The Mill

It was late in the evening, and the small logging town of Douglas was slowly drifting into the silence of a weekday night. There were no cars on the roads; no shops open for business; the lumber mill had long been silenced after it closed the year before; and not a soul walked the streets. Only the dull yellow glow of a dozen lights, and the rising smoke from a handful of chimneys brought a sense of life to an otherwise lifeless setting.

Surrounding the town, a forest of fir’s rolled softly towards the horizon, where the tops of the silhouetted mountains grasped high into the air. The night was cooling and the weather was bleak. All throughout the sky, the tasteless palette of grey and black clouds blocked out moon and starlight, blanketing Douglas under a sheet of autumn dreariness. A subtle wind blew from the north, chilling, with a bite that cut like a knife. As the wind gently swayed the deciduous trees, an audible whistling echoed long into the night.

Somewhere deep within the darkness, the snapping of a branch and the rustling of a bush caught the attention of Samantha Cairns, a tender young girl of just twenty two. Her eyes were a celestial shade of blue that seemed to flicker in the forest like the shimmer on a moonlit lake. A soft and flowing head of mousy blond hair fell to her shoulders, and the dirt that hid under her fingernails marked her return from a long and gruelling hike. “What was that?” she whispered softly, grabbing the attention of her boyfriend Kyle Mathis.

“It was probably just a squirrel or a chipmunk, you know how fast they move and it’s so dark you’d never see it.”

He was slightly older that Sam, aged twenty four with dark brown hair and a rugged complexion. He was an experienced climber, hiker and outdoorsman; and he claimed to know the forest inside and out. “Anyway, Sam” he said glancing down at the map he had in his hands “I need to confess to you. I have no clue where we are, and my compass is on the fritz.” Kyle grabbed his compass and showed it to Sam, the needle spun wildly out of control around and around, never finding its true position.

“Are you saying we’re lost?” Scorned Sam. Kyle paused for a moment, thinking of something witty to say, he always had something witty to say, but sadly at this point he couldn’t find the right words.

“Yes” Kyle said, lowering his head and looking at the ground. “I thought we were only an hour from home, but we must have gone wrong somewhere back down the trail. Its gotten so dark, I think we should camp for the night, there’s no use in hiking through this.”

“I suppose you’re right” Sam sighed. She reached for the bag on her back and swung it round off her shoulder, placing it against a tree before she sat down.

The giant fir trunk was a welcomed change of texture from the backpack that she was carrying. The coarseness of the bark scratched lightly at her skin through the moistened Gore-Tex sweater she had been wearing all day. Surprisingly, the stench of sweat eluded her, and it was only the crisp burning of the bitter wind that filled her nose. Sam took a deep breath and closed her eyes for just a moment. As she breathed she felt the tension in her body leaving, and after another deep breath her anxieties passed. She grabbed a canteen from the backpack beside her and took a long, refreshing drink.

“Can you promise me something?” Sam asked Kyle as she put down the canteen beside her.

“Anything” he replied

“Try not to get us lost again” she laughed “and hurry up with that tent, I need to use the little girls bush.” With that said, Sam gave her boyfriend a loving smile, and hurried off into the darkness to relieve herself.

She didn’t walk too far from where the camp was being made, but Sam ensured there was enough distance between her and Kyle so that she had a little bit of privacy – as much privacy as one can get in the heart of a forest. She found a spot which she deemed acceptable and squatted down. Despite the darkness and the being lost, Sam was content with her place in the world right now. Over the last couple of days she had seen some beautiful sights, and made memories that would last a lifetime. She cast her memory to the day before. She and Kyle had climbed high into the hills to reach a stunning waterfall that was nestled away between the treeline, and the mountains in front. They had sat there for hours, gazing at the cascading water that flew ferociously over the lip of the mountain, and watched the water combine with the deep blue of the pool below. As the memory grew vivid in her mind, once again Sam smiled, and although she was annoyed, cold, and uncomfortable, she couldn’t help but feel as though she was the happiest she had ever been.

Meanwhile, Kyle was putting the finishing touches on the tent that was to be their shelter. By this point the night sky had grown darker, and the winds had grown colder, and the clearing in which they decided to make their camp felt forlorn, with an uneasy feeling that seemed to linger in the icy air above their heads. Sam reappeared from where she had been, and in that moment Kyle held out a hand which stopped her where she stood.

“Sam… baby, I need you to stay very still, ok? There’s something big through the trees just over there” he raised his left arm and pointed off into the distance where the density of the forest strangled out all manner of light, leaving only darkness in its stead. “I think it’s a bear.”

