Sydney and the Wisconsin Whispering Woods (5 page)

She broke off a longer piece and tied it to the collar like a rope. “There, now he has a leash. Oh Biscuit, you smell just terrible!”

Biscuit looked at her and sighed.

Cautiously, the girls walked through the forest toward the light.

“Maybe we’re seeing the Northern Lights,” Alexis suggested.

“Nice try,” Sydney said. “But you can only see the Northern Lights at night.”

They kept moving toward the purple glow. If they walked just a few more yards, they might discover what caused it.

WHOOOOOSH!

Suddenly, the forest came alive. A noise surrounded them, like air rushing through a tunnel.
“Go back! Go back! Go back!”
At the sound of the loud whisper, Alexis screamed. Sydney scooped Biscuit in her arms. The girls ran for their lives!

“Run!” Alexis cried. “Hurry!”

The girls ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Then Sydney stopped.

“Wait,” she said. She grabbed Alexis’s arm. “I don’t think it’s following us.”

Alexis quit running. She stood huffing and puffing, trying to catch her breath. Gigantic pine trees surrounded them, and she wrapped her arms around one of the trunks to brace herself.

“I can’t hear it anymore,” said Sydney. She set Biscuit down in a soft pile of leaves. “What do you think it was?”

“A bear, maybe?” Alexis answered.

“Bears don’t glow purple and talk,” Sydney said.
“Shhhhh.”

They listened. The whooshing had become a buzz, barely noticeable, locked deep inside the forest.

“Did you hear what it said?” asked Alexis.
“ ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’
“

“That’s not what I heard,” Sydney told her. “I heard
‘Go back! Go back! Go back!’
But whatever it said, something doesn’t want us here.”

Biscuit rolled happily in the pine needles. He didn’t seem bothered by the spooky sound in the woods.

“We need to get out of here,” Sydney said. She picked up the end of Biscuit’s viney leash and started walking.

“Syd?” Alexis asked, “Are you sure the resort is that way?”

Sydney stopped. She looked left and right and all around. “I think we came from over there,” she said, pointing to her left.

“I think it’s that way,” said Alexis, pointing to her right. “I didn’t pay attention to where we were going when we ran away. And unless we find our trail markers, I think we’re”-she hesitated—”lost.”

Sydney sighed. “Okay. We’ve been lost in the woods before. Let’s just stay calm and practice what we learned at Discovery Lake Camp.”

“Well, the first thing you’re supposed to do is blow a whistle,” said Alexis, “which we don’t have. Or shout to get someone’s attention. And the last thing we want to do right now is draw attention to ourselves. Whatever is out there probably wonders where we are. So making noise is not an option.”

“I’m thinking,” Sydney said. “We learned at camp to look for water, like a river or stream, and follow it. That way we might run into someone canoeing, or fishing, or whatever.”

Alexis started chewing her hangnail again. “That would be great except that the only water around here is the lake, and we don’t know where that is right now. Besides, we don’t want to run into whatever it is that’s trying to get us.”

“We don’t know for sure that it’s trying to get us,” said Sydney. “What’s up with you, Alex? You’re always the one with the positive, realistic attitude.”

“Well, I think ‘go back’ or ‘get out’ or whatever it said is enough for us to know that it doesn’t want us around,” Alexis argued. “Anyhow, I’m sure we can find our way home. We just need to stay calm.” She looked at her watch.

“What time is it?” Sydney asked.

“Almost noon.”

Sydney handed Biscuit’s leash to Alexis. Then she started walking in circles around the pine trees.

“What are you doing?” Alex wondered.

“Looking for moss. It grows on the north side of tree trunks. The woods are south of the resort, so if we can find north, then we’ll know which direction to go.”

Biscuit decided that Sydney was playing a game. He pulled hard on his viney leash until it snapped in two. Then, joyfully, he pranced around the tree trunks with her.

Alexis busied herself with marking the spot where they were. She piled up some pine branches and laid two sticks in a criss-cross on top of them. “There,” she said. “This is our starting point. If we see this again, we’ll know that we’re walking in circles. Why don’t you just call your Aunt Dee and tell her we’re lost? You have your cell phone.”

