Writer's Wednesday 33: Write About the Girl They Left Behind

On my blog, I do an 'event' called Writer Wednesdays. I post a prompt and others(including me) write something based on that prompt.

     All of the headlines were plastered with her photograph and name.  For many, the smiling face of thirteen-year-old Suzanne Price was a tragic story, one that all other parents secretly were glad was not theirs.  But for four other thirteen-year-old kids - one girl and three boys - it was something else entirely.  It evoked feelings of regret and longing.  But, more than anything, fear.

     It had been a mild early Spring morning in mid-April when Ezekiel Marquette had told his friends he thought they should go hiking.  After all, they were all teenagers now and no longer afraid of the stories that had been passed down by the ‘big kids’ about the woods.  The tale of a fantastic treasure that was guarded by a fearsome dragon that would burn you to a crisp and then eat you like bacon.

     Ezekiel’s friends included Kathy Richmond, Dave Norfolk, Terrence Bennett… and Suzanne Price.  The friends had agreed that it could be fun and who knew - they may even find some treasure after all.  But what they found was far worse than any dragon.

     The air smelled of rain, but there was not a cloud in the sky, the sun shining through the green leaves and covering everything in the forest below in a chartreuse hue.  Ezekiel knelt, picking up a decently sized branch and breaking off all of the twigs to make a walking stick.  The earth was muddy from weeks of rain and squished grossly under the kids’ shoes - Kathy hated it.  Kathy hated anything dirty, but the idea of jewels made her young diva’s heart race.

     It was Terrence who heard it first.  A humming, seemingly inside his head.  At first he had thought it was just his ears ringing, but after sticking his fingers in them for a solid minute, and the sound refusing to desist, he had grown concerned.  He tried to pass it off as paranoia, which he was often prone to.  Until Suzanne began holding her ears too.  Followed by Dave, then Ezekiel, and finally Kathy.

     “What is that awful sound?”  Dave grunted, squinting his eyes closed.

     “Wait… you can-you can hear it too?”  Terrence stammered.

     “Of course we can hear it, ya dimwit, what do you think we’re holding our ears for?”  Ezekiel snapped.

     Then, there was another sound.  Not inside their heads this time.  The snap of a twig under someone - or something - ‘s foot.

     “Did you hear that!?”  Dave rasped, his voice reaching a high pitch only a prepubescent boy’s could.

     The others nodded silently, all staring in the direction of the sound.  Terrence tried to fight his oncoming paranoia.  It was probably just some other kids, out for a hike like them.  After all, it was great day for it.  Or maybe some adults, mushrooming or something like that.  Or maybe…  The image of a bear flashed into Terrence’s mind and he tried to push it away.

     Ezekiel stood straighter and took one step with his stick toward where the sound had come from.  “Have you lost your mind?”  Terrence hissed.  “What are you doing?”

     “Going to see what it was.  It was probably just a deer… or some little kid looking for the treasure.”  None of them had to say what they were thinking - their minds had jumped to the dragon of grade school lore.

     “Come off it,” Dave finally said, breaking the silence, “we all know dragons aren’t real.”  The other kids laughed nervously, nodding to reassure themselves as Ezekiel continued to venture towards the sound.

     What happened after that was a blur in their memories.  The other three - Dave, Terrence, and Kathy - all remembered Ezekiel letting out a yelp, followed by him shrieking “RUN!!!”  He had not had to say it twice.  All five kids had taken off through the trees, losing each other in the dense brush.  Kathy thought she remembered something panting and feeling its hot breath on her neck.  She had thought she was going to die and started saying a prayer as she ran.  But that could have just been her imagination getting the best of her under pressure.

Right when Terrence had thought his lungs were going to burst, he had reached the edge of the trees and was standing on the sidewalk running along South Pine Street, the road that ran parallel to the woods and had houses along the other side.  Dave had burst out shortly after and startled Terrence, who socked him hard in the jaw out of fright.  Ezekiel and Kathy eventually emerged a few hundred feet from where the boys stood.  They waited for what seemed like eons, but Suzanne never emerged.  Rain began to fall, just a few drops hear and there.

“Maybe she came out further on down the street.”  Ezekiel suggested.  They split into groups of two to find her: Kathy and Terrence going one way, Ezekiel and Dave going the other.  Dave was still pretty sore at Terrence for punching him.

“Suzanne!”  They shouted into the trees as they went.  When they met in the middle of the street again, neither party had encountered Suzanne.  The rain had begun to pick up and it was already soaking their hair and clothes, so they finally went home, figuring she would find her way eventually.  But none of them dared go back into the trees.

As they walked, Dave turned to Ezekiel.  “What was it back there?”  Ezekiel pretended not to hear him.  “Hey, Ezekiel,” Dave touched his arm, “what did you see back there?”  Ezekiel shoved Dave’s hand off, still refusing to answer.

“Yeah, what was it that got you all scared?”  Kathy whined.

“I ain’t tellin’.”  Ezekiel finally muttered and they figured it was best to drop the subject - Dave especially did not relish the idea of getting walloped a second time.

After dinner, Mrs. Richmond received a call from Mrs. Price.  She wanted to know if Suzanne had had dinner with Kathy and her family.  That was enough to get Kathy’s attention.  She snuck out her back door and walked over to the neighboring house, where Terrence’s dad lived.  Thankfully, that was the week Terrence had been staying with his father.  She told Terrence about the phone call and they used his phone to call Ezekiel and Dave.  They all agreed they should tell their parents what had happened.

A search was mounted into the woods the following morning.  They found nothing; not a lock of hair or shred of clothing or shoe stuck in the mud.  Two more days passed and the Prices hung up ‘Have You Seen Me’ posters.  No matter how many times or who asked him, Ezekiel refused to say what he had seen that scared him so bad.  He said he could not remember; that his mind had blocked it out.  Whether or not that was true was up for speculation.  Dave for one thought he knew more than he was telling.

On the sixth day, just shy of a week, they found Suzanne Price’s mutilated remains at the edge of the woods, just shy of the sidewalk on South Pine Street.

 

To be continued maybe…

Author's Note

Thinking of expanding this into a full length story.