The car had been empty for days, judging by the amount of autumn leaves stuck beneath the window wipers. It was a small car clearly designed for the city but now halfway up a steep road in the Lake District with no civilisation around for miles. Even then it was a village of almost a hundred called Narrow Clevecote.
The whereabouts of the owners were unknown for well over a month but the locals of Clevecote (as always) had their suspicions. Tales floated about of strange footprints in the caves and stranger noises from the woods. Any mentions of the lake were, without fail, followed by a sharp shudder as fear crawled down the backs of people who'd never seen anything unusual but knew enough to close their eyes when it was nearby.
Search parties from the owner's city and the local authorities (who had no choice) spread out around the area where the car was found in the hopes that the missing persons had just gotten distracted by a sunset or wandered too far into the woods and gotten lost. So many people have wandered into those woods and gotten "lost", these ones are no different.
Their bodies were never found, as usual and eventually they would be forgotten. At least they were meant to be, instead yearly gatherings of their friends and family searched the woods for them. Sometimes they all came back, other times one or two would be absent while the rest bore deep scratches and a haunted look about their faces which would remain there until the next time they came. If they came.
The search party grew fewer and fewer every year until it was down to a grandmother and her husband. They had all seen what was deep in the woods and at this point they knew the missing were dead. All they wanted was to bring back the bones to they could be put to rest.
Remembering from the past few years they avoided the first few threats in their way (the whispering trees, the shambling deerskin, the bloated infant), heading deep into the woods and to the mass grave guarded by something they never found a name for. The people of Clevecote still denied that anything was in the woods but "regular, ordinary wood-things" which wasn't to say the creatures in the woods weren't natural, just hopefully unique to the area.
When they reached the clearing of the mass grave they saw the thing that guarded it sitting hunched over one side, mouth obnoxiously full of whatever poor soul it had just found. The elderly couple signed to each other their plan, knowing that their silent hand gestures wouldn't give their position away as the thing had very narrow vision.
As they were arguing about how they'd know whose bones were whose ("Damn you Ethel, we can't just grab anyone and bury them!" "Well what else can we do George? Yell their names and wait for a response!") they were interrupted by a man's scream as he ran past them and straight toward the creature, giving away their position.
The creature bore down on him faster than they'd ever seen it before. It had been very well fed these past few years and as it raised itself up, viscera clinging to its thick green fur as it met their gaze, chewing thoughtfully. With deliberate slowness it began to crawl towards them and in their old age they knew they had no chance of escape.
The people of Narrow Clevecote reported their car to the authorities a week later, just as they'd done with the car on the road all those years ago. As usual the police claimed they'd done a search and found no bodies or evidence of foul play and given the late autumn chill they could only assume that the old couple had gone for a hike and succumbed to a sudden frost, their bodies dragged off by local wildlife.
The whereabouts of the owners were unknown for well over a month but the locals of Clevecote (as always) had their suspicions. Tales floated about of strange footprints in the caves and stranger noises from the woods. Any mentions of the lake were, without fail, followed by a sharp shudder as fear crawled down the backs of people who'd never seen anything unusual but knew enough to close their eyes when it was nearby.
Search parties from the owner's city and the local authorities (who had no choice) spread out around the area where the car was found in the hopes that the missing persons had just gotten distracted by a sunset or wandered too far into the woods and gotten lost. So many people have wandered into those woods and gotten "lost", these ones are no different.
Their bodies were never found, as usual and eventually they would be forgotten. At least they were meant to be, instead yearly gatherings of their friends and family searched the woods for them. Sometimes they all came back, other times one or two would be absent while the rest bore deep scratches and a haunted look about their faces which would remain there until the next time they came. If they came.
The search party grew fewer and fewer every year until it was down to a grandmother and her husband. They had all seen what was deep in the woods and at this point they knew the missing were dead. All they wanted was to bring back the bones to they could be put to rest.
Remembering from the past few years they avoided the first few threats in their way (the whispering trees, the shambling deerskin, the bloated infant), heading deep into the woods and to the mass grave guarded by something they never found a name for. The people of Clevecote still denied that anything was in the woods but "regular, ordinary wood-things" which wasn't to say the creatures in the woods weren't natural, just hopefully unique to the area.
When they reached the clearing of the mass grave they saw the thing that guarded it sitting hunched over one side, mouth obnoxiously full of whatever poor soul it had just found. The elderly couple signed to each other their plan, knowing that their silent hand gestures wouldn't give their position away as the thing had very narrow vision.
As they were arguing about how they'd know whose bones were whose ("Damn you Ethel, we can't just grab anyone and bury them!" "Well what else can we do George? Yell their names and wait for a response!") they were interrupted by a man's scream as he ran past them and straight toward the creature, giving away their position.
The creature bore down on him faster than they'd ever seen it before. It had been very well fed these past few years and as it raised itself up, viscera clinging to its thick green fur as it met their gaze, chewing thoughtfully. With deliberate slowness it began to crawl towards them and in their old age they knew they had no chance of escape.
The people of Narrow Clevecote reported their car to the authorities a week later, just as they'd done with the car on the road all those years ago. As usual the police claimed they'd done a search and found no bodies or evidence of foul play and given the late autumn chill they could only assume that the old couple had gone for a hike and succumbed to a sudden frost, their bodies dragged off by local wildlife.
No comments:
Post a Comment