Mirror in the Forest: Book One (39 page)

2 weeks later

Mark sat at the bar, trying to drown out the past couple of weeks. Thankfully, the bar was pretty empty for a weekday. He just wanted to be left alone anyway. The bartender knew he was not in the mood to talk to anyone, and kept other customers from bothering him.

He realized that people would start asking why he gave his resignation today, but he was not ready to be bombarded with questions just yet. He was expecting Hal to show up any minute. Hal would be promoted to Sheriff until the County Commissioner could bring in a replacement for Mark, and then hold elections again.  

“Are you sure you want to do this Mark?” The commissioner asked him when Mark handed him the resignation earlier that day. Even though Mark was his own boss, and had no superior, he still had to answer to someone, and that was the commissioner.

“Yes,” Mark answered, not wanting to explain further.

“Mark, please think about this. You are one of the good ones,” the commissioner tried to reason, but Mark wasn’t hearing any of it.

He walked out without further explanation, coming straight to the bar. He wasn’t planning on getting drunk; he just wanted to be numbed a little.

Jessica’s parents made the hard decision to move her to a mental institution. There was no possible way they could care for her now, she was too far gone. There was not anything wrong physically with her, but there wasn’t much more the doctors at the hospital could do for her. She would need psychiatric care, they reasoned, not medical care from now on.

Mark smiled bitterly, looking into his half full beer bottle. No one could help her. No one. This was not something that science could resolve. There had to be another way, and he was going to find it, until then he could only hope there was a way for Jessica to fight from wherever she was, and come back to her body.

He remembered the day after The Spirit or whatever that thing was, took her soul. He went back to the wooded area where it was located, and searched for hours trying to find some kind of clue. He rummaged through brush, ferns, and dirt. He was desperate for something that would tell him where he could find it, and Jessica, but nothing turned up.

He took the dagger, and the necklace, hiding them in his jacket. He then took the roses, and angrily tore them to pieces. Then he sat there for a while trying to get himself together.  He looked for the shattered glass from the mirror, but all of it had disappeared. He ran his fingers over the bullet holes in the tree, and tried to blink back tears.

All he could find was the bullet casings from his gun. He was picking up what he could find when he heard footsteps behind him. He cautiously turned around to see Tessa standing behind him.

“I was hoping to find something, but I see you’re already looking,” she said sadly.

“Are you sure you want to be a doctor? Because, you’d make a helluva detective,” Mark said smiling slightly at her.

Tessa laughed, but wiped her tear filled eyes. “I should have told you my suspicions earlier.”

“No, you should have stayed in the sheriff’s office and waited for me,” he scolded her lightly.

Tessa sighed. “I know, but I didn’t know what you were doing at the time, and I wanted this to stop before Jessica ended up getting hurt. Besides, I didn’t know if you would have believed me or not.”

Mark stood with some bullet casings in his hand and said, “After the bus accident, and her lack of remorse, it just concreted everything for me. You’re right though. I didn’t want to believe it.”

“I figured you were having suspicions, but wasn’t sure when,” Tessa commented.

Mark scoffed, putting the bullet casings he recovered into his pocket.    

“Yeah, I was. I feel so stupid now,” he said, shaking his head.

Tessa looked at him confused. “Mark, why? How could any of us have known what she was doing until Rick attacked her.”

Mark took a deep, shaky breath. “I still love her, you know. Despite everything, I still love her.”

Tessa began to sob, and Mark walked over and embraced her. “Me too,” she cried into his jacket. “Because in the end, she did have regrets, and saved me.”

“It might take us a long time, but we will find her and free her. We need to find some answers first,” he said, still embracing Tessa.

Tessa suddenly pulled back and said, “What is this thing Mark? Why didn’t he just kill her and take her soul away then? Why did he leave her alive after she sacrificed herself for me? He was going to make her kill me. I don’t understand it.”

Mark thought about it all through the night before as he sat at the hospital with Jessica. “That is a mystery that we need to solve. So, it looks like we have a lot of work to do.”

Tessa looked around the area, and sighed. “I think we know who is really to blame for all of this.”

Mark nodded. “I think there is a lot of blame to go around.”

Mark was brought out of his thoughts when something metallic banged next to him at the bar.

He turned sharply to see his Sheriff’s badge next to his beer.

“I think this belongs to you,” Hal said from behind him.

