Chapter 4. The Man from Nowhere
"Are you ok man?" Asked Scott, looking worried.
"Stephanie's parents are coming here in a few hours and I don't know what to say them." Jake shook his head, very frustrated.
"I am sorry. That's my fault. I will speak to them." Said Scott.
"Don't you ever say that again Scott. This is no one's fault, OK? This whole matter is just too...just too." Jake seemed to have difficulty finding a proper word.
"Strange?" Scott suggested.
"More than that! It's ri-dicu-lous!" words heavily squeezing through Jake's teeth. "I am sure we will get to the bottom of it." Scott patted Jake on his shoulder. He looked up at the low hanging pale moon, wondering why heaven had played such a joke like that to them. He had been so determined to want to believe that there was no such thing as supernatural in this world, but what he had just seen made him utterly lost. Somehow he suddenly remembered the seminar from Professor Walls, somewhere in the middle of which he heard him talking about "things could be chosen to appear" at some location. But Professor Walls had made it crystal clear there was no way the situation could ever occur other than on subatomic level. Maybe Professor Walls could be the one to actually talk to if he really needed to be convinced what he saw was scientifically feasible.
"Sir, I think you two," Mr. Johnson pointed at Jake as well "better go back first and have some rest. We will inform you immediately we find anything, alright?"
"Yes Sir. We are going back now. Thank you." Scott said.
"You are welcome."
Scott walked to the car, stared at it for a minute and checked the front seats closely. Then suddenly slightly excited, he shouted at Jake standing not far away from the car.
"Jake, Come here!" Scott signaled Jake to follow him to the car.
"What is it Scott? You found something?" Jake asked.
"Not sure. But obviously this isn't looking like kidnapping of any kind to me. I remember the car was covered by the roof while we left Stephanie alone inside, so she couldn't have been dragged out of the car from above without making any damage to the roof, right?" Scott looked at Jake in the eye. "Yeah, so? " Jake was confused.
"So, the most likely situation in a gun involved kidnapping would be that someone pointed his gun outside the car window at Stephanie and ordered her to get out of the car from the door assuming he was only interested in Stephanie and didn't care for the car, which seemingly should be the case if the kidnapping scene as you had suspected were true. But have you noticed the door of the car was locked? I don't remember you car has the auto-lock function, correct me if I am wrong."
"No, it doesn't lock unless it's locked from inside or with the remote."
"Ok, do you think it will make sense to you that Stephanie actually locked the car before she was forced to leave when someone was sticking a gun against her?"
"No, absolutely not." Jake shook his head. "Wait, so you are saying Stephanie left on her wish?"
"Well, I am not sure. If she wanted to go somewhere, she should've called you at least before she did. That's where I am most confused. It looked to me like she simply disappeared from inside the car." Scott shrugged.
"How could that be possible? You've got be kidding." Jake shook his head again, only in disbelief this time.
"After everything you saw in the wood, are you sure you don't believe this could have happened?" Scott asked.
"I don't know man. I really don't know. I just wish she could be back soon. You know what? Your freaky theory has started to scare the heck out of me." An expression of horror appeared on Jake's face as if he just watched a terrifying ghost movie.
"Sorry Jake, I didn't mean to scare you or anything. That's the only reasonable conclusion I could arrive at from what I saw. There is a huge chance that I am wrong. Maybe we are all much too stressed out. Maybe you locked the car without realizing it when you were back for Stephanie. And maybe she is already safely home, who knows?"
"Without calling me first?" Jake smiled bitterly. "Let's go back first."
"Sure. Where is Maggie and where is Mike? " Scott realized he had not seen them since they came back from the research along the road.
Jake looked around and said in irony. "Oh this is perfect. Now we have another two missing."
Scott dialed Maggie cell phone. "Where are you?" Scott asked in irritation. "I was about to call you Scott. We are in the woods..."Maggie said on the phone.
"You mean you and Mike are together now?" Scott interrupted her.
"Yeah, we are. Let me finish. We are where we were last night. The village! Come over here!" Maggie said in her usual excitement.
"The village is there again?" Scott asked.
"Well, not exactly. But definitely there is something fishy here. Come on you guys!" Maggie hung up the phone.
"Let's go back to the woods where we were last night, Jake. Maggie and Mike seem to have found something." Said Scott.
Jake also jumped off the car and ran towards the woods.
"Yo, kido, what are you doing?" Mr. Johnson yelled at Jake and Scott who was running after Jake.
"We will be right back." Scott waved at Mr. Johnson as he soon disappeared from his sight.
When they reached the place where the village had shown up the night before, as they had expected, nothing was there. No houses, or even the debris of the houses to be found. Maggie was examining the oak trees around her and Mike was sitting on a rock making a call.
"What is it Maggie?" Jake asked her still out of breath.
"Now check this out." Maggie didn't look back at Jake but still focused on the tree. She raised her finger and pointed at the somewhere around the higher up branches of an enormous red oak.
"What about the tree?" Jake squinted his eyes and tried to gaze at the top of the oak through the morning sunshine.
"Come here. Look from where I stand now." Maggie backed off a couple of steps allowing Jake to be where she had been.
Jake looked up from there, in a perfect angle to avoid the sunlight, and saw some of the branches of the tree seemed to be missing.
"Some of the branches of the tree are broken off the tree, aren't they? Even the cuts look fresh. And this is not the only tree that is wounded. But isn't it weird you don't see any of the branches down on the ground, not even scattered twigs?" Maggie said standing behind Jake.
