Page 83 of The Woods

Alice’s gut convulses, and she barely has time to get out of the cottage before a hot, thick stream of vomit rockets from her body and onto the front lawn. She fights the urge to run. What if she’s hallucinating again like she did in the woods that first time? Then she thinks of the smell and the old woman’s ashen, bloated face, blackened fingertips, and bitten flesh. Much more real than the pale, waxlike bodies she’d seen in the forest.

Alice pulls out her phone to dial 911. She tries to explain what she’s found through tears and a throat still constricted in fear. The woman on the other end says that emergency services have been dispatched and tells Alice not to leave the scene.

She waits on the front lawn, wiping the snot and vomit from her face with the back of her hand, taking deep breaths. The rustling of wings causes her to glance back at the front door, which hangs open from her quick exit. The crow is there, flapping its wings, hopping on its one foot at the threshold to the cottage. Only then does she notice the symbols. Just like the ones carved into Polly’s bedroom floor, just like the ones from the book that Ruth’s sister had. They’re painted in a rust color and sit right inside the front door. Underneath them are the words Donum Silvis.

Gift of the woods.

Alice feels lightheaded, and the tightness in her chest is making it hard to breathe. She crouches down on the ground, afraid she might pass out, working hard to process it all. Did this happen to Ruth because of the day that Alice came to visit, because of what Ruth told her, because Ruth had given her the box of her sister’s things? She remembers Ruth quoting her sister’s warning:

Don’t ever try and stop it, don’t ever get in its way, and don’t tell anyone what you know, and you will be safe.

Ruth did tell somebody. She told Alice, and now she’s dead.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2023

Alice

The police officer drives the car through the dark streets with an ease that reminds Alice of a shark swimming through deep water. He’s in no rush. It doesn’t matter that it’s 1 a.m. and Alice is so tired and drained that she could lie down in the back of the cruiser and sleep for days.

She’d spent hours in the back of a police car at Ruth’s cottage answering questions. She’d even watched them carry Ruth’s body out in a black bag, but it wasn’t until the fox, the crow, and the owl were carried out in cages that she’d broken down. Both birds had flapped their wings frantically, and the fox lifted its snout and made a screaming sound that sounded like grief. Like the noise she made when the doctor told them Lucy had died.

After she’d recovered, she’d called Geoff to tell him what was happening. He’d insisted on coming to be with her, but she’d told him he wasn’t allowed on the property because it was a crime scene. Nobody had told her that. For some reason she couldn’t quite pinpoint, she didn’t want him there.

“How you finding it out there in the ‘murder house’?” the police officer asks, chuckling. He takes one hand off the steering wheel to air quote the last two words, then peers at Alice from the rearview mirror. He’s stocky with a friendly face and eyes. Not like the younger police officers that she dealt with at Ruth Crowley’s place, whose levels of detachment made them seem more robot than human.

She tries not to scowl at the officer’s question. “It’s a beautiful property,” she answers. “Does take time to settle into new places though. Change is hard.” He doesn’t say anything as he eases the car into a slow turn with one hand on the wheel. “Do you know the place?”

He gives a curt nod. “I grew up in the area. And I know your place well. I was an investigating officer on the Justine Gordon case. Been through that house a hundred times at least trying to make sense of things.” He sighs heavily, and she can feel the toll it’s taken on him.

“She claims that the woods made her do it,” Alice says.

The police officer laughs again and Alice can tell from the slight wheeze of it that he’s either a smoker or used to be. “I’ve been through every inch of those woods and I never saw a single thing in there that didn’t belong.”

“Did you go in the cave?”

He looks up, startled. Stammers, “Of course. Plenty of times. Although some might disagree. One of the other officers said he saw something that spooked him when he was searching for the older boy.”

“What did he see?” Alice asks, leaning forward slightly, remembering “Tom” from the podcast.

The officer answers with a shrug. “Just came out of there looking like he’d seen a ghost. Said there was no way he was ever going back in.”

“But he didn’t say why?”

“Nah.” The officer shakes his head. “You don’t talk about things like that on the job. And he was a young cop, green. Ended up transferring because he caught so much flak from the other officers about it. But—” He stops short. “Oh, forget it.”

“No, tell me.”

They pull onto her street, and he doesn’t say anything, as though he’s debating whether or not he should. Only when they’re driving down Alice’s driveway does he open his mouth again to speak. “I’ll be honest. I may not have seen anything in those woods, but I sure felt it.”

“Felt it how?”

“Like something was always watching me. I’ve been in plenty of woods in my life but there’s something different about yours. Can’t really explain it other than that.”

Alice nods. She knows the feeling well. The officer pulls up in front of the house, which is dark except for the front light that Geoff left on. The officer pushes a button and she hears the click of the car doors unlocking.

“Are you calling Ruth Crowley’s death suspicious?” Alice asks for the first time that night, her hand on the door handle.

The officer shakes his head. “I’m not sure yet what we’ll be calling it. There was no sign of struggle or break-and-enter, but her wounds were unusual. Could just be a case of those animals turning on her though.” He sighs heavily again, shaking his head. “That’s why you don’t keep wild animals as pets. Not even injured ones. In any case, an autopsy will be done. Hopefully we’ll get enough information from that to determine the cause of death.”