“I don’t need it anymore. You’re the new Sheriff, remember?” Mark said, pushing the badge back in front of Hal.

Annoyed, Mark threw money on the bar, and turned to leave. Hal stopped him by placing a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t do this.” Hal hissed.

“Do what?”

“Walk away from your career,” Hal answered, still gripping his shoulder.

“I’m not walking away. I’ve decided to take another approach,” Mark said. He was in no mood to talk anymore. He had things to do, and they did not involve police work anymore.

He shrugged out of Hal’s grip, and put his jacket on. Hal stood up from the seat and came face to face with his nephew.

        “Mark don’t destroy your life over this.”

Mark stepped away from his uncle, he was so bitter that he could barely control his frustration. “My old life is over, my new life is just beginning. So, many...so many lives lost over the years, because all of you chose to look away, hide files, and cover up mysterious incidents. Well, that’s not going to happen anymore.”

            “So, what were we supposed to say? Were we supposed to tell you that a demon comes back to town every so often to kill or maim kids using other ones to do it? What? This town is cursed? What did you want?” Hal asked, fuming.

Mark was so angry with his uncle he almost punched him in the face. Instead, he turned and walked out of the bar.

          Hal followed him outside trying to get Mark’ attention again.

         Mark walked quickly into the parking lot, and unlocked the car. He finally turned, to face his uncle after he had called Mark’s name several times.

              “Mark, you have a bright future ahead of you. Don’t let that girl ruin it!”

Mark took a long deep breath. He looked into the distance, gazing at the mountain where the mirror first appeared to Jessica Winters.

“You have no idea do you?’ Mark asked turning back to stare down his uncle.

“About what?”

“That this town will never be free until someone does something about it.”

Hal took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “You do what you need to do, but you are making a huge mistake.”

Mark shook his head in denial. “No, I don’t think I am. I have a feeling that Jessica started a chain of events that will take this thing down once and for all, and I intend to finish what she started.”

3 years later

Mark snuffed out his cigarette in the ashtray inside his car, and let the smoke slowly exit his lungs.

It was always so hard coming to
Western State Hospital
. Even after all his visits, it never got easier as time went by.

He looked over the courtyard, and could see the patients who were sane enough to go outside moving around getting their daily exercise for the day with orderlies walking around with them.

Why? Despite whatever diagnosis they gave Jessica he would always know the truth, and it would haunt him the rest of his life or until he found the mirror again.

He searched and searched Leon’s Crossing for the Spirit of the Mirror for three years, hoping it would come back sooner than it usually did. He had gotten stronger from hiking, and knew the forests of the area like the back of his hand, but there was no sign of the mirror or Jessica’s soul anywhere.

He had poured over everything he could get his hands on to try to get her soul back, but nothing worked. He even tried approaching some Catholic Priests, but none of them would even speak to him.

The scientific diagnosis for her condition had been Catatonic Schizophrenia. The doctors thought the accident triggered the previously undiagnosed condition.

Mark scoffed. There was no word in science that could diagnose her no matter what they did.

Mark had never been a praying man, but now he prayed everyday to Jessica to find the light, and come back to her body. He hoped every time he went to visit her that she would blink her eyes, and snap out of it, but he always left disappointed.

He remembered back to the night that Jessica had sacrificed herself for Tessa. The incident had traumatized Tessa so much, that she never fully recovered. She was able to graduate high school, and even start a local community college, but that is where it all ended. One night, she went out partying to try to relieve her nightmares, went into a diabetic coma, never coming out of it. Her boyfriend, Danny Davenport, found her the next morning.

“Promise me, Mark,” Tessa had said before she died. “Promise me you will never stop looking for her. She only has you now.”

Mark remembered them speaking one last time over the phone about three months before she died. She tried to help him several times, but in the end, she was ready to give up. She had kept a journal of everything she knew about The Spirit of the Mirror, and Mark used to tease her about being a better detective than he could ever dream. He never thought he could cry so hard as he did at her funeral, but the information she provided him became priceless. She also did a lot of research with him about demons, and evil spirits. They concluded that Jessica’s soul could be trapped in some kind of purgatory, but they were never quite sure. They even questioned why her physical body was still alive.

