The Woods: Prolouge

I never was much of a brave kid growing up. I was the one in the back of the class, you probably knew one like me. Never looked up from my books, never spoke unless spoken too, the whole nine yards. It was because of how i looked mostly. I was a bit overweight, with dark brown hair and freckles. Oh how I hated those damn things. It got slightly better once I graduated high school, although that wasn't saying too much. After high school, I did what I always wanted to do. I followed in my fathers footsteps and became an officer with the police department. He was so proud the day I graduated from the academy.


We lived in a town in central Minnesota. My grades weren't good enough to go to college, which for a nerd like I had been that's probably shocking. I figured being a cop was the best bet I had for some excitement. Once I got in however, I wondered why I had been excited at all. We almost never had anything beyond traffic violations, a few domestic fights, and the occasional bar riot when the TImberwolves would lose important games. Never anything I would call world changing. About eight months in, we began receiving reports from one of the departments further north from us. A lot of the families in that area were reporting a whole church group missing. They had gone on a camping trip in Lost River forest, and hadn't been seen or heard from since.


Hearing that sent a chill up my spine. I'd been up there before, and I knew how easy it was to get lost. There wasn't much vehicle access so if any rescue attempts were going to be made, it had to be on foot. The chief of our department didn't hesitate to offer our help. I heard from Jacob's he had family up there, and they had been on that trip. Four of us were selected to head up there and help in the search. There was me, my partner Gregory Thomas, Amara Henderson, and Kevin Salyer. Gregory was a total goofball. He made SO many sexist jokes, just knowing it would get under my skin. But I knew he meant nothing by it.


Amara was a beautiful girl. She had sleek black hair, that she always kept pinned back in a ponytail. She had deep brown eyes that only highlighted her face even more. She had been thrilled when I joined the department, seeing as there weren't many other women around. She was always there to listen to me, and I can't thank her enough. I started to feel a little...closer than I expected to her. It was weird at first but also nice. I never told her. Looking back? I wish I had. If I had known what was going to happen...I would have thrown aside all my nerves and just did it. I was still awkward as hell. Some things you never grow out of.


That at least brings me to Kevin. Kevin was going to be in charge, being the highest ranking. He had light blonde hair and dark green eyes. He was a serious kind of guy. Gregory's polar opposite i used to call him. He was obsessive to the point of annoyance about just about anything involving the breaking of regulations. He was, quite frankly, the epitome of that movie cop you always see that is criticizing the hero of the story for not going by the book. Despite this, Kevin wasn't a bad guy really. Maybe he wasn't the kind of guy you'd take to a party, but he was still nice enough.


Im going to say ahead of time, before I tell you this story...don't expect all your questions to be answered. It happened two years ago, and I still don't know everything no matter how hard i searched. And I gave up a while ago. I'm going to tell you this story, not for my own benefit. Personally, I would be happy to never have to relive all of this ever again. Im telling you this as a warning. So that if anything like the warning signs begin to happen in your town, you'll do something about it before it's too late. And if, heaven forbid, you encounter the..thing we encountered those nights? God be with you. Because he sure wasn't with us.