Found it!!

I finally found the notebook that has the beginnings of a story in it. This is what happens when you’re not home and then you pack to move and things end up someplace "safe" where you might never see them again. So, without further ado…the story with no name.

 

*****

 

Laughing and shouting, the group of children ran down the path from the school yard toward the river bank. A light breeze moved the leaves on the trees and created shifting patterns of light and shadow. The children jostled for position, each one eager to be the first to the water’s edge. One boy pushed another off the path and laughed as he ran past.

"Hey!" yelled the victim, as he stumbled and fell. He scrambled to his feet and caught sight of something deeper in the undergrowth. "Hey!" he shouted again. "Wait up you guys! Come check this out." He pushed his way through the bushes. The moving shadows made it difficult to make out the details. He moved closer.

"What is it, Tyler?" Dylan, the boy who had pushed Tyler out of the way was the first back to join him.

"I don’t know yet," said Tyler. The jumbled colours made no sense and he strained to understand. Suddenly, he realized he was looking at something that had once been a living human being but was now almost unrecognizable. He made a choked sound of horror and spun away. Vomit flew from his mouth.

"Gross!" Dylan backed away from the jet of vomit. He looked away from Tyler to the thing that had set Tyler off.

"Who is it?" Tyler asked. "Can you tell?" He kept his gaze averted, not wanting to look again at the tattered pieces of flesh and bone, not as long as he lived, even if he lived to be six hundred and three. He risked a glance at Dylan, who was staring at the unspeakable.

"Where’d you guys go?" Jessi Cullen’s voice rang up the path. The sound of the others returning reached Tyler’s brain. He set his back to Dylan and stepped out onto the path. He waited for the group to rejoin them.

"What’s the deal?" asked Jessi. The group craned their collective necks in an effort to see past Tyler and Dylan.

Tyler swallowed hard, wishing for a drink of water to clear the taste from his mouth. He didn’t want Jessi or the other girls to see what he had found. He flapped his hand toward Dylan. "Uh, I think it’s a body," he said.

Silent, stunned faces stared at him, then erupted in a chorus of shocked questions. What? Who is it? Where? Are you serious? Are you for real right now?

Dylan’s voice interrupted them. "I think it’s Mrs. Clatworthy; she always wears those old shoes when she goes in the woods."

"What do you mean you think it’s Mrs. Clatworthy?" asked Tephy.

Tyler answered. "Whoever it is, they’re pretty mangled."

The five others muttered among themselves, then pushed past Tyler. He listened to their cries of horror and the sounds of more than one of them reacting as he had. Jessi came back, digging in her backpack. She pulled out a cell phone, and with trembling fingers, managed to dial 9-1-1. Tyler listened to her side of the conversation, and imagined the disbelief on the other end as Jessi repeated the information with increasing volume. Finally, she must have convinced the 9-1-1 person of her sincerity because she closed her phone and jammed it back into her backpack.

"They’re sending somebody," she said. She looked around and shivered. "Someone should go wait at the school to show them the way."

"Someone should stay here, too," said Tyler.

The others, including Dylan, had gathered into a tight knot. Tyler looked at them. "You know, in case someone else comes along, to keep them away."

Tephy’s eyes were wide. "What if the someone else is whoever did that to Mrs. Clatworthy?" Glances flitted from one young face to another.

"What if whoever it was is waiting at the school?" asked Dylan. "Or what if they’re watching us right now?" He made a creepy sound in his throat.

Jessi punched his shoulder. "Cut it out, asshole. You’re such a freak!"

Tephy clung to Jan, looking around with eyes that seemed to bulge from her face. "I want to get out of here," she said.

"Me too," said Jan. She put her arm around Tephy. "I don’t want to stay here any more."

Tyler thought she might cry. He felt that he would, too, if she started.

"I’ll stay here," said Dylan. He shrugged elaborately. "The rest of you can go wait at the school, if you want. I don’t care."

Tyler thought someone else should stay with Dylan, but it was the last thing he wanted to do. He looked around at the others. Harry and Jacques looked back.

"I’ll go with the girls," said Harry. "In case they need protecting at the school." He blinked rapidly.

"Yeah. Me and Harry will go," said Jacques. &q

uot;You two stay here."

Tyler opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again when he looked at Jan. Better to stay here with Dylan than to go with the girls and start blubbing when they did. He was pretty sure they would, too, once they started talking about it. "Yeah, okay," he said. He watched them hastening up the path.

"What do you think happened?" Dylan asked suddenly. Tyler turned. Dylan had gone back to Mrs. Clatworthy’s body, if you could even call it that. Her remains, maybe. He was staring down at her. "I mean, it’s not like there are any bears or lions or anything around here. What could do that to a person? It looks like she was torn apart, you know? Not like someone chopped her up." He leaned forward.

Tyler wasn’t about to go any closer. "Maybe it was somebody with a chainsaw," he said. "No one would think a chainsaw sound was weird. You hear ’em all the time."

"I wonder when it happened," said Dylan. His apparent fascination with their gruesome discovery was starting to get on Tyler’s nerves.

"Sometime this afternoon," he said. "She usually came out to the woods after dinner, to pick flowers or berries or some shit like that."

Dylan nodded. "I wonder why no one heard her screaming," he said. "I bet you couldn’t have this happen to you without a lot of screaming going on."

"Not if the person chainsawed your throat first," said Tyler, wishing he hadn’t brought that particular image to mind. Gooseflesh raised on his arms. He looked around at the woods and the lay of the land. The way to the school was uphill from here and there were no houses nearby. Down hill was the river and more woods across the way. He thought someone could scream themselves hoarse right here and no one would hear. He decided not to mention this to Dylan. They waited in silence for the police to arrive. 

Something changed. Tyler frowned, wondering what it was. The sunlight, coming through the leaves, was still as bright. The breeze still rustled the leaves and lifted the hair from his forehead. So what was different?

The birds. The birds had stopped singing. Even the flies had stopped buzzing over the ample spread that had been Mrs. Clatworthy. Tyler and Dylan looked at each other. A sudden small sound made them both jump and they grinned sheepishly at each other, embarrassed at their nervousness.

"We’re as bad as the girls," said Dylan.

Tyler nodded. He was about to speak when something small and dark rushed out of the bushes and into Dylan. He had an impression of sharp claws, a pointed nose, and needle teeth. Dylan shrieked and toppled to the ground.

Tyler froze. More shapes darted from cover, converging on Dylan’s fallen form. Tyler felt warm liquid running down his legs and smelled urine. Still, he couldn’t move. Dylan’s screams stopped abruptly and Tyler stood as if rooted to the ground. Where were the cops? Why wasn’t anyone coming?

As suddenly as the attack had begun, it was over. The creatures, whatever they were, vanished back into the undergrowth. Still Tyler stood stock still.

He was motionless when the others led the police to the spot fifteen minutes later. Nor did he respond when they spoke to him, but when the first cop touched his arm, he shrieked and collapsed, trembling and screaming.

 

*****

There’s a start. Let me know what you think.