Forest Ghost Read Online Free PDF Page B

between the beech trees. There was no wind in here, and no birds singing. Even the blue jays had stopped calling to each other. They could hear their own footsteps, and every now and then they heard a sudden furtive scamper, as squirrels ran across the dry leaves in between the trees. Apart from that, though, the woods were unnaturally hushed.
    As they walked further, Jack began to experience the strangest feeling. There was nothing in the woods to give him any idea of scale. The trees could have been enormous, or they could have been little more than saplings. He looked up and saw the blue sky through their branches, but there was no way of telling how tall they were. For all he knew, he and Corinne and Sparky could have been giants, or as small as action figures.
    Sparky kept about six or seven paces ahead of them, although every now and then he stopped, and listened, and looked around.
    ‘I don’t think there’s anything here, Sparks,’ said Jack. ‘Not now, anyhow.’
    Sparky stood perfectly still, with one finger raised, as if he were saying
wait.
    The silence was overwhelming. They waited – and as they waited, Jack began to feel that something was rushing toward them through the woods, something invisible and noiseless and still some distance away from them, but something tempestuous. He was seized by a sudden urge to snatch at Corinne’s hand and turn around and start running back to the lake. The woods seemed claustrophobic, as if it were impossible to breathe in here.
    Corinne said, ‘What is it? What’s happening?’ while Sparky spun around and around, as if he couldn’t make up his mind what direction the threat was coming from.
    Jack saw something flickering behind the trees, something white. It could have been an animal leaping or a man running or …
what
? He couldn’t tell. All he knew was that it filled him with panic, and that they had to get out of those woods, and fast.
    ‘Come on!’ he shouted. His voice sounded strangely flat, as if he were shouting in a locked, empty room. ‘Sparks! Let’s get out of here!’
    Neither Sparky nor Corinne needed any further urging. Jack took hold of Corinne’s hand again and the three of them began to run back toward the lake. Jack’s vision was blurred as he ran, and he was deafened by the sound of their feet hurtling through the leaves. But there was another sound, too – a whistling sound, like a strong wind gusting through the woods behind them, and catching up with them, fast. He felt dry leaves pattering against his back, and even the leaves on the ground ahead of them began to dance.
    They came bursting out of the woods and into the clearing around the edge of the lake, all three of them gasping for breath. They turned around, to look behind them, but the wind had already died down, and the last few leaves had fluttered to the ground. Two of the CSIs raised their hooded heads to stare at them, but then they went back to their sifting.
    ‘Did you see it?’ asked Sparky. His eyes were wide and his face was as white as paper.
    Jack said, ‘I don’t know. I saw something. I don’t have any idea what it was. Corinne? How about you? Did you see it?’
    Corinne shook her head. ‘I didn’t see anything, but I
heard
something, for sure, and I
felt
something. I don’t know … it was like a tsunami coming, only air instead of water.’
    ‘I’m going to talk to the cops,’ said Jack. ‘There
is
something out there, and they really need to find it, and fast.’

A Grim Discovery
    J ack could tell that Deputy Jeppersen thought they were simply being hysterical. As they tried to explain to him what they had seen and felt in the woods, however, a beefy gray-haired man in uniform came across to them and said, ‘What’s the problem here, Deputy?’
    ‘These folks think they saw somebody lurking in the woods over yonder.’
    ‘Not necessarily some
body
,’ Jack corrected him. ‘Some
body
or some
thing
.’
    The beefy man had steel-gray eyes like