“Oh, right,” Sydney complained as she inspected another trunk. “I’ll call her in the middle of her interview and say, ‘Aunt Dee, we’re lost in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, and something wicked is in here with us. Do you think you might be able to get away for a few minutes and come find us?’ “

“It was just an idea,” said Alexis.

Biscuit stopped and sniffed the air. His ears perked up. He let out a little
Ar-roof
, and then off he ran into the forest.

“Oh no,” said Sydney, “Not again! Let’s go.”

“Wait,” said Alexis. “Remember what that thing said. Are you sure you want to go back in there?”

“Think about it, Alex—it’s Biscuit. We
have
to go. If we lost him, Kate would never forgive us.”

“She would, too,” said Alexis, stalling for time. “She has to. The Bible says to.”

Sydney took off after Biscuit. Reluctantly, Alexis followed. “We have to be quiet,” she said. “If we start calling for him, whatever it is might hear us.”

“You’re right,” Sydney agreed.

The buzzing noise grew louder as they approached the spot where they’d heard the
whoosh—
where the voice whispered, “Go back. Go back. Go back.”

The forest seemed darker now, and they heard that noise, the persistent
buzz
, a low sound, almost a growl.

Then, as Sydney and Alexis walked deeper into the forest, they saw the eerie purple glow.

“What’s that?” Sydney whispered.

“It’s the purple light. We saw it before,” said Alexis.

“No,” said Sydney. “Something is out there walking in the woods.”

The words had no sooner left her lips than they saw the mountain man. He stood in a small clearing in the distance.

“Drop!” Sydney gasped. The girls fell to the ground and hid behind a huge log.

Alexis peeked around one side of it.

“Oh my goodness!” she whispered. “He’s got Biscuit!”

The mountain man walked toward them with Biscuit held firmly in the crook of his left arm. In his right hand, he carried the walking stick. The backpack was gone, but he still wore the floppy cap and ragged clothes. As he came nearer, the girls heard his deep, gruff voice.

“I need to get you back,” he said. “If they come looking for you, they might find out what I’m doing. It’ll be in all the newspapers and even on television. And I’m not ready for that yet.”

As he got closer, Alexis and Sydney prayed that Biscuit wouldn’t bark or wiggle out of the man’s arms and run to them. Even a whisper could be heard, so they just huddled together behind the log and looked at one another with desperation.

Baw-waw-waw!

Suddenly, a hollow, loud barking sound came out of the eerie purple glow. It echoed through the forest and made Sydney shiver. She felt Alexis grip her forearm.

“I never tied Fang up before,” said the man’s rough voice. “He’s not at all happy about it. Now, once I get you back home, don’t you come after us again, you hear? This is no place for a friendly little dog like you. You tell that gal to keep you on your leash.”

The girls heard the mountain man’s boots crunch pinecones against the forest floor. He was almost to the log now, and they plastered their bodies tightly against the ground.

Please, dear God, don’t let him see us
, Sydney prayed silently.

Biscuit began to whine, sensing that they were nearby.

“Whoa, slow down there, boy,” said the mountain man, tightening his grip. “Nothing’s going to get you.”

Sydney could imagine Biscuit squirming to get out of the man’s arms.

“Whew!” she heard the man exclaim. “Your owner’s going to be mad when she gets a whiff of you. You shouldn’t have rolled in my manure pile.”

Certain that the man was far enough away, Sydney let out a sigh of relief.

“He saw you!” Alexis whispered.

“No, he didn’t,” Sydney replied. “He walked right on by.” “I don’t mean now,” said Alexis. “I mean when you were out with Biscuit last night. He said, ‘Tell that gal to keep you on your leash.’ “

“You’re right,” whispered Sydney. “So now what do we do?”

“We follow them,” said Alexis.

The thing called Fang started barking again. Soon its deep
Baw-waw-waws
mixed with long, mournful
ARROOoooooos
.

“I think he has a wolf tied up out there,” said Sydney.

“Oh, do you think so?” Alexis shuddered.

