Page 36 of The Woods

She’d gone back into the house to check their bedroom, thinking he’d snuck off to bed. Not finding him there, she checked the bathrooms, the TV room, and the screened porch. Only when she’d exhausted every place did she ask her family. Her mother couldn’t even remember talking to him during the party.

“You know him, always flitting about, sucking up to people,” she’d said. Alice had ignored her and gone into Quinn’s room, hoping Geoff was in there playing videogames with him.

Quinn hadn’t seen him for hours. He tried calling his cell phone, which Alice hadn’t even thought of. They found it ringing in the kitchen. Then she’d gone into Polly’s room, surprised to find her asleep in her clothes. She hadn’t wanted to wake her, but she was the only one left who might know where Geoff was. When Polly told Alice that she’d seen him go into the woods two hours earlier, she’d checked the trail-cam app on her phone.

The video shows him stumbling into the woods and disappearing into the dark. Then calling out “Hello,” but nobody answers. There’s the sound of rustling leaves, and he asks if anyone is there. Then the camera goes to static, just like it did before.

After watching the video, she called the police.

Now, sitting there alone on the back deck staring into the woods, her worry has turned to full-blown fear. What if something bad has happened to him? It would be all her fault this time. She’s the one who moved them to this house with fifty acres of forest to get lost in. She’s the one who chased him across the backyard, scolding him. She’s the one who has secretly wished him away countless times over the past few years.

A wind moves through the trees around her, making the rustling of dry leaves sound like a million hissing whispers. Panda lifts her head and growls. A shiver runs down Alice’s spine.

“Geoff?” she calls, just in case. The sound of a branch cracking rings out. She sits forward in her seat, her whole body tensed, and Panda sits up on the deck, both of them staring into the woods—waiting. The wind settles down and a heavy silence blankets the yard. Alice pulls the duvet tighter around her and calls Panda up onto her lap. Alice knows it’s ridiculous, but she just can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched by something just beyond the tree line, something hidden in the thick dark of the woods watching her suffer.

Quinn

He knew there was no way he was going to be able to sleep until they found his dad, but there was also no way he was going to sit out on the back deck waiting with his mom either. He can’t believe she said those things to him. Part of him knows he deserved it. He shouldn’t have blamed his mom for the night of the accident. Aren’t kids allowed to lash out like that though?

Parents are not.

He tried playing videogames but was too distracted and kept making stupid mistakes that would bring his high score down, so he stopped. Now, in a moment of sheer desperation, he decides to go into Polly’s room.

She’s standing at her bedroom window, staring out at the trees and singing that creepy song about the teddy bears’ picnic.

“What the hell are you doing?” His question makes her spin so fast she loses her balance and has to use the wall to keep herself up.

“Are you drunk or something?” he says.

“No. At this point I’m hungover.” She turns back to her window.

He goes to stand beside her. “Are you looking for Dad?”

“Have you ever noticed that if you stare at the woods long enough you can see things moving in there? I can’t tell if it’s the trees themselves or shadows of the trees or…”

He waits for her to finish the sentence, but she doesn’t. He shrugs in response. Kind of knowing what she’s talking about but not wanting to think about it. They stand in silence for a few minutes, staring out the window.

“Do you think something bad happened to Dad in there?” he asks quietly.

“I think if he was hurt or something the police would have found him. Maybe he did leave the woods and go somewhere else, and nobody noticed. Mom accused him of grabbing some other woman’s ass.”

“They’re so fucked,” he says, his anger surging.

“Yeah, but at least they’re not as fucked as the family who lived here before us,” she says, turning away from the window and flopping down onto her bed.

“Did you listen to that podcast I sent you?”

“Some of it. But it creeps me out. And, like, I want to know but I also don’t want to know. You know what I mean?” She yawns and curls up into a ball like she’s about to fall asleep.

“Do you want to listen to one now, together?” He’s desperate to keep her awake. He doesn’t want to be alone yet.

“I think it will make us more worried. Don’t you?”

He shrugs. “Maybe. Or we might learn something important about this place.”

She shifts over to make room for him and pats the bed. “Okay, sure, but if it gets too intense, we’re turning it off.”

He climbs onto the bed, settling into the pillows, and she pulls up a throw blanket to cover them both. Lying next to her he can smell the wine and weed on her breath, mixed in with the smell of her shampoo. Lucy used to use the same kind, and he finds it comforting. For the first time since Lucy died, he doesn’t wish that it was Polly instead, and he feels actual gratitude for her, like he’s not alone in his fucked family. Like they’re in it together.