Prologue
June 15, 2014. Week one of summer vacation had flown by and the three boys couldn’t believe they had built a clubhouse in that short amount of time. If they had known the danger that awaited them, would they have built the clubhouse in the Lost Forest? Richard told them it was a bad location, but they wouldn’t listen. Wouldn’t listen to the stories Richard told them. Stories of how the forest would go silent, deathly silent. Not even the sweet song of a Robin could be heard, and the wind, the wind would blow strong and fast. And within that time lives could be lost.
Chapter One
If someone had asked Richard what career his brother and two friends would have when they grew up, he would have had no trouble replying. His brother, Jarod, would be an engineer, his friend Lucas a rocket scientist, and Brandon, an Olympic runner, for he was the fastest runner he ever knew. But he couldn’t say what career he would grow up to have. Not that anyone asked. Not that anyone asked his opinion on anything at all.
The new clubhouse, for instance. Richard looked at it and squinted. “Maybe it would look better if we painted it. The condition it’s in now, it looks like a shack,” Richard stated, as the four of them walked toward it.
Jarod raised his eyebrows at Lucas and Brandon. Stopping at the foot of the trail, Jarod looked at Richard. “Well, if you hadn’t played video games all day, and came out and helped, you might have a say in what it looked like.”
“Well, you didn’t ask me to come out until you were done building the thing. I guess it’s not too bad,” Richard said, with a smile that looked slightly forced.
Richard, Jarod’s fraternal twin, stood thinking of all the adventures they could have. Actually, considering what he packed, they could plan grand adventures, or at least pretend to in the old run down clubhouse.
“Come on, Richard,” Jarod called. Richard realized that they had all crossed to the front of the clubhouse, and he was alone on the trail, staring down at his bag.
The door to the clubhouse was faded blue, and warped with age. The only traces of paint were seen in the deep grain of the wood. The door opened into a dimly lit room, the only window was cloudy between the panes of glass, and you could see the fingerprints in the thick dust. As the sun beams shone through the filthy window, an eerie yellowish glow filled the room.
Jarod, Lucas, and Brandon walked to the beanbag chairs and flopped down. Richard just stood in the doorway, looking around. “Don’t you think we should’ve cleaned the place before you brought in chairs?” Richard said, as he dropped his bag down on the floor, ignoring the eruption of dust that engulfed the room. Jarod just shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe, but Lucas’ mom wanted the stuff out of her basement, or she was going to throw it out.”
“Well, if we plan on sleeping here, I think we need to clean.” Before Richard had completed the sentence, there was a knock, and the door creaked as it slowly opened. Standing on the other side were Tabitha and Thomas. Jarod looked up. “You guys got here just in time.” Thomas walked in and took a seat next to Jarod. Tabitha, on the other hand, took a tentative step and then another, until the creak of the board under her feet stopped her. As she paused, something inside the walls rustled. She could hear it scurrying upward until the sound disappeared.
Richard could see the startled look on her face. “It’s probably just a squirrel.”
Tabitha thought to herself, Richard was probably right. After all, the clubhouse looked like it was falling apart. Anything could be living inside the walls. They’d be lucky if there weren’t bears in the woods and bats in the eaves. That was, if the place even had eaves.
When the door slammed, she jumped and turned around. Jarod laughed. “It’s just the wind, it’s been howling all morning.”
“I heard something,” Tabitha said as she looked around.
“What?” Jarod said as he too looked around. He didn’t want to admit that for a brief moment, he thought he heard a ghost. But Richard was probably right, it was just a squirrel.
No one seemed to think that something in the walls was anything to worry about, so Tabitha didn’t say anything more. As she walked to the beanbag to sit down, she couldn’t help thinking about what else could possibly be between those walls. It wasn’t the first time her vivid imagination played tricks on her. But this time, the boys heard it too and she didn’t believe for one moment that it was a squirrel.
