Mirror in the Forest: Book One

by B. Groves

  Tessa stiffened near Jessica, and then Tessa began to scream her name, though it was muffled, and what sounded like “no.”

  Jessica dropped the knife and turned to The Spirit. “There has been enough death because of me,” she said quietly. “I will not give you this gift. Just promise me you’ll let her go.”

  The Spirit looked at her stunned, and then smiled. “I have no use for her, she will be freed.”

  This time Jessica knew who owned the voice, as he got closer to them. She knew he would come, but it was too late. Jessica smiled, before everything went dark.

  Chapter 42

  Mark drove back to the Sheriff’s office knowing he had a ton of filing that would need to be done. He wasn’t too concerned about Tessa right now. He figured she probably just did not want to speak with Jessica, and would appear somewhere later. He knew he should just forget about Jessica Winters, and let life take its course, but it was impossible. He had to do something to stop that mirror or whatever that thing was from taking more lives.

  Mark had to come up with a plan to help Jessica get away from that thing, whether she liked it or not.

  He walked in to Marge getting ready to finally leave for the night.

  “Mark,” she said in greeting.

  He wasn’t in the mood for her bellyaching, but knew he couldn’t say much.

  “Yes, Marge?”

  “There was a young girl here looking for you, not too long ago,” Marge said, pushing her glasses up on her nose, and grabbing her jacket.

  “Really? Who was it?” He asked, desperate to know if it was Jessica. Had she finally come to her senses?

  Marge shook her head as she put her purse over her shoulder. “Not the young girl you're seeing, her friend I think. She was a small, sickly girl with dark hair, really pale. She left some old newspaper on your desk.”

  Mark didn’t say another word to Marge. He walked into his office, searching his desk for the newspaper.

  There sat a newspaper clipping from with a note that read:

  You might want to read this. Someone needs to stop this thing.

  Mark picked up the newspaper clipping with shaky hands, and began reading the article. He hadn’t noticed that Marge was standing in the doorway.

  “I remember that accident. Damn shame about those kids that night, just like today,” Marge said shaking her head in remorse.

  Mark made note of the date…..November 28, 1961. Then he made note of who was involved in the accident. He had to clear his throat a couple of times as his mouth became dry, and his breathing began to quicken. The names of the survivors were all too familiar.

  Mark dropped the clipping on his desk, and rushed past a confused Marge.

  He had no time to call for back up. He didn’t know if he would even get there in time, but he knew what Tessa was doing. He had to stop her before it was too late.

  He flicked his sirens on and raced through the streets of Leon’s Crossing, cursing any car that didn’t get out of his way fast enough.

  He reached over as he drove to make sure his gun was fully loaded while he tried to drive at the same time.

  Now, he knew why Tessa hadn’t been seen since the bus accident earlier today. She went to confront the mirror. He cursed her silently wondering why she would do something so stupid, knowing how dangerous this thing was.

  Mark made a sharp turn to where he had first seen Jessica run into the street many months ago. He would approach from the other side of the forest, hoping to surprise the mirror, and help Tessa.

  He slammed on the brakes, and skidded over the wet street. He suddenly heard Hal come through the radio asking if he was all right, but Mark didn’t answer him.

  Mark opened his glove compartment, grabbing his flashlight. He made sure it worked, before he exited the cruiser.

  He shined the flashlight into the forest, and cocked his gun, holding both in front of him.

  He tried to calm his breathing, and his racing heartbeat, but it was impossible. Sweat began to form on his brow as he took the first steps into the thick forest.

  The smell of pine needles, wet grass, and wood permeated Mark’s nostrils. Every sound almost made him jump out of his skin. He had no idea what this mirror thing was, or what he was up against.

  Mark shined the flashlight more towards the ground to find the path from Jessica’s house to the area where Rick Tanner was found hanging.

  He tensed when the path came into view, and he made a right. Everything was silent around him now as if the forest was holding its breath to see what would happen.

  He turned right, and knew he had to call out for Tessa.

  “Tessa! Can you hear me?”

  A light began to shine through the trees in the distance.

  “Jessica? Are you here?”

  He stopped for a minute listening for something, anything to give him a clue to what was happening.

  He perked his ears, when he thought he heard a voice.

  He pointed the gun at the sound, but everything was silent once again.

  He moved closer, and jumped when static came from his portable radio. Shaking his head, Mark ignored Hal’s calls, and began approaching the white light again.

  Then his head shot up when he heard a scream, and the light began to dim.

  In his short time as Sheriff, Mark had seen a lot, but never had he anticipated something like this. Never.

  Inhaling sharply, he ran the rest of the way, calling both girls’ names.

  “Tessa! Jessica!”

  He ran until he was out of breath, and finally came into the small clearing readying his gun.

  The mirror spirit was standing in the middle of the clearing was shining a light from his eyes around the area. He could only stop and stare at the object in front of him. His gun lowered for a second from the shock until he was able to gather his thoughts again. He was able to recover quickly, and raised the gun, pointing it directly at the figure’s head.

  “Where are they?” He demanded.