Sam’s palms moistened and became clammy with sweat. She was scared, more scared than she had been before, when Kyle had said they were lost, and now she had a horrible feeling in her stomach and a lump in her throat. Kyle stayed perfectly still, his eyes affixed on the darkness where he had pointed. He seemed calm on the outside, calculated, like someone running scenarios through their head, finding the best possible outcome of what was to happen next. Although Sam saw that on him, she knew he was terrified. Kyle had once before told her of the time he and his father had come face to face with a bear and her cub whilst hiking, and Kyle’s face bore an uncanny resemblance to how it looked when he told her that story.

As Kyle’s eyes focussed harder on the dense woodland, he remembered that there was a flashlight in Sam’s backpack. “Sam” he whispered, hushing his voice so as not to startle whatever lie in wait. “Very slowly, can you reach into your backpack and grab me the flashlight?” Sam slowly removed the backpack from her shoulders once again, this time taking extra care to be swift yet subtle. As she reached into the main compartment of the bag, where the flashlight was, the loud snap of a twig, and the footsteps of something heavy were approaching from the darkness. Kyle took an audible gulp.

Sam moved quicker now, she reached fast into the bag, retrieving the flashlight and immediately switched it on. The beam of light illuminated the forest in front, and standing there, in what used to be the darkness, a mountain goat. When the light met its eyes, it startled and ran off into the woodland beyond and disappeared out of sight.

“Jesus Kyle!” Sam exclaimed, pushing him playfully, “you scared the living shit out of me.”

“I’m so sorry, honestly baby, I’m so sorry. You took the flashlight with you and I couldn’t see, so I just assumed the worst.” Kyle sat down on the floor, his head between his hands and breathing slower and slower with each breath, bringing his heart rate down. Sam sat beside him and wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders.

“I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day don’t you agree? I say we hit the sack and wake up refreshed so we can find our way out of here tomorrow.” Sam said softly, a comforting tone in her voice. She could see that the moments before had really gotten to Kyle and so she did her best to reassure him.

Sam and Kyle placed a hanging lamp from the roof of the tent and put all their bags inside, they crawled into the main compartment and unrolled their sleeping bags. After a few minutes, the couple were safely wrapped inside them, and the warmth was a welcomed feeling. For the remainder of the night, the couple laid down, talking softly to one another until the weariness of a long day overcame them. Kyle moved to switch off the hanging lamp and the couple lay silent in their tent, drifting quickly off to sleep.

In the early hours of the morning the clouds had cleared, and star and moonlight flooded down from the skies illuminating the woodland in a deep and beautiful green. By this time, the wind had been silenced and the icy chill of the midnight air was beginning to leave. At the clearing where Sam and Kyle slept, the moonlight seemed to concentrate and appeared brighter over the tent. With the light at its brightest beating hard into the lids of Sam’s eyes, she awoke in the tent as Kyle slept beside her. Wearily, Sam sat upright and moved to unzip the opening to the tent. Is it morning? She thought to herself. Sam poked her head out of the small opening in the zip, and looked around the clearing. It was still dark she discovered, but the moon and the stars shone brilliantly up above. She retreated back into the tent for just a moment, retrieving her jacket before heading outside. Kyle was still sleeping when Sam left the tent with her jacket, he didn’t move a muscle. She stood in the clearing now with her jacket on and buttoned, staring at the sky, awestruck by its beauty. Each star in the sky looked like a pearl, sequined to a dress sewn from emptiness, and all the while Sam couldn’t shake the feeling of being so incredibly small on a universal scale. A few moments later, after Sam had taken her fill of the star-littered sky, she headed off once again to relieve herself behind a tree. At this hour, the birdsong was rife and the soft howling of the windswept trees had ceased, replaced by a melodious chorus of the forest wildlife. The sun would be up soon.

Finally, Sam felt some sense of relaxation. The events of that evening had shaken her slightly. She had never been lost before, not in the woods that is, and the feeling of being lost had brought a certain unease to her. Now however, the mood had changed. The forest seemed less foreboding at this time of the morning as the sinister environment of the evening before had subsided, only to be replaced by something brighter. Colour, warmth and light had finally trickled down into the forest and now Sam felt at peace. Once she had finished by the tree, she pulled up her jeans and headed back to the clearing.

