I know it’s hunting season,” she commented.

  “Yes, I have witnessed hunters around. Remember death is a part of the cycle of life,” the spirit answered.

  Jessica turned to leave and said, “I better go before I’m missed. Besides, if you’ve seen hunters than I don’t want to be their trophy.”

  “We do not want that child. Remember, if you need me, I am here for you,” he said chuckling.

  Jessica waved goodbye and walked away, but decided to make a few different turns to see if she could find the source of the smell.

  She walked around another path that led to the old ski resort, but found nothing. She couldn’t follow the smell, and when she reached the old resort cabins it was not there.

  She could see the construction starting on the resort soon. The mayor of Leon’s Crossing was trying to build up the town again, and make it the premier ski destination in Washington after the devastation of Mt. St. Helens.

  Her whole life she lived here, and never once went skiing, but now she may have to change that. That was if she ever came back to the town, which was not a high priority for her.

  Jessica had been waiting to hear back from NYU to see if she had been accepted. She really had her heart set on it, and hoped for a positive response soon.

  The only thing that had been bothering her lately was the nightmares about Sara Miller. They were just awful.

  She would wake up in a sweat at night, and found she was more tired during the day because of them. Even though she blew it off to her friends that it was the constant demands of class and basketball practice.

  Sara would usually be standing in her store holding the dagger in her burned hands, glaring at Jessica.

  It gave Jessica chills when she thought of it.

  She knew Sara’s daughter was in the process of selling the shop, and Jessica thought it couldn’t come soon enough.

  Jessica, still not finding the source of the smell, decided to go home.

  She had practice tomorrow night, and she wanted to be rested up for that.

  Tessa had not asked her anymore about the mirror, but Jessica had a strange feeling she was still suspicious of something.

  Jessica had noticed that she had hidden a book about the town’s history under her schoolbooks in the library one night, forcing Jessica to be more aware of her friend’s intentions. She wondered what Tessa could be looking for and why in the town’s history.

  It seemed the pressure was now off of Jessica, but she knew she would probably confess to her friend eventually about The Spirit of the Mirror, but never about Sara Miller.

  Jessica began to wonder if The Spirit could help with Tessa’s diabetes. Jessica could have sworn that Tessa was just looking sicker and sicker every day, and she worried for her health even though Tessa insisted she was fine.

  Thinking she would ask The Spirit of the Mirror about it later, Jessica gave up, and made her way back home.

  However, instead of walking anymore Jessica now jogged through the forest. She had to keep in shape for basketball.

  She did think about Kelly Martin. Kelly was deliberately not passing her the ball or defending her. Mr. Cranston had caught her a few times, and had reprimanded her for it.

  Jessica knew Kelly was going to be a problem soon, and just like Mandy, Jessica was willing to take care of it with the help of The Spirit of the Mirror.

  Jessica jogged back home with a smile on her face.

  Chapter 26

  Mark was glad that he was on the day shift again, even though his time was almost over. Thanksgiving had passed having spent the holiday with Hal, and his family.

  It was hard for him, though. This was his first holiday season without his mother, even though he tried to suppress it, there were moments.

  Mark’s Aunt Ginny was wonderful, but she could never get her turkey as tasty as his mom made hers.

  Yet, as Mark stood in the woods near the old ski resort this was not the way he wanted to start off the holiday season.

  A couple of hunters, vacationing in the area for the holidays, were hoping to catch some meat for the winter, instead made a gruesome discovery.

  Mark did not want to be there, he just wanted to run away and go somewhere happier. He wondered if he was cut out for police work after all. This was the second death in this town in a little over a month, and that just did not happen here in Leon’s Crossing.

  He dreaded the next day having to hear from Baker again about how he was going to petition the state to get a city police force installed, but Mark had to smile. This was a county issue, so how would city cops help?

  The state police, their detectives, the coroner, and his other deputies surrounded him.

  Paul had gone off to vomit somewhere in the woods. Mark told him not to mess up the crime scene. The coroner snickered at the nervous deputy as he ran into the woods heaving.

  He wondered what luck that Sara Miller, and now Rick Tanner, the town drunk, were both dead on his watch.

  He looked up to see the body of Rick swinging softly from the tree from the light wind coming off the mountain. Mark had to admit he felt a little sick to his stomach from it, too.

  They were waiting for a professional tree service to come and help cut him down. The rope was tied pretty tightly on the branch of the tree.

