Whispering Pines

by Heidi Lang

  Caden hated to admit it, but he’d missed that thrill. And he knew, deep down, that he wanted to read his mother’s book. He wasn’t so different from his brother after all.

  That thought terrified him. So after school he hurriedly ate dinner, then headed out to sit on the porch swing and sketch, trying to clear his mind. He’d taken up drawing at recess when his classmates stopped letting him play sports with them in first grade, and it had stuck. Sometimes he tried drawing specific things, but tonight he let his pencil move however it wanted, idly tracing the patterns of trees, snowflakes, a burst of sunflowers.

  And a face with no eyes, the mouth hanging open.

  Caden dropped his pencil, the lead breaking. “Darn it.” As he bent down to retrieve it, he caught movement from across the street. Rae slipped out of her house, accompanied by another girl. He recognized Vivienne—no one else wore a backpack that large—and watched as they headed across the lawn and into the trees, doing that particular kind of walk that people did when they were trying to be sneaky.

  Caden straightened, his pencil forgotten. What were they thinking? Rae, at least, should know better. She’d seen what happened to Brandi! She knew something was out there.

  He could report them. The sun would be setting in about thirty minutes, which meant curfew, and the police took that very seriously. At least they did during a code yellow.

  But Caden knew he wouldn’t do that.

  He sat there for another minute, and then he stood and walked to the edge of his yard. The ring of salt enveloped their house like a hand cupped protectively around them. As soon as he stepped over that line, the evening air changed, becoming sharper. Wilder. The nearby trees seemed to reach jagged branches toward him hungrily, and he could feel the pull of the moon rising up over the horizon.

  Caden glanced once at his house, the windows full of cheerful light. And then he crossed the street and headed into the Watchful Woods.

  It only took a few steps before he felt like he was in an entirely different world. The trees closed in behind him, cutting off his view of the street, while in front their branches tangled in walls of greenery, the space beneath them littered by leaves and old pine needles.

  He didn’t see Rae or Vivienne anywhere.

  He hurried deeper into the woods, hunching his shoulders. He’d never liked being in here. There was something a little weird about the space beneath these trees. Cell phones didn’t work, and people got lost all the time, even when they were only feet from the edge. Whenever the county tried to map out the forest, they came out with different mileages. And Caden could feel a slight vibration of energy that he couldn’t quite read, almost like a sound just a little too low to hear. Maybe it had something to do with the Green On! lab at the northernmost border of the woods.

  But Caden also knew that Whispering Pines was a spiritual vortex, attracting all kinds of ghosts and other supernatural energies to the area, and that affected the physical realm more than any science lab. That’s why the olden-day witches who had been drawn to the town had built their stone walls in a protective pattern.

  But as he walked through these trees, he couldn’t help but think about that man from last night. Patrick. And how he hadn’t had any kind of psychic footprint at all. Maybe Green On! really was up to something, deep in these woods.

  Caden shivered and gripped his pendant. The wind whispering through the needles of the old pine trees nearby sounded too much like laughter. And beneath it, the crunch of leaves.

  Something was following him, trying to walk silently.

  He thought of the thing from the other dimension, with its gaping mouth full of teeth and that blank emptiness where eyes should have been. His mouth went dry, and he slid behind a tall pine tree, pressing as close to the trunk as he could. Pine needles poked at him and sap stuck to his skin, but he didn’t dare move.

  Crunch. Crunch.

  It was moving closer. Closer. It was just on the other side of the tree. Any second, and it would see him. He couldn’t stay here, but he also couldn’t run. His only option was to fight.

  Caden caught his breath, waiting until the last possible moment. And then he lunged forward.

  17. RAE

  Rae slid on her running shoes, fear and excitement battling it out in her stomach, threatening to make her sick. She could not believe they were going into the very woods Brandi had staggered out of with her eyes missing.

  Had Brandi known how to get home? Did she even realize how close she was?

  “Ready?” Vivienne whispered.