Week two had passed by as quickly as the first. By the time the kids unpacked the furniture and other things that Jarod and Richard’s mom had given them, they were tired and ready to just sit down and relax in their clubhouse. When suddenly, they heard a noise in the walls. Tabitha put her hands on her hips. “Come on guys, let’s go check it out. We need to know what’s making that sound, otherwise I’m not comfortable coming here.”
The boys let out a sigh. Slowly opening the creaky door, they crept out and walked along the dark perimeter of the clubhouse. Jarod was in the lead, walking a few paces and then stopping to listen. Every now and then, they would hear a scratch or a sound like small footsteps inside the walls. As they began to walk again the scuttling grew louder as they neared the backside.
Rounding the clubhouse, the back woods grew darker. They could smell rotting wood from a fallen tree, and the damp leaves sank from the weight of their shoes into the muddy ground from the rain the night before. Strange thing was that there were no night sounds, the loud frogs no longer croaked, the owl’s hoot was silent, and the crickets mating ritual no longer called out. Silence was interrupted by a loud bang from the far corner. Tabitha picked up a long stick and held it like a bat. Richard looked over at her. “Put that thing down before you kill someone.”
Brandon turned around, putting his finger up to his lips. “Shhh.”
Lucas, Thomas, and Jarod were at the end of the Clubhouse. By the time Brandon had turned around, Lucas had pulled out his flashlight and was looking through a large hole that was close to the ground. Looking up at the other kids, he said, “This hole wasn’t here when we built the place.”
Jarod knelt next to Lucas. “Whatever was in there, it’s gone now. I saw it scurry away.”
Lowering the stick, Tabitha said, “Good. Now let’s cover the hole.”
As Jarod began to put his hand through the hole, Tabitha shouted, “Are you crazy? What if something is still in there?”
Looking back at Tabitha, Jarod just shook his head, trying to be brave. He continued putting his hand further into the hole. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up the moment his hand finally found what felt like torn strips of cloth wadded up. As he began to pull it out, other things were revealed. The remains of curtains, bits of tattered silk and lace, old toy soldiers, a doll head with its right eye missing, jagged pieces of a mirror, a tube of lip gloss, and a medallion. It was silver with a thick red, white and blue ribbon. Brandon stood over Jarod and said, “Hey, that’s my stuff.”
Jarod looked up at Brandon. “I didn’t know you liked playing with dolls and wearing lip gloss!”
“Shut up, you turd bucket. I meant the old toy soldiers and my running medal. The other stuff looks like Alisha’s things. Do you think the squirrel did this?”
“What? No, this is too weird.”
Richard looked over at Tabitha. “You had a ferret; didn’t he used to steal your Barbie dolls?”
Tabitha replied, “Lots of animals like shiny things. But they don’t wrap them up like gifts.”
Meanwhile, Thomas was standing behind everyone, looking out into the dark woods. “Guys, something is out there watching us. Just cover the hole so we can go back inside.”
“There’s something else in there,” Jarod said, hesitating before putting his hand back in the wall. What if something else is still in here
and bites him, he thought? Jarod didn’t know much about squirrels but he really didn’t think squirrels were normally this creepy.
Lucas looked over at Jarod. “I don’t think you should do that. Just cover the hole so we can get out of here.”
Jarod wasn’t listening. He was too busy pulling out what looked like a large journal.
“Richard?” asked Thomas. “Have you ever heard of an animal like this? I mean, some of this stuff is really odd. Like, this squirrel must be as demented as Tabitha.”
“Yeah, it’s really naughty,” Richard said, and then laughed.
Tabitha groaned. “Shut up you two,” and then suddenly, she went quiet. “I hear it again.”
“What?” Jarod asked.
“The noise, it’s behind us.” Tabitha picked up the stick again. “Guys, I’m scared.”
“Quiet,” Brandon whispered.
With the journal in hand, Jarod stood up and the six of them crept over to where the sound came from. Instead of hearing the clutter of little claws scrambling across the forest floor, it sounded like big feet running through the woods.
“Look,” Lucas said as he bent down, touching the ground. “It’s a foot print, a big one at that. It looks like whoever was standing there had just left.”
“I told you I thought someone was watching us,” Thomas said as he