"Well, even there are twigs on the ground. I mean the twigs from whatever you call the `damage' last night, we wouldn't be able to distinguish them from the rest. This isn't summer anymore when you can always easily tell which the twigs are." Scott added and then he continued. "What Maggie just observed did make a point here. But where are the fallen branches?"
No body said anything for a moment until Scott spoke again.
"If what we saw was true last night."
"It was." Maggie's eyes widened.
"If it was true,"Scott went on without commenting on Maggie's interruption. "Then I would tend to think Stephanie disappeared together with these branches."
"What are you talking about?" Maggie asked.
"I will explain this to you later Maggie. This is only my guess, but educated guess." Said Scott.
"I don't understand. Are you saying Maggie was gone at the same time when the tree branches were gone?" Asked Jake.
"Not exactly the same time sine you saw her disappear from the car first and minutes later the whole village was gone. But basically I think they all went to the same place." Scott said with some confidence.
"Hold on guys, I think we need to know everything, including what you think." Maggie demanded.
Scott told Maggie what he and Jake had seen about the lock front doors and what he had thought about it.
"But things don't just disappear. This doesn't make sense." Mike finally said something after listening to them for so long.
"I know this does sound very crazy. But..." "but we saw last night make it less crazy." Maggie interrupted Scott again.
"Oh my God. I can't believe this! This is so exciting!" Yelled Mike.
"Exciting?" Said Jake coldly.
"I am sorry. You know what I mean." Mike said apologetically. "But what should we do? Why don't we show the cops about the branches and tell them what you think Scott?"
"Do you think they will listen? I think we are already suspects now." Scott sighed.
"What do you mean? Suspects?" Asked Maggie.
"Don't you remember what we told the officer at the first place? We just reported a magical disappearance of a girl and a village. The police now must be thinking we were up to something, or worse, that we killed or hid Stephanie. But don't freak out yet. We can't blame them either. At least they believe us for now but I can't guarantee we will be fine if Stephanie stays missing." Scott said to them.
"Should we still tell the police the same thing if Stephanie still doesn't show up later and in any case the cops question us?" Asked Maggie nervously.
"Sure we should. I believe as long as we tell the truth, there is nothing to be afraid of. I've always believed that." Scott said calmly.
"Jake, why don't you get your camera and I want to take a few pictures of the trees and the missing branches? They might be use as useful clue or evidence later." Said Scott.
"Ok. You guys wait here. I will be back in a second."
They took some pictures and right before they headed back, Maggie screamed. "There's a man behind the tree!"
They all looked to where Maggie was pointed at. There was indeed someone half-hidden between a small and a dead trunk next to the tree. Scott recognized immediately that the man was no other but the very man standing in their way the night before.
"Call the police now." Mike whispered.
"I don't have his number." Said Scott. "Do you Jake?"
"No I don't. I forgot to ask for." Said Jake. "What are we gonna do? Do you think he has a gun?"
"No idea. One of us has to go back and lead the police here. I am afraid he will run away if we speak to him." Jake contined.
"Call 911 then." Mike suggested.
"That will take too long to explain. Besides I don't think he will run away. I am sure he's already seen us." Said Scott.
"How do you know?" Asked Jake.
"For one thing, Maggie's scream should've been powerful enough to make him run if he wanted to; for another, he is looking at us right now." said Scott.
"Hey there!" Scott shouted at the man before anyone could stop him.
The man stood still, peeping through the spaces between his shelter, but didn't answer.
"What are you doing here? If you don't tell us we will have to call the police! They are right here, I am calling now." Jake spoke loudly, his voice a little bit shaky.
Still silent. He man didn't reply, nor did he move a muscle. He was still staring at them with great interest.
"Maggie?" Scott turned his head back.
"Yeah, I am here." Maggie said, looking frightened.
"Go back and have the police come with you, quick." Said Scott.
Maggie carefully walked back, trying not to be seen the man.
"We need to keep talking to him until the police come." Said Scott.
"What's your name dude? I am Michael."
The man just wouldn't say a single word no matter what they said to him. And then he came from behind the tree, and walked towards them. He had nothing in his hands, no gun. This time, they saw him clearly. He had very dark hair, tanned skin, and long arms. He was wearing a funny white shirt and no shoes on, looking as if he had just experienced some sort of disaster.
They heard the foot steps nearing from behind and knew Maggie was back but not alone. Mr. Johnson was with her, followed by Jeff, the younger officer.
"Maggie told me this is the man you saw last night who blocked your way, are you sure?" Mr. Johnson asked.
They all nodded.
Mr. Johnson pulled out his gun and walked to him slowly. "Sir, I want you to stay where you are and identify yourself."
The man didn't answer. Instead, he looked at Mr. Johnson with great curiosity.
Mr. Johnson nodded at Jeff and they both jumped at the man and took him down to the ground. Jeff handcuffed him from behind. The man looked very surprised and confused, but didn't struggle. Scott looked at him in the eye and he looked back while he was taken away by the officers. He then opened his mouth and said something that sounded like gibberish. The officers searched his body but didn't get anything. No wallet and no cards of any kind were found on him. Mr. Johnson shook his head and said nothing. But Jeff was laughing "Who the heck is he? A primitive?"
"I don't know. Maybe illegal immigrant." Said Mr. Johnson.
"But he doesn't look Latino."
"Maybe he is Asian."
"Doesn't look Asian either."
They followed the officers out of the woods and got back to the car. For some reason, Scott felt very regretful for turning him in to the police, but he wasn't sure why.
Stay tuned for Chapter 5. At the police station