The Dark Place (#FrightFest2016 Gold Winner)

The Dark Place - Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five

1

After Jack Moon had walked through the half hidden door at the end of the garden it wasn't long before he stumbled across the lake. He had no idea where he was going or even in which direction he was headed. All he did know was that his daughter was out there somewhere and she needed him. Deep inside some part of him asked how he expected to find her when he didn't even know where he was.

In the distance, over to his right, he caught a glimpse of a dim light moving amongst the darkened cover of the woods.

Is that a flashlight? He allowed his eyes to follow the light until it finally vanished deeper into the darkness.

2

Amanda passed the beam of the torch over the ground trying to retrace their tracks from earlier. She had made the journey down to the grounds man's house so many times that she had hardly to think about the tell tale gaps in the trees and clear pieces of ground that pointed out the easiest route, but everything seemed different now. It was as if the woods themselves had put up a barrier between the clearing and old building.

She stopped before what looked like an impenetrable wall of bushes, which she was sure she had never stumbled across before. But I'm sure this is the way we usually come. She passed the beam in search of a gap but the foliage looked as solid as a wall. Behind her Amanda could hear Wendy's footsteps as she drew closer.

"Where did all of this come from?"

Wendy's words confirmed Amanda's fears. That had been the way they had come earlier only then there had been a narrow, foot-trodden pathway that lead through the thick rows of trees on either side all the way up to the house.

Wendy backed away from the obstruction. "I don't like the look of this, I think that we should turn back."

Amanda turned and caught the other girl in the beam of the now dimming torchlight. "Shut up and help me find a way through this shit."

"No way, I'm not hanging around here."

"I told you to start looking for a way through you silly little bitch." In one quick movement Amanda grabbed a handful of Wendy's hair and pulled her back to the cluster of bushes.

A shock of white heat tore through Amanda's own scalp as Wendy tugged at her mousy locks with both hands. "And I told you that I'm going back."

There was the look of a wild frightened animal in Wendy's eyes that stunned Amanda for a second and she released her grip. As soon as she was freed Wendy turned and ran back in the direction of the clearing. "Your dead bitch, do you hear me?" Amanda yelled as she watched the other girl disappear into the woods.

The dim light from the torch flickered, dimmed and then went out all together.

3

Jack Moon froze in his tracks and listened. The rustling sound had started up again and this time it was headed straight towards him. He caught a glimpse of something directly ahead of him but found it difficult make out what it was in the darkness that surrounded him.

"Hello," he called, "Who's out there?"

For a moment the rustling stopped.

"Tamicka is that you? It's me, daddy, I'm right in front of you honey."

For a while nothing happened. Jack Moon took a few careful steps forward. She must have been cold, lost and very frightened. He cast his mind back to how he had treated her earlier that day. The way he had spoken to her, looked at her as if she were not his own daughter, a part of him.

But that had not been him. That had been another man. The man he had learned to hate but whom he could not rid himself of.

"Don't be frightened sweetheart; I'm here to take you home."

The lightning flash that filtered through the roof of leaves did not provide much light but there was enough for him to make out the girl crouching down by a cluster of bushes. It was not Tamicka. He had only caught the barest glimpse of her but it had been enough to tell him that  the girl was much too tall to be his daughter.

"Hello there," he shouted above the crackle and boom of the thunder, "Have you seen a little girl around here?"

The girl did not answer.

"She's about this tall," he raised his hand half way between his chest and his stomach to indicate. "Long blond hair, really cute?"

The next lightning flash sent the girl running off to his left. Moon tried to follow her but her fear seemed to have given her unnatural speed. For a moment he thought about continuing the chase, but something held him back. Somewhere deep down he knew she was running in the wrong direction.

4

Wendy had no idea how long she had been running on auto pilot, or even in which direction she had been heading. It had seemed like an age since she had seen the man on the dirt path. As soon as she heard his voice she had known who he was and what he was looking for.

The rain pelted her as the trees thinned out. Straight ahead she could see a narrow opening in the trees and she raced towards it; the low hanging branches whipping her face and arms as she went.

Oh my god, that's got to be it, thought Wendy as her weary legs carried her ever closer to the gap. Just yards before the opening's threshold her foot caught in a trip rope of undergrowth which sent her sprawling face-first into a puddle of muddy water. She tried to stand again but her legs felt like their muscles and bones had been reduced to jelly.

She had to move on. She was so close now. She could see the silvery light of the moon reflected in the water of the pond from where she was knelt.

Come on legs, just a little further.

With as much strength as she could muster, Wendy managed to heave herself up off of the sludgy earth. She wanted to run again but her legs would only allow her to limp slowly towards the clearing.

5

Amanda hid herself behind the cluster of bushes and watched as the man came into view. He stopped for a moment, almost as if he had detected her presence. For a split second he had looked directly at her as he scanned the dark woodland that surrounded them but she had picked her hiding place well. His eyes moved on until he had completed the full circle before he started walking further into the woods.

Author's Note

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