  Rae glanced up the stairs. Her mom was sleeping in preparation for her night shift at the hospital, and Ava was finally studying in her room. She’d been out in the living room forever after dinner, trapping Rae and Vivienne inside—Rae was pretty sure Ava was purposely keeping an eye on her for their mom. But once her sister hit the books, Rae knew she always put on her sound-canceling headphones. The zombie apocalypse could happen without her knowledge. She definitely wouldn’t notice if Rae and Vivienne snuck out into the woods.

  “Ready,” Rae said.

  Vivienne hesitated. “It is a little late for a hike, though. Did you still want to go?”

  “Yes. But it can be a short hike.”

  Vivienne nodded and shouldered her huge backpack, then opened the front door.

  “Don’t you want to leave that here?” Rae asked.

  “I don’t go anywhere without my bag.”

  Rae thought that was a little weird, but then so was everything else around here. She quietly closed the door behind them, and they crept across the yard. “So, this isn’t just a hike,” she told Vivienne as they approached the tree line. “It’s also an investigation.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “I, um… I saw Brandi the other night.” Rae tried to pretend she was a detective, with no emotional attachment to the case, but it wasn’t easy.

  Vivienne stopped, her attention sharpening.

  Rae swallowed hard. “She was missing her eyes,” she finished, trying not to picture it. She waited, but Vivienne didn’t say anything. And even though Rae didn’t know her well, she did know the look of a person who had a secret and was debating whether to tell it or not. “What?” Rae asked.

  “I heard about Brandi already,” Vivienne admitted.

  “You did? How?” It hadn’t been in the papers, and Rae was pretty sure Caden hadn’t told anyone. As far as she could tell, he didn’t really talk to people. Except her, for some reason.

  “I have my sources.” Vivienne wiggled her eyebrows.

  Rae frowned. “What kind of sources?”

  “Oh, you know.” Vivienne waved a hand. “It’s not called Whispering Pines for nothing around here.”

  “Huh,” Rae said, unconvinced. Vivienne still had that squirrelly, not-quite-meeting-your-eyes secretive look. She knew something. But it was obviously something she wasn’t ready to talk about.

  “So where did you see Brandi?” Vivienne asked.

  “She came out of the woods right here.” Rae pointed just ahead, and they both fell silent. The trees seemed extra sinister in the early evening light, all those naked branches thrust up toward the gray sky. “You still want to come with me? It might be dangerous.”

  Vivienne nodded, her mouth a thin, grim line. “It’ll be safer for you if I’m there too. I know these woods pretty well.”

  “Yeah?”

  “My mom and I spent this past summer hiking through them.”

  “That sounds fun.”

  Vivienne shrugged. “It was, until it wasn’t.” She glanced at Rae, then away again. “Anyhow. We’d better hurry; it’s not a good idea to be out there when the sun sets.”

  For the next few minutes the only sound was the crunch of leaves under their feet, the whisper of tree branches creaking and swaying, the occasional birdcall. But Rae couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching them. Her back prickled, and she had to resist the urge to keep turning and looking.

  Vivienne seemed equa
lly jumpy next to her, her hands wrapped tight around the straps of her backpack. Overhead the sky darkened, the space beneath the trees becoming more shadowy until it felt like anything could be hiding beneath them.

  “What’s that?” Rae asked, nodding at a moss-covered wall just ahead that weaved through the pines and oaks like some sort of stone serpent. It wasn’t nearly tall enough to keep anything in or out, coming up to about her waist, but it looked old, the stone dark and gleaming beneath the greenery.

  “It’s a New England thing,” Vivienne said. “These walls are all over the place, built during the colonial days to separate property. Although the ones here in Whispering Pines are special.” Vivienne patted the wall fondly.

  “Special how?” Rae asked.

  “They form some kind of pattern.”

  “ ‘Some kind of’? That’s a little vague.”

  Vivienne laughed. “Yeah, well, so is the pattern. Every time someone tries to see what it is, it changes.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  Vivienne shrugged.

  “Walls can’t just change,” Rae added.