  The coroner had climbed a ladder and surmised he had been there almost a month from his experience, but would get autopsy reports back later. He was so badly decomposed from the elements, that the only way they knew it was Rick Tanner was an expired driver’s license in his pocket.

  Mark rubbed his hand through his shaved head. He knew his hairstyle was not the eighties feathered type, but didn’t care. He was not one for that kind of thing. The only khakis he wore were his uniform.

  While most men were copying Miami Vice, with the blazer over a T-shirt, he just opted for the T-shirt and a good pair of jeans.

  He wanted to chuckle as he had spotted that style around town, even with it being cold and damp here in Washington all the time.

  Maybe he should
shock everyone and get the Thriller jacket, and one glove, he thought amused.

  Mark made a face at this thoughts, he was just trying to distract himself so he wouldn’t have to gaze at Rick’s remains too closely.

  The only thing that was keeping Rick together now was the cold weather, and his bones.

  Mark shivered again, and went to see if Paul was all right. Paul nodded, still holding his stomach, but asked to stay away a little longer.

  Bill approached him and asked, “Do you think it was suicide?”

  Mark nodded in acknowledgement, answering, “Looks that way.” He glanced over at the fallen ladder again. All evidence pointed to suicide. He knew Rick was starting to go crazy, but he never thought he would do this. He had never shown up to his initial court date for his assault on Jessica Winters, and the judge had issued a warrant for his arrest.

  Turned out that Jessica’s dad did talk to Dale Cooper, and Cooper pulled his usual strings to get Don Winters what he wanted. Mark thought that was probably why Rick ran since they had all went to school together, and Rick knew what Dale was capable of.

  He still wondered why Rick had gone after Jessica, but never had the chance to ask him, and he guessed he would never know.

  He did wonder if it did have something to do with her dad. He would question him, but Mark knew Don was out of town a lot lately. Besides, Dale would cover it up if Don gave something away. He wondered if something more had been going on between Don Winters and Rick that he didn’t know about. But, how could he prove it?

  However, something was bothering Mark.

  Bill had said when he took him to the county lockup all he did was scream about how he knew how Sara Miller died, and how a mirror made her do it, referring to Jessica.

  He wondered if Rick had upgraded his drug use to hallucinogens and that was what caused him to attack Jessica at the funeral. Or maybe he had been completely sane and wanted to place blame on Jessica for something he did…..Jessica had just been chosen, because of Rick and Don Winters’ history.

  Mark began to wonder if he had something to do with Sara Miller’s death and tried to say it was something else, but Mark didn’t know. For some reason it was bothering Mark that Rick was telling the truth, but how could that be? Mark tried to clear his head from the thoughts that raced through his mind. He didn’t have enough evidence of anything to build a case against Rick Tanner other than his assault. Yet, the missing dagger continued to bother him to this day.

  If he were taking some sort of stronger substance they would find it in the autopsy report.

  He was going to stop by Jessica’s house tonight, so he could inform her and her parents that Rick was dead by possible suicide after he notified Rick’s next of kin.

  Mark looked down and told Bill to keep covering ground with the state police.

  Mark walked around again to see if any other evidence came up. The detectives were still sniffing around the immediate area of the body. Mark had no idea what he was looking for. He glanced back at the hanging body, and suddenly felt a sense of despair for Rick. If this was suicide, then he died alone in the forest. It was too much to think about.

  Mark spotted a path leading away from the ski resort, and wrinkled his eyebrows in question.

  He leaned over and pushed some ferns, and saw a light set of footprints in the mud.

  He turned around to call for another deputy, but everyone seemed to be busy. He knew he was farther away from where Rick’s body was found than what would be needed for evidence, but he was curious as to where these footprints led.

  They looked like sneaker prints, and were not heavy into the mud, so he doubted that they were hunters. They did not look fresh either, but he decided to follow them anyway.

  He continued to walk down the path, and further into the woods.

  He noticed that this was leading to the lake, and then from there into a neighborhood. Jessica’s neighborhood.

  There was a lot of junk back in this area from old mattresses to equipment from the ski resort. People used this area as their dumping grounds after the resort had closed.

  Mark continued to follow the footprints, and came into an opening when something glinted in the rare Washington sun and caught his eye. He was not far from where Rick was found hanged, actually still pretty close.

  Standing against a Douglas-fir was a full length oval mirror.

  Mark didn’t know why, but he felt very troubled and fear began to spread through his body making him cold.

  He looked around on the ground and found the footprints were gone, and shook his head in confusion.