“Whatever it is sounds big,” Sydney replied.

They got up from the ground and followed the mountain man, making sure that they stayed well behind him and hidden in the trees.

“Do you know what?” Sydney whispered as she ducked under a low branch. “I just thought of something.”

“What?” said Alexis, avoiding the same branch.

“We need to get ahead of them.”

“Why?” Alexis wondered nearly tripping over a rock half buried in the soil.

“Because Biscuit is smart,” Sydney said. “If we’re behind them, he’ll run right to us when the mountain man puts him down. Then we’ll be caught for sure. And who knows what he’d do to us. Probably take us back to that purple glow where he has the wolf tied up.” She squeezed around a Cockspur Hawthorne tree and caught her arm on one of its long, sharp thorns. “Ouch!” she squealed.

“Ssshhhh! “
Alexis scolded.

It was too late. Biscuit heard Sydney’s cry.

Ruff-ruff-aroof! Ruff-ruff-aroof!

“Oh no,” said Alexis. “Dear God, please, please, let the mountain man hang on to Biscuit.”

“Lord, hear our prayer,” Sydney agreed, quickly wiping a dribble of blood from her arm.

They waited, expecting Biscuit to bound through the woods right to them. But nothing happened.

“Oh thank you, Lord,” Sydney said.

“You’re right,” said Alexis as they slipped in and out among the trees. “We should get to the resort before Biscuit does. I sure wish we knew a shortcut.”

“Goof!”
She tripped over something and fell flat on her face.

“Are you okay?” asked Sydney.

“I’m fine,” said Alexis, pushing herself up onto her knees. “I just tripped over this … shovel.”

A garden shovel with a long wooden handle lay in the dirt under Alexis. “This is a strange place for a shovel,” she said, standing up. “Someone must have been digging here. Maybe looking for something.”

“Or, maybe burying something,” Sydney suggested.

The girls looked at one another. Without saying a word, each knew what the other was thinking. The shovel belonged to the mountain man.

“Hey,” said Alexis, brushing dirt and pine needles off of her knees. “Look!” She pointed to the base of a nearby tree trunk. “Isn’t that moss?”

Sydney checked it out. “It sure is,” she confirmed. “That way is north.”

She pointed in the direction that the mountain man went. “Let’s hurry.”

The girls squirmed around gangly bushes and past the branches of evergreen trees, and before long they saw bright sunlight not far ahead of them. The green grass surrounding the resort office came into view, and Sydney and Alexis hurried into the clearing.

“We got here before he did,” said Sydney.

“I think it would be best if we were in the cabin,” Alexis suggested. “That way, if he’s watching, he won’t know we were in the woods.”

“Good idea,” Sydney agreed.

They took off running, darting behind the resort office, staying away from the woods. They ran down a little hill to the back of their cabin. Sydney pulled the key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

“Quick! Let’s go to the front porch,” said Alexis, rushing through the little kitchen and living room. She pushed open the front door and stepped onto the porch just in time to see Biscuit race out of the woods.

Ruff-ruff! Ruff-ruff! Ruff-ruff-aroof!

Alex opened the porch door and stepped outside to meet her furry friend.

“Biscuit, where have you been?” she said in a voice much louder than normal. “We’ve been worried sick about you!”

Sydney was close behind. “Why are you yelling?” she asked.

“I want that guy to hear me,” said Alexis softly. “I want him to think that we were here all along.” Biscuit licked her hands.

Sydney looked toward the woods. The mountain man was nowhere in sight. “I think he’s gone,” she said.

Alexis held Biscuit at arm’s length. “Oh, you smell
so
bad. We have to give you a bath. Why did you roll in that man’s manure pile?”

“Manure pile!”
Sydney shrieked.

“Didn’t you hear him?” said Alexis. “He told Biscuit that he smelled bad, and then he said that Biscuit shouldn’t have rolled in the manure pile.”

“I must have missed that part,” said Sydney, keeping her distance from Biscuit. “Manure is made up of animal droppings, like from cows and horses and sheep. Why in the world would he have a manure pile in the middle of a forest?”