When Sam rounded the tree, she did not expect what lie before her. The door to the tent was fully unzipped, and Kyle was no longer there. “Kyle” she called out, waiting for a response. “Kyle” she cried, even louder this time. Where the hell is he? She thought. “I swear to God, if you’re pulling a prank on me, I don’t have time for this, it’s early and I want a little more sleep, I’d actually like to leave here today.” With that said, a faint rustling in the bush behind, made Sam spin on her heels. “God dammit Kyle, just come out, I know you’re back there.” Yet, there was no reply. Timidly, Sam walked towards the bush where she had heard the noise, the light of the moon still brightened the clearing, but at the edges it was harder to see as the light faded hard into the canopy above. As she looked in and around the bush, that’s when she saw it. Kyle’s jacket was sticking out just behind a tree to the back of the bush. “I can see your jacket” she called out, “please stop now so we can get some sleep. I’m fucking exhausted.” Alas, there was no reply.

This time, Sam walked quickly towards where Kyle was hiding, a stern expression on her face, and a wicked tenacity in her step. “I swear to God” she screamed. Enough was enough for Sam and her tiredness was affecting her mood. Once she reached the tree, she grabbed the jacket arm that protruded from the side and yanked Kyle towards the camp. Kyle did not move. His arm pulled but his body stayed affixed in position, as though he was resisting. Sam sighed heavily and went around the tree to confront him.

When Sam set her eyes upon him, she was taken aback, the colour draining from her skin until all that remained was a hollow and ghostly complexion. Her gut told her to run, turn around and never look back. Make her way to the edge of the forest and scream for the closest help she could find. She couldn’t, this was Kyle. Instead, she stared directly at him, fixated on the lifeless brown eyes that were once filled with love and adventure, hoping for a sign of life. It never came.

Kyle stood there, limp and inanimate, his only support from the blade that was driven deep into his throat. Where the blade had pierced the flesh, a river of crimson ran thick and dripped slowly towards the earth and Sam watched it pool before her. It was not long before the initial shock wore off, and a deep-rooted panic set in. The eerie silence that hung over them lifted as she let out a harrowing scream. Birds fled their nests atop the trees as the sound filtered out between the rows of Douglas fir, it was time to leave.

Turning fast, Sam turned and ran towards the treeline that would lead her to home, to safety she thought. Her eyes darted erratically in all directions, searching for anything suspicious. Whoever had killed Kyle was close, and she knew it, she could feel their presence looming heavy overhead. Eyes in the darkness; a breath on her neck; a rustling in the distance, Sam could feel them all, but were they real? As she ran, she questioned herself. Is this real? Is this a dream? Nothing felt certain anymore, the world was upside down and everything began to spin.

Darkness felt thicker in the heart of the forest. The tops of the trees blocked out the sky and fear took root in Sam’s imagination, twisting reality further with each step. Shadows shifted silently up ahead, and the twisted branches of the old trees looked like fingers from below, reaching, grasping, and clawing at Sam as she passed underneath them. She had been running for what seemed like eternity when she finally stopped. All her belongings were in the camp: water, food, shelter… the flashlight. Sam had nowhere to go but home. However, in the darkness it was hard to find ones place, to check your position. Sam thought about using the stars, but the trees were too thick for her to see them.

In and out her chest was beating, the thumping of her shaken heart and the desperate gasping for air made silence and secrecy a difficulty at best. They could still be here she thought. Sam took a long and fulfilling breath, her lungs brimming with the crisp morning air and once again she set about running for the edges of the forest.

As she placed her foot on the soft dirt beneath, a hand from the dark shot out and grabbed her shoulder. Sam let off another harrowing scream, and more birds fled their nests, but still no one could hear her. From there on, everything happened so quickly that it all blurred before her. Exhaustion and fear bringing her path to its bitter end. As quickly as the arm grabbed, it turned, bringing Sam face-to-face with the person she had been evading all this time. Blackness covered everything, like oil matted thick into the feathers of a bird, it consumed the face she tried to see.

There were no words, no exchanges, the only sound that rung out in that forest at that second was the only one that mattered to Sam. The ring of the steel that echoed loudly off the trees and burrowed deep into the fears of a young and innocent woman. As quickly as the blade was drawn, it sliced at Sam’s throat. Swiftly, subtly and with shear precision it severed the neck from ear to ear, raining spatters of alizarin out into the night. As she fell to the ground she kept her consciousness, her body would not move, but yet her eyes fluttered wildly from side to side.

Before the darkness took its grasp, Sam noticed the eyes that stared down at her lifeless body. They were cold eyes. They were hurtful eyes. They were familiar eyes.