  There was nothing around him to indicate a human had been here recently.

  “Sheriff?” Bill asked, coming through the radio making Mark jump.

  “Yeah, I’ll be back in a minute,” Mark said slowly into the radio.

  “Alright. The tree service guys are here,” Bill answered.

  Mark cursed silently and said, “Just give me a minute.”

  Mark let go of his radio with his eyes still locked on the mirror.

  It was definitely an antique, and as he approached slowly he could see weird biblical markings carved into the frame.

  Mark began to sweat as fear coursed through his body, and could not put his finger on why. It was just a mirror.

  He tried to shake it off, but something kept gnawing at him. Could this be the mirror that Jessica’s friend, and Rick were talking about? Mark never believed in the paranormal, but wondered if he was going to change his mind soon.

  He stood there taking a deep breath as his reflection came into the mirror.

  He shook his head thinking this wasn’t something you see everyday and how could it have possibly gotten here?

  Mark felt like he was in a trance like state. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the mirror was pulling him in.

  Without thinking he leaned closer to his reflection, not knowing exactly why, however he had the sudden urge to reach out and touch the glass.

  At the same time, a feral growl came from the glass, the blood red eyes with black pupils flashed over his reflection.

  The growl was soft, but enough to scare him out of his trance like state.

  He jumped back in shock and surprise, reaching for his revolver, and aiming it at the glass. It had happened so fast, he wasn’t sure if he had been imagining it. His hands were shaking so bad he wondered if he could pull the trigger, then he wondered exactly what the hell he was aiming at.

  He watched the mirror again, but it now sat quietly against the tree looking normal besides the weird carvings in it.

  He took a few deep breaths and holstered his gun. Sweat was beading on his forehead, and his hands were soaked from it. His grip slipped a couple of times as he tried to place the gun back where it belonged.

  As his breathing slowed, he wondered if the stress of the last month or so was beginning to affect his mind.

  He was starting to wonder if there was some kind of connection between all of the incidents the town was having lately.

  Mark was calm enough now to look over the mirror more closely when a voice came through the radio.

  “Mark? Where are you? We need you back here,” Bill yelled through the radio.

  Annoyed, Mark answered him. “I’ll be right there.” Thinking he could come back at a later time, and investigate further, Mark took one last glance at the mirror, and walked away. The mirror wasn’t going anywhere.

  He felt-no-he knew that eyes were following his departing figure.

  Chapter 27

  Jessica knew she should be happy to see Mark right now, but not with the news he had brought them just a half hour ago.

  “So, do you think it was suicide?” Mary asked, her voice shaking a little, and then lighting up a cigarette.

  “It may well be, but we’re still investigating to cover all bases. We also found some items of his near one of the abandoned ski cabins, so we think he was hiding out there for a while, while avoiding another prosecution,” Mark
explained as they sat at the dining table.

  Mary shook her head sadly and took another drag of her cigarette.

  “Poor Rick,” she mumbled.

  Jessica was reeling from the news Mark was telling them, and she could have sworn the room began to spin. She had been through the area recently looking for the source of the smell, and now she knew what it was, she wondered how she missed the body hanging there.

  She gulped, trying to take a drink of her water, but had a hard time swallowing it.

  “I’ll call Don later and let him know,” Mary told Mark.

  Mark nodded, responding, “Alright. I am sorry to have to bring you bad news, but you had to know.”

  “Well, Jessica won’t have to do anything now, right?” Mary asked curiously.

  “She probably wouldn’t have anyway. Even with your husband talking to Dale Cooper, Rick would’ve pleaded a deal,” he explained. “I could’ve have called, but I figured telling you in person was better.”

  “Case closed?”

  Mark hesitated. “Not until there is a full investigation.”

  “Rick was a good friend of ours in high school, and no matter how much Don tried to help him, it never worked,” Mary said, lost in her memories.

  “To be honest Mrs. Winters, I think this was a long time coming, and I think he was using harder substances that were affecting his mental state which resulted as an attack on your daughter,” Mark commented.

  Jessica noticed a haunted look in Mary’s eyes. She wondered why her mom had that strange look on her face, thinking maybe because Rick had once been a good friend of her parents. That was the only thing she could conclude.

  Mary sat there for a few minutes and held Jessica’s hand. She noticed her mother’s grip was harder than usual.

  Mary was just saying she was comfortable enough to leave Jessica alone again, and return to the night shift, which meant more money for them.