  “These ones do.” Vivienne climbed onto the wall and leaped down on the other side, nimble as a cat despite the backpack.

  Rae wondered if maybe Vivienne was joking. But then, in a town where people walked goats, bunnies showed up with their blood drained, and random sinkholes appeared, maybe stone walls really could move. Rae put her hands against the slightly damp surface and hoisted herself up and over.

  The woods felt different on the other side. Quieter somehow, the air thicker, like it had been dammed up in this space. Rae’s lungs tightened almost immediately, a familiar pressure building like a large rubber band around her chest. “Just a sec,” she told Vivienne, digging in her pocket for her inhaler. She took a puff, then silently counted to sixty before taking another dose.

  “You okay?” Vivienne asked.

  “Yeah. Sorry, I think something in these woods is a trigger for my asthma.” Rae slid the inhaler back into her pocket. Her lungs felt better, but now she had the shakes. She hated that her inhaler affected her that way.

  They walked more slowly now. Nearby, Rae could hear the burbling sounds of a creek. It was a little creepy, with the sun falling lower in the sky, the trees casting long shadows like fingers clawing at the forest floor. Okay, maybe more than a little creepy.

  Vivienne stopped suddenly, and Rae ran into her backpack. Whatever she kept in it was quite hard. “Did you see that?” Vivienne asked.

  Rae rubbed her nose. “See what?”

  “Something just ran across the path in front of us.” Vivienne sounded nervous.

  “Was it an animal?” Rae squinted around her friend, but she couldn’t see anything except about a million trees. She listened again for the creek, and only then did she notice: no birds were chirping, no squirrels scurrying, not even the caw of a crow could be heard. Nothing.

  “I don’t think it was,” Vivienne whispered. She bit her lip. “Want to go back?”

  “No,” Rae said immediately. “Not quite yet.”  Then she felt guilty. “Unless you really want to?”

  “No,” Vivienne said, but she kept glancing around as they resumed walking, the silence growing thicker around them until even Rae couldn’t take it anymore.

  “It’s too—” Rae began.

  Crack!

  A dark figure lunged out from behind a large fir tree, crashing into Vivienne.

  “Aaah!” Vivienne shrieked, stumbling back into Rae.

  Rae tripped over her feet and fell on her butt, but Vivienne kept her own footing. She went all berserk on the figure, landing a real good smack to the side of his head, then whipping out a can of pepper spray.

  Rae blinked up at their attacker. “Caden?” Her neighbor stood there, rubbing the side of his head, leaves tangled in his spiky black hair. She pushed herself back to her feet, her jeans slightly damp from the forest floor.

  “Stay back, or I’ll Mace you,” Vivienne told him.

  He raised his hands. “It’s just me.”

  “I know.” But Vivienne didn’t lower the Mace. “Why are you following us?”

  “Because you both crept out of Rae’s house like a couple of burglars, so I was curious.”

  “So you were spying on us?” Vivienne said.

  Caden sighed. “I live across the street. It’s not really spying if you’re doing it literally in front of me. Now, can you please put the Mace down?”

  Vivienne lowered her hand. “It’s actually breath freshener,” she admitted.

  “Really?” Rae asked, trying not to laugh.

  “I wanted Mace, but it’s harder to get around here than you’d think. So I asked my dad for pepper spray, but he, um, must’ve gotten mixed up. See?”

  Rae read the bottle. “Mint Attack.”

  “I figure it would still sting a little, if a person got it in the eyes.” Vivienne eyed Caden. He shifted back a few inches, and she grinned. “I have an extra, if you want it, Rae-Rae.”

  “Um, okay,” Rae said. “Sure.”

  Vivienne tossed her the Mint Attack, and Rae pocketed it next to her inhaler.

  “So, what are you doing out here?” Caden asked.

  “Since when do you care what other people are doing?” Vivienne demanded. “You don’t even like other people.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Isn’t it?” She crossed her arms. “Before today, you probably said, like, five words to me the entire time I’ve known you. But now suddenly you’re all interested in what we’re doing?”