Mark ended up moving to Tacoma, Washington to be closer to her. He started driving trucks for deliveries out of the Port of Tacoma just like his father before him, since it gave him the time to keep going back to Leon’s Crossing, so he could be there when The Spirit of the Mirror returned for more souls.

He often wondered what The Spirit of the Mirror was in the first place. The history that he knew of said many things about it as time passed. No one really knew.  Was it a demon? What is an evil spirit? Some kind of entity that collected souls to replenish its power as Tessa suggested once. He didn’t know. He poured over Tessa’s history of the town, but nothing ever stood out to him to explain what the spirit was, even though the town elders insisted it was a demon.

Mark looked up and was ready to exit his car when he gazed upon a familiar face leaving the hospital.

Mary Winters came out of the front door, and began to walk to her car. He was in luck, because her car was parked near his.  

She aged since he had last spoken to her in person. Mary and Don had avoided him like a plague these last three years, and he wanted some answers.

Her once golden blonde hair was now graying, and no longer well maintained. She had deeper lines in her face. She didn’t wear makeup anymore, and her outfit was not the tight clothes he remembered she favored.

She was only forty-three, but now she looked well into her fifties.

Mark quickly exited the car and slammed the door on purpose to make Mary look up and notice him. It worked.

Mary hesitated for a moment, but gave him a slight smile. “Hi Mark,” she said thinly.

“Mrs. Winters,” he answered in greeting.

She played with her car keys for a moment, and said, “I hear you’re a regular visitor. I appreciate that.”

Mark ignored the comment. “How is she today?” He asked.

Mary nodded, but she sighed in defeat. “She is the same. Her physical health is good though.”

Mark nodded once and said, “I know it must be hard seeing this.”

“It is. We are getting through it day by day,” Mary answered. She then tilted her head at him, and he knew she was growing tense with each passing moment.

Suddenly, she asked. “What do you need Mark? You have nothing keeping you here. You don’t have to visit her. Why do you? You are free to move on with your life.”

Mark only shook his head, feeling the bitterness almost choke him. “Because I watched as a young woman with so much potential in life, so much love to give be manipulated by a spirit that has done this before, and I wonder how that happened,” Mark said, not hiding the accusation. “Now, I am trying to find her again, free her, and get this thing out of Leon’s Crossing forever before it hurts more people. That’s why, Mary.”

Mary Winters stood there for a moment, staring at him. Then to his surprise, she burst out crying. She leaned back against her car as the burden of what happened to her only child overwhelmed her.

“It was you, Don, and Rick Tanner in that car accident that night in ’61, wasn’t it?” Mark asked, he already knew, but wanted her to say it.

Mary calmed her breathing a little, while wiping her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered.

Mary took another deep breath and looked around so no one would hear her.

“Don and I were dating. Rick was a good friend of ours. Don, Rick, and I were already giving gifts to the mirror, but we wanted more. We not only wanted to be head cheerleader, quarterback, and wide receiver, we wanted to be the most famous kids ever in Leon’s Crossing. We were none of those things, so we went out for a drive with the others, and the accident happened. All we had to do was get them into the car. We did it, and they died, we lived. We got our wish. It started out as a joke, but turned serious after our classmates died.”

Mark listened intently, and could only shake his head in disgust.

Mary took another shaky breath. “Rick never recovered from the guilt. So, his life turned for the worst, and Don and mine got better. We were taken care of, you could say. In our senior year, Don won the state championship and was crowned prom king, and I was head cheerleader, the Power Forward on the basketball team, prom queen, all of that. Rick would blackmail us from time to time, so Don would give him money and work when we had it. We tried to get The Spirit to get rid of him, but the mirror said it would come eventually.”

“After he attacked Jessica, Don and I went to The Spirit, and we lured Rick into the woods, and The Spirit took care of him. We already knew by then that he was helping Jessica.”

Mark could only continue to gaze upon Mary Winters in revulsion. He felt sickened by what she did to her own child.

“I thought because Don and I were doing good because of The Spirit, we could bring Jessica out of her shell, and continue our legacy in the town,” Mary explained further.

She began to cry again, and said, “I never thought it would go this far. We never thought we would lose our daughter.”

“Stay here for a moment,” Mark ordered.

He walked back to his car, and opened the trunk. He retrieved what he was looking for and walked back to up Mary, who was blowing her nose, while waiting on him.

Mary gasped when she saw the object he held in his hand.