  He heard a deep laugh come from The Spirit that shook him to his core.

  “Where are they?” He demanded again. He tried to sound brave, but the image in front of him had him terrified.

  “Sheriff?” A voice whimpered from his left.

  Mark looked down to a hysterical Tessa holding the body of Jessica in her arms.

  Jessica lay on the ground very still, her eyes were staring into space as Tessa tried to shake her awake.

  Another deep, musical laugh came from The Spirit.

  He had no idea what to do now. Mark had been trained for many unexpected situations, but nothing like this.

  “What….how?” Those were the only words that he could come up with.

  He looked down at Jessica again, and thought she was dead. Tears began to well in his eyes, a rage rose inside of him that he never felt before.

  He raised his gun, and put his finger on the trigger. That was the only thing he knew.

  “Go ahead, Sheriff. That thing does nothing to me,” The Spirit suggested.

  Mark moaned as an image appeared inside of the mirror. Jessica was on the other side of the glass. He looked down and could still see her physical body on the ground, but her transparent image was inside of the mirror.

  She screamed and cried for help, with her hands against the glass.

  “Jessica!” He cried out moving closer.

  She seemed to see him, and screamed, “Mark!” Her voice nothing but an echo coming through the glass as she pounded on it from the other side.

  “Let her go!” Mark ordered, ready to take a shot.

  Another laugh. “No, Sheriff. She’s mine for eternity. She made her choice.”

  The mirrored figure disappeared before his very eyes, making Mark frantically look around, trying to figure out where the spirit went.

  He gazed at the mirror again, this time the figure was standing behind a screaming Jessica.

  Mark began to scream furiously, firing the gun at the mirror quickly e
mptying the magazine, forcing Tessa to throw herself close to the ground. Glass began to shatter everywhere as each bullet pierced the mirror. Jessica’s image began to fade with each shot fired. He knew he was putting himself and Tessa in danger if one of the bullets ricocheted off of the mirror, but he didn’t care. He had to get Jessica out of it somehow.

  Mark had emptied the gun, and looked down as the light from the mirror began to fade from sight.

  The Spirit sneered at him one last time. “Emptying your firearm did nothing! Jessica’s soul still belongs to me.”

  He ran to the mirror trying to grab it, but his hand went right through. The last image he could see was Jessica still trying to pound on the shattered glass.

  Mark stepped back in astonishment, when he realized the mirror and Jessica were gone. Just vanished into thin air.

  “Jessica!” He screamed.

  Angrily, he punched the tree not caring about the pain or the blood from the scrapes on his knuckles.

  Jessica Winters’ soul was now lost to The Spirit of the Mirror.

  In his life, Mark never felt such grief and despair, and he had witnessed death many times. It was not even a year ago, he had lost his beloved mother, but nothing compared to what he just witnessed. He bent over while his stomach heaved, and tears ran down his cheeks. He felt like such a failure. He wasn’t able to save Jessica, and now her soul was lost, possibly forever.

  He turned to stare at her physical form. He didn’t know if The Spirit of the Mirror taking her soul meant he killed her or not.

  “Is she…”

  Tessa could only shake her head. Mark finally bent down, and gently took Jessica from her. He checked her pulse, and found it to be normal, and her breathing was fine. She was alive and well, but when he waved a hand in front of her eyes, there was no reaction.

  “He took her soul,” Tessa said, looking at him through tear filled eyes. “She did it to save me.”

  Mark held Jessica’s face to his. His grief over not being able to save her overwhelmed him as he cried into her hair.

  “I swear, no matter how long it takes, I will find you,” he whispered against her face.

  Something caught on his eye, and he looked over to his left still holding Jessica in his arms.

  In the dirt next to Jessica’s body lay a dagger; Mark realized it was Sara Miller’s dagger, then there was a necklace, and a half dozen fresh roses.

  Mark took a deep breath and wiped his eyes with his free hand. “We need to get out of here, and get our stories straight, alright?”

  Not saying anything, Tessa nodded in agreement.

  “Come on, we have to get out of here.”

  Mark had no idea how he was going to explain this away. He had no idea what to do next to find Jessica and bring her soul back to her body. He would have to deal with it later, for right now he had to get Jessica to a hospital, even though he knew nothing could help her.

  He handed Jessica back to Tessa for a moment. He stood and picked up the dagger, the necklace, and the roses. He stared at them for a quick second, feeling fresh tears well in his eyes. If only she had told him the truth. I could have helped her, he thought sadly. Scowling in grief, he quickly placed them under a nearby bush. He would come back for them later.

  Gently, he took Jessica’s body back from Tessa’s hold, and picked her up from the ground, and started carrying her down the path towards her house.

  Tessa sobbed the whole time holding Jessica’s head, while they walked, both feeling defeated. Mark looked up when a flashlight shined on them, and three figures appeared on the path.

  Hal could only stand there shining the flashlight on them in shock. Mary began to collapse screaming in anguish when she saw Mark carrying Jessica, with Don trying to prevent Mary from falling to the ground.

