Page 14 of Ravaging Red
They led me away from the porch, past the medics and the hushed conversations that instantly cut off when I passed. The air felt too thin. The flashing lights had been switched off, but the echo of them still pulsed behind my eyes, and the weight of too many stares burned a hole at my back.
The Hollow Woods had done something to my senses, and I was highly sensitive to everything and everyone around me. The uneven rhythm of my breathing, the heavy footfalls of the officers' boots on the gravel, the feel of dried blood on my ankle, the way my mother’s voice broke when she whispered my name as I walked past her.
They brought me to the back of a cruiser parked at an angle near the mailbox on the driveway. One of them, the younger one, Officer Jackson, offered me a blanket. I stared at it for a long moment, then shook my head. I didn’t want warmth. I didn’t want comfort. I needed the chill to remind me that I was still inthisworld, nothis.
Jackson tucked the blanket under his arm. His features looked wary, like he was trying not to let too much of what he was thinking slip through. The other man, Sergeant DeWitt, looked wiser. He was someone who’d stopped pretending this town was safe a long time ago. His eyes stayed on me the entire time, barely blinking. He didn’t look like he pitied me. He looked like he was waiting for me to tell him something new. Something he didn’t already suspect.
“Miss Grimm,” Jackson started. His voice was calm. Friendly, even. “Can you tell us how long you think you were gone?”
I blinked. The question sounded simple enough, but there was tension in the space between his words. My mouth was dry,and my throat scraped when I swallowed. “A few hours,” I said, slowly. “Maybe half a day.”
Jackson’s jaw tensed. He looked down at the small notebook in his hand but didn’t write anything. He hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“You’ve been missing for three days, Miss Grimm,” DeWitt said. “Search parties went out every morning. We had dogs, drones, half the goddamn town combing those woods. Your trail ended just off the Witch’s Trail.”
I stared at him. I could feel the confusion settle across my face as the panic settled in quietly.
“I didn’t know,” I said softly. “I didn’t realize...”
Jackson stepped in. “You don’t remember anything? Where were you? How did you get lost?”
I hesitated, suddenly feeling protective of the woods. Ofhim. “I was in the woods.”
“That much we know,” DeWitt said dryly. “Butwhere? Did you go off the trails? Did someone lead you somewhere?”
I shook my head, slower this time. “I-I don’t remember.”
“Your grandmother went missing, too,” Jackson said. “The same day you did, but she returned the next morning. And when she returned, there was also no explanation. Same condition as you. No serious injuries, somewhat dehydrated and confused. She hasn’t said much, either.”
I looked past them, toward the house. I could see the top of Nana’s head through the window. She’d been moved and was now seated in the old rocker by the fireplace, her hands folded in her lap, her expression unreadable. Just like mine.
“Miss Grimm,” DeWitt said, voice lower now, quieter. “You need to understand something. People go missing in the Hollow Woods. Most women, almost all of them, do not return.”
“Almost?” I asked.
Officer Jackson nodded. “Ninety-nine percent of them don’t. Not until now.”
DeWitt continued. “We’ve been logging disappearances in that area for decades. Locals don’t talk about it, but we’ve seen the patterns. The woods take people, and they don’t bring them back.”
The silence stretched. I could feel it tightening between us, and they were waiting for me to crack. Maybe they thought I would give them some sort of confession. But I had done nothing wrong, and I’d already cracked out there. Back here, I was still trying to piece myself together.
“Did you see anyone?” Jackson asked. “Did anyone lure you away?”
My eyes dropped to the ground. I rubbed my palms against the sides of my thighs, feeling the grit, the dirt. I could still smell the dew in my hair. I could still feelhisbreath on my neck.
“No,” I said. “It was just… dark. Foggy. I got turned around.”
“Do you remember how you got out?” DeWitt pressed. “How did you find your way back?”
I paused. “I followed the road.”
They didn’t believe me. I could see it in their eyes. They’d seen too many bodies dragged out of shallow graves, or never found at all, to believe in lucky escapes.
“You’re saying you were alone,” DeWitt said. “For nearly three days.”
I nodded. “It didn’t feel like days.”
“It felt like hours?” Jackson pushed, voice sharper now.
