Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest

Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest--Chapter 5

                                      The Green Lady

Eliza stood in front of their house, hands cupped to her mouth like a megaphone.  "Phoebe! We're going to town for ice cream!" She waited for Phoebe to come tearing around the side of the house, shouting out her favorite flavors and reminding her not to forget to bring something back for Patch.

She waited and listened. By the chicken coop, Patch barked and lunged against his chain. There was no sign of Phoebe. Hairs prickled on the back of her neck.  

"Phoebe! Answer me!" Eliza ran to the chicken pen.  She grabbed the wire mesh and hollered at the chicken coop. "Phoebe!  Are you in there?" Chickens clucked in concern, poking their heads out the coop door to see what the commotion was.

Patch barked and lunged against his chain, desperate to get loose. Eliza turned to the dog.  "Patch! Quiet!"  Patch sat on his haunches and whined.  He stared at the side of the house, ears raised and listening.

Eliza ran to the old work shed and threw open the door.  A single overhead bulb illuminated tools, wheelbarrow, bags of cement, flowerpots and old bicycles missing wheels and seats.

"Phoebe?"

She left the shed and looked around, panic swelling in her chest.  Something was wrong. Phoebe wasn't the type to run away. She had to be hiding somewhere.  The garden!

Eliza raced to the garden, her eyes sweeping over tall weeds and dead corn stalks. "Phoebe!  Are you in there? This isn’t funny!"  A breeze rattled the cornstalks and whistled through weeds as high as her waist.  "Please, Phoebe!  Answer me!"

She heard the flutter of wings and turned to find a large brown owl perched on the straw hat of the scarecrow.  The owl craned its neck and stared at her with azure blue eyes. Its gaze lowered to Eliza's feet.

Eliza looked down to find an ear of corn—green and fresh—lying on the ground.  She picked it up and peeled back the husk to find plump yellow kernels.  Her dream came back to her: the beautiful young woman in the brown dress and the creatures with red eyes hiding in the garden. The woman had handed her a dry ear of corn and told her to picture it fresh and alive—just like it was now.

"No . . . this isn't the same ear. It can't be."

Eliza dropped the ear of corn.  It couldn't be the same one. That ear had been dry as a bone, the husk brittle as parchment, kernels as hard as pebbles.  Besides, that was just a dream. Wasn't it? She remembered something else the woman said; something about staying away from the Old Woods because it wasn't safe.  She looked at the owl who stared back at her.

"I know this sounds crazy but—do you know where my sister is?"

The owl blinked. It flapped powerful serrated wings and lifted off the post. Eliza watched it fly off toward the back of the house—toward the woods.

Eliza ran to Patch, who barked and whined, straining against his chain.

"Find Phoebe! Find her, boy!"  Eliza unclipped the chain from Patch’s collar.  He took off like a rifle shot, barking madly as he raced around the side of the house and across the grassy meadow toward the woods beyond.

"Patch, wait!"  Eliza started after the dog.

"Stop!"

Eliza skidded to a stop and spun around to find Grizzle scouring the ground, sniffing loudly.  "Phoebe's missing! I have to find her!"

"Gobblings!" Grizzle spit on the ground as if the smell left a bad taste in his mouth.  He paced back and forth, his pointed ears twitching.  "But how did they get through the gateway?"