  “Mark….what the hell happened here?” Hal asked.

  Chapter 43

  2 weeks later

  Mark sat at the bar, trying to drown out the past couple of weeks. Thankfully, the bar was pretty empty for a weekday. He just wanted to be left alone anyway. The bartender knew he was not in the mood to talk to anyone, and kept other customers from bothering him.

  He realized that people would start asking why he gave his resignation today, but he was not ready to be bombarded with questions just yet. He was expecting Hal to show up any minute. Hal would be promoted to Sheriff until the County Commissioner could bring in a replacement for Mark, and then hold elections again.

  “Are you sure you want to do this Mark?” The commissioner asked him when Mark handed him the resignation earlier that day. Even though Mark was his own boss, and had no superior, he still had to answer to someone, and that was the commissioner.

  “Yes,” Mark answered, not wanting to explain further.

  “Mark, please think about this. You are one of the good ones,” the commissioner tried to reason, but Mark wasn’t hearing any of it.

  He walked out without further explanation, coming straight to the bar. He wasn’t planning on getting drunk; he just wanted to be numbed a little.

  Jessica’s parents made the hard decision to move her to a mental institution. There was no possible way they could care for her now, she was too far gone. There was not anything wrong physically with her, but there wasn’t much more the doctors at the hospital could do for her. She would need psychiatric care, they reasoned, not medical care from now on.

  Mark smiled bitterly, looking into his half full beer bottle. No one could help her. No one. This was not something that science could resolve. There had to be another way, and he was going to find it, until then he could only hope there was a way for Jessica to fight from wherever she was, and come back to her body.

  He remembered the day after The Spirit or whatever that thing was, took her soul. He went back to the wooded area where it was located, and searched for hours trying to find some kind of clue. He rummaged through brush, ferns, and dirt. He was desperate for something that would tell him where he could find it, and Jessica, but nothing turned up.

  He took the dagger, and the necklace, hiding them in his jacket. He then took the roses, and angrily tore them to pieces. Then he sat there for a while trying to get himself together. He looked for the shattered glass from the mirror, but all of it had disappeared. He ran his fingers over the bullet holes in the tree, and tried to blink back tears.

  All he could find was the bullet casings from his gun. He was picking up what he could find when he heard footsteps behind him. He cautiously turned around to see Tessa standing behind him.

  “I was hoping to find something, but I see you’re already looking,” she said sadly.

  “Are you sure you want to be a doctor? Because, you’d make a helluva detective,” Mark said smiling slightly at her.

  Tessa laughed, but wiped her tear filled eyes. “I should have told you my suspicions earlier.”

  “No, you should have stayed in the sheriff’s office and waited for me,” he scolded her lightly.

  Tessa sighed. “I know, but I didn’t know what you were doing at the time, and I wanted this to stop before Jessica ended up getting hurt. Besides, I didn’t know if you would have believed me or not.”

  Mark stood with some bullet casings in his hand and said, “After the bus accident, and her lack of remorse, it just concreted everything for me. You’re right though. I didn’t want to believe it.”

  “I figured you were having suspicions, but wasn’t sure when,” Tessa commented.

  Mark scoffed, putting the bullet casings he recovered into his pocket.

  “Yeah, I was. I feel so stupid now,” he said, shaking his head.

  Tessa looked at him confused. “Mark, why? How could any of us have known what she was doing until Rick attacked her.”

  Mark took a deep, shaky breath. “I still love her, you know. Despite everything, I still love her.”

  Tessa began to sob, and Mark walked over and embraced her. “Me too,” she cried into his jacket. “Because in the end, she did have regrets,
and saved me.”

  “It might take us a long time, but we will find her and free her. We need to find some answers first,” he said, still embracing Tessa.

  Tessa suddenly pulled back and said, “What is this thing Mark? Why didn’t he just kill her and take her soul away then? Why did he leave her alive after she sacrificed herself for me? He was going to make her kill me. I don’t understand it.”

  Mark thought about it all through the night before as he sat at the hospital with Jessica. “That is a mystery that we need to solve. So, it looks like we have a lot of work to do.”

  Tessa looked around the area, and sighed. “I think we know who is really to blame for all of this.”

  Mark nodded. “I think there is a lot of blame to go around.”

  Mark was brought out of his thoughts when something metallic banged next to him at the bar.

  He turned sharply to see his Sheriff’s badge next to his beer.

  “I think this belongs to you,” Hal said from behind him.

  “I don’t need it anymore. You’re the new Sheriff, remember?” Mark said, pushing the badge back in front of Hal.

  Annoyed, Mark threw money on the bar, and turned to leave. Hal stopped him by placing a firm hand on his shoulder.

  “Don’t do this.” Hal hissed.

  “Do what?”

  “Walk away from your career,” Hal answered, still gripping his shoulder.

  “I’m not walking away. I’ve decided to take another approach,” Mark said. He was in no mood to talk anymore. He had things to do, and they did not involve police work anymore.

  He shrugged out of Hal’s grip, and put his jacket on. Hal stood up from the seat and came face to face with his nephew.