Silent Innocence-Ch 1

Chapter 1


I walked through the forest as I had numerous times before, the air heavy with the scent of fallen pine needles and bug spray. In these woods you were more likely to succumb to a voracious throng of blood sucking insects than a mountain lion or bear. The crunch of the undergrowth and twigs was the only sound save the rustle of the trees in the slight breeze, making its way through the seemingly endless troughs and crests of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, here in northern New Mexico. I began to worry that the silence indicated the presence of a predator far more dangerous than a horde of mosquitoes. I carried on nonetheless. I had to get where my feet were taking me.

Why I had decided to stray off the bike path after dusk was a mystery to me. I’m very familiar with these hills and know the direction to march if I were ever lost so that wasn’t a concern. What was a concern is that I had apparently decided to undertake this voyage barefoot. While trying to work out where my brain had been when I started out on my bicycle this evening movement in the trees caught my attention. A bit up the hill from where I was standing there appeared to be an ardent struggle. I was already walking barefoot in the woods with a thousand tiny vampires just aching to get at my sweet plasma so I decided to throw caution to the wind and investigate the wild like an eager tv ranger.

I tried to focus on the area of struggle, but any real light had been gone from the forest for nearly an hour. The moon wasn’t due for a few hours, if at all, by the lack of the telltale glow to the east. I had to use what little light late dusk provided, and decided to go down a few yards to where there was more cover. As I worked my way through the pines the victim of the apparent struggle let out a scream that I immediately took as human but it seemed too high pitched. I cocked my head to see if that would allow me to recognize the sound. It didn’t. All it accomplished was me standing as if trying to remember some long lost fact about sports trivia. At that moment my heart decided to see if it could pound it’s way forcibly from my chest.

I stood still for another a minute or two and debated against going to investigate any further. I figured I was already inviting a deadly infection on my little toe so I might as well go on. My curiosity was piqued. I moved up the hill as I must’ve been forty feet to the right of the disturbance. When I thought I climbed up far enough I began to move towards where the incident was taking place. I could no longer discern any movement from the shadows. This had an unsettling effect. For all I knew I was being stalked as the second course. I wondered what might be for desert.

Still my curiosity had the better of me so I plunged deeper into the area where I thought I would find a pile of rabbit fur or at least some disturbed Earth where a hungry bobcat had laid claim to his dinner. What I found was more than anyone should be expected to handle. A female child no more than 10 years old lay before me. She was nude from the waist down. Blood trickled from her left eye. The rope around her neck was so tight that it caused her eyes to bulge and made her face swell so that her head almost seemed too big for her frail body. Her mouth was open from a scream that never came, or else from gasping for breath that showed the same respect. It was in looking at her mouth that I also discovered her tongue had been cut out. She had managed to give up her dinner to the ground before her throat had closed.

I felt a bitterness rise inside of my chest. If I had not taken the long path to the scene I may have been able to save her. Maybe not from the horrific things some animal did to her but at least save her from being torn from the world. I suddenly felt watched and scanned the forest for any sign of the monster who was undoubtedly still working his way around the labyrinth of bushes. I wanted to leave but knew that if I left her here the many creatures of the forest would use her for sustenance. She couldn’t be used again. I knelt beside her, and not wanting to hurt her any further, removed my shirt to cover her up. If anyone saw me come out of the forest with her I was at least going to allow her to keep some sort of dignity. I began to loosen the rope from around her neck. As I was about to remove the murder weapon completely, the lifeless girl reached out and grabbed my face with ice cold hands and hissed at me with a voice that would chill any horror flick lover.

“Help me.”