Page 44 of Winter’s Teeth

“What if it’s still out there?” Angie asked, voice trembling.

Ben added to the protests, “They’re probably fine. Maybe they just got turned around or are looking into something they found. It’s a good thing. Maybe they found real evidence.”

“It’s not a good thing,” I snapped as I yanked on my coat and flicked my hair out past my collar. The gash on my arm smarted with the pull and strain of flesh, but Riss’s bandages and superglue job held. “I have to at least take a look around. In case they got back and just hadn’t checked in. Or if they’re calling in back up... The not knowing is killing me.”

Ben swung up his rifle, showing off with a cocky snap of the barrel. His forced bravado didn’t fool me though. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll go with you.”

“Stay here,” I ordered. “I swear I won’t go into the woods. I’m just gonna take a look around the perimeter, so stay with the others.”

“Rae, don’t—”

“I’ll be back in twenty minutes tops!” Then I rushed out the front door, closing it in a whoosh to stop the cold air from pushing in. I lumbered down the porch steps, following the officers’ boot prints in the snow towards the tree line across the field.

If Ben followed, I didn’t hear him over the howling wind. With only the moon for company, I clutched my sore arm to my chest, holding my coat tighter around myself to conserve what precious body heat I had. Reeds of brown grass scratched against my pant legs, the field seeming to beckon me back to safety, but the dark maw of the forest lured me onward.

I stopped when the prints disappeared into the trees. If they were still in the woods, it was already too dark to get back safely.

A breath whooshed out of me, disappointment weighing on my shoulders.

Great... Now we have to call for more people who won’t believe me, or who might suspect me of having something to do with this grand mess.

I turned around, about to take one more look around the cabin to be sure they hadn’t already gotten back, but my foot stalled midair when a sound like dripping water caught my attention.

I set my foot down quietly, careful not to make a sound, and closed my eyes to listen intently.

Drip...

Drip...

Drip...

The sound was slow and heavy like thick oil splashing on the ground.

Letting out a slow exhale, I followed the direction of the sound and fumbled in my pocket for my phone to use as a light.

Peering into the woods, too frightened to take steps past the tree line, I squinted to make out something hanging like a tangle of vines from the boughs of hemlocks. I didn’t dare move closer. Not since the woods were a declared war zone, and a step into enemy territory would surely result in another creature attacking me.

My heart thudded painfully against my ribs, drowning out the sounds of suspicious dripping. Every inch of me burned to turn and run back to warmth and safety, but if I didn’t stay to check...

I didn’t have forever to find out what was going on. Everly depended on me uncovering the truth. So, before I could chicken out, I flicked my phone’s flashlight on and followed the path of light from the ground, then up to the tangled mess in the trees.

At first, my brain didn’t wholly grasp what I was seeing. My thoughts couldn’t keep up with my body's reaction.

My stomach clenched, the air in my lungs froze, and I staggered away.

A blink, and my thoughts finally caught up.

They were bodies.

Two men strung up ten feet in the air.

Headless.

Their insides turned outside, hanging low over the ground and dripping thick, clotted blood every other second.

On each of their chests, splattered in blood but gleaming in the erratic, swaying light of my phone, were state badges.

The trooper, and the gamekeeper.