Page 3 of Corrupting Ivy

Jenny, the medic, pulled off her gloves and tossed them in the bin with a concerned look, stepped back while keeping her eyes to the ground, and walked away.

“How can I help you, Sheriff?”

“You can tell me what’s happening ‘round here.”

I took a deep breath and wrapped the wool blanket tighter around my shoulders, which was strange because it had to be in the eighties, but I was shivering. Jenny said it could be shock, but I wasn’t so sure.

The sheriff reached into his back pocket and flipped a small green notepad open, then clicked the end of his pen and scribbled on the paper. He looked at me while I thought of where to begin.

“I, uh… I was running through the woods, and I tripped. Then fell… into the creek bed. Otis found me, and that’s when we saw the…” my throat tightened as I tried to swallow the lump, “the, um…”

“Body?” Sheriff Kennedy said, filling in the words I couldn’t bring myself to say.

I nodded and looked away, taking in the chaotic scene before me as he wrote it down.

Reporters clicked their cameras. The bright lights from the flash illuminated the shadow-covered forest as they tried to capture something worth the headlines—one even tried to push past the yellow caution tape to enter the forest before being stopped by the deputy.

Chills churned down my spine with the familiar sensation that someone was watching me. Of course that would seem like a normal sensation with the hub-bub going on, but this was different—sinister even.

I scanned the small crowd that was growing in size the longer I sat here on display, but no one resembled the man at the pond. No one except Otis, that is. He had the same-colored clothes on, minus the hoodie that was nowhere to be found.

“And what happened after that?”

My gaze shifted back to the sheriff with graying brown hair and shook my head, trying to recollect the conversation we were having. “That’s it. I puked all over Otis. Then he called an ambulance, letting them know what happened while he helped me out of the woods.”

He nodded while jotting down the information, then tapped his pen to his lip while he thought of the next question—the same questions his deputy asked me a few moments before he walked up.

“And you didn’t see or hear anyone else while you were in the woods?”

I shook my head.

“Why were you wet?”

The wool blanket pulled most of the moisture from my soaked clothes, but yet I was still shivering. “I was swimming.”

“That’s it?”

I nodded and rolled my lips as if spreading Chapstick across my lips, then snapped them with a quiet pop. “Yep.”

“Okay, I’ll be in touch.”

Sheriff Kennedy stepped away towards Otis. He was probably grilling him with the same questions he asked me. It was a waste of time. The decomposing body had clearly been there for a while.

I shucked off the blanket and stood carefully, needing to get out of this place and away from the prying eyes. My world took a spin as my shoes touched the gravel lot, making me reach out for the ambulance door for balance.

A hand grabbed my arm just above my elbow, right when I thought my knees might give out. “Careful now,” Otis said. “We don’t need a knot on the other side of your head.”

I blew out a careful breath. “Thank you.” I patted his hand on my arm. “I’m okay, though. I just stood up too fast, I think.”

“Do you need a ride home?”

It was sweet of him to offer, and something inside me wanted me to say yes, but my nerves were still raw from him standing over me. “I’ve got Mr. Jensen’s car.” We walked to the old rusted car with over two-hundred thousand miles on it and opened the door. “What happened to the hoodie you were wearing?”

Otis shook his head and frowned. “What hoodie?”

“The one you were wearing at the waterfall.”

His brows pulled together, causing slight creases between his brows. “Ivy, I wasn’t at the waterfall.”

---