“What is that?”

Mark held up the knife safely in its sheath. “This was Sara Miller’s dagger. I found it by Jessica when the spirit took her. Wasn’t Sara a good friend of yours?”

Mary’s ice blue eyes widened in realization. “It was an accident,” she muttered.

“I have no doubt it was. I think Jessica was there to witness it, but after that, I think Jessica got greedy, and vengeful, because of the girls that bullied her. The only difference was, Jessica found her conscience again, and she paid for it in the end, unlike her parents, who still live their good life. She couldn’t kill Tessa, and from what Tessa told me, The Spirit tried, oh boy, did he try. Tessa was sure she was a goner, when Jessica started whispering to her about you, Don, and me, then Tessa knew Jessica was going to sacrifice herself to save her. Am I right?” Mark gritted his teeth in anger, thinking about everything that happened to them.

Mary nodded as fresh tears ran down her face. “Yes, she did.”

“So, you knew all along if she didn’t give these gifts to him, then he would take her soul? You did nothing to stop her from hurting other people? All you were worried about was stroking your own ego, because you were famous in town? Are you ever going to stop being so selfish? Are you going to help me?”

Mark could feel his rage build again, when Mary didn’t answer him. She just turned her head away in shame.

“Oh, and I am assuming this is yours,” he said, getting her attention back.

He walked over and handed her an old necklace. Mary cried out softly, “This was my grandmother’s. I had a feeling she took it for a gift.”

“Yes, and now that you have it back, then you should decide if you want to help me or not,” Mark asked, getting impatient from her hesitation.

Mary grasped the necklace in her hand. She looked up to him and said, “I’m sorry Mark. I can’t help you.”

Without another word, Mary quickly walked off, leaving Mark in a stunned silence.

Mark decided to follow her, not giving up.

“Mary!” he called.

Mary ignored him, walking quickly to her car, and opening the door.

“I really can’t believe you are not going to help your daughter,” he said, astonished that she would just walk away.

Mary turned around angrily and said, “Mark, you have no idea what I can do. I can’t help you. I am bound to The Spirit. I want to keep my soul. Do you understand? Now, get away from me.”

Without another word, Mary got into her car, slammed the door, and drove off, leaving a bewildered Mark in the dust.

Mark sighed, and walked into the hospital after standing in the parking lot in shock for a few minutes after Mary left. He had a feeling that would be her answer, but he thought maybe, just maybe, she would do the same as her daughter did. Yet, after her confession about Rick Tanner, he knew Don and Mary would never give up what they had, even for their own child.

The sterile smell of cleaner mixed with urine and other bodily fluids tickled his nose when he entered the hospital. He hated this place. He hated Jessica had to live here.

He signed in at the front desk, the secretary saying hello to him since he was a frequent visitor.

Patients visiting their families were scattered everywhere. Some were walking around, lost in their own little worlds, and some just wanting some company.

Mark got on the elevator, and went to the third floor. He walked down the fluorescent lit hallway, and looked over at the nurses’ station, waving to the nurses who knew him.  The orderlies were helping other patients clean up for the day or helped feed them.

He walked by Jessica’s room first, and found it empty. He made his way to the day room, and found more patients reading, walking around or watching television.

He found Jessica staring out of the window, but knew she wasn’t really seeing it.

Now twenty-one, she still had her youth, but she had gotten thinner since she needed to be fed through a tube. Her once lively brown eyes stared blankly into the courtyard. She was seated in a wheelchair dressed in a gown, a pink robe, and a blanket covering her legs, with socks covering her feet.

Mark knew her mother did her hair, because it looked freshly brushed. It was now shorter, because the hospital said it was easier to take care of. Usually, Mary and Don arranged to have it done on the premises when a stylist was there.

Mark pulled up a chair, and turned Jessica to face him. “Hey there cutie,” he said, smiling to her. “You look good today.”

No answer. He waved a hand in front of her eyes. Nothing.

Mark would always talk to her about mostly his travels, and other things he was doing. The doctors said there might be something one day that would trigger a reaction.

He remembered the time he had to tell her that Tessa had passed. It broke his heart, and he had to leave earlier than usual that day.

Mark talked to Jessica for a good hour telling her about his latest drive, and stops along the way. He remembered how she loved nature, and told her he stopped to identify plants and trees while he was searching for the mirror.