  “Maybe I’m just concerned.”

  “Why?”

  “Because there’s something in these woods that doesn’t belong here.” He said it so matter-of-factly, the same way Vivienne said the stone walls moved, or told her a student or two went missing every year. Just another fact of life here in Whispering Pines. He turned to Rae. “You saw Brandi,” he added.

  “That’s why we’re here,” Rae said. “We want to find whoever attacked her.”

  “Now?” Caden said. “Sunset is in about fifteen minutes. You don’t want to be here when it gets dark.”

  “Why not?” Vivienne taunted. “Are you afraid of the dark?”

  “Oh yes,” Caden said softly. “There are things that can see us, hear us, and sense us much more easily in the darkness.”

  “Well, that’s not creepy at all,” Rae muttered, hunching her shoulders. “How about we look just a few minutes longer, and then we’ll head back?” It didn’t feel right to give up on an investigation so early.

  “You don’t have to stay with us,” Vivienne told Caden. “Rae-Rae and I are just fine on our own.” She marched forward, moving easily through the trees. Rae caught Caden’s eye, and the two of them followed a little more slowly behind.

  “Thanks for coming after us,” Rae told him, but quietly. She didn’t want Vivienne to hear. Even though she wouldn’t admit it, it felt a little safer having a third person along. Especially someone like Caden, who seemed like he knew all about the things that slithered through the night. “And… sorry I yelled at you yesterday.”

  He shrugged.

  Rae waited, but he didn’t say anything. “That was it?” she demanded. “No response? No ‘I accept your apology’? Just a shrug?”

  Caden glanced at her. “I’m sorry, I’m a little distracted right now.”

  “Why?” Rae narrowed her eyes.

  “Because… I think something is following us.”

  Immediately her irritation vanished, replaced by cold, hard fear.

  “Don’t look,” he hissed, but it was too late; Rae turned and searched the woods behind them. Nothing. But it was still super quiet out here. Which made her think that whatever had chased off the birds was lurking nearby.

  “Guys?” Vivienne called. She’d managed to get several feet ahead. “You should see this.”

  Rae winced at the volume. It was as if Vivienne were announcing their location to… well,
to anything. Everything.

  When Rae caught up to Vivienne, at first all she saw were more trees. But then she noticed, perched behind the trees like some giant carrion bird, an old wooden cabin lurking, the roof steeply arched and covered in moss, tall grass swallowing up the sagging porch. All of the windows were boarded up, the paint on the sides of the cabin peeling in long strips.

  No one had lived there for a very long time. Or at least, it was meant to look that way.

  “Perfect hideaway for a serial killer,” Vivienne said.

  “Want to go check it out?” Rae asked.

  Vivienne laughed, then stopped. “Oh, were you serious?”

  Rae nodded. “What if whoever attacked Brandi lives there?”

  “Then we should tell someone else about it and—whoa!” Vivienne staggered back as something darted past them on the other side of the clearing. “Did you see that?”

  “It looked… almost like a person?” Rae swallowed, terror clawing up her throat.

  Vivienne pulled her pack tight against her back. “Right?”

  “Yeah,” Rae whispered. “Only…”

  “Only not,” Caden finished.

  The shape moved again, slipping out of the trees to appear in front of the house before vanishing behind it. Caden was right; it didn’t seem quite human, its arms and legs too long, its movements spiderlike.

  The three of them instinctively moved closer together until their shoulders brushed.

  “Maybe we imagined it—ah! ” Vivienne yelled.

  The thing lurched out from behind the house and rushed toward them, moving too fast for them to see clearly in the growing darkness. They could hear it, though, the leaves crunching under its rapidly churning feet, and something else. Some other sound, almost like a growl.

  Caden shoved Vivienne and Rae forward. “Go!” he yelled, and then they were all running, crashing through the trees.

  Rae could hear her breath wheezing, despite her inhaler, her pulse pounding way too hard. And beneath that, the sound of footsteps gaining on them.

  18. CADEN