Chapter 4

• ~ July 23rd - 8:44 PM ~
• With determination and several pots of coffee later, Zoe flopped onto her bed. "Two whole days!" she yawned to herself. With her dedication to her art, Zoe had finished the commissioned piece. Even she was impressed with the amount of detail she had poured into the artwork. "I am getting better!" she said proudly. The intricate details of the elephants had been challenging, but mixing the different tans, greens, and dark browns for the surreal background had been her favourite part.
• Slowly sitting up, Zoe stretched her sore body. Standing up and walking over to her desk, she beamed with joy. She had invested every ounce of her soul into this creation. The only reference she had was a picture she found on the internet. "Completed! Soon to be packaged and ready to be sent off to Mrs. Money Bags." Zoe crossed her arms in front of her chest, feeling great about her accomplishments as a budding artist.
• "One day, I am going to be among the greatest artists of my time!" Zoe said to herself as she pulled out her phone to send a message to Mrs. Bedford. 'I am happy to let you know that your commissioned piece has been completed. It still needs to dry, but I can deliver it tomorrow or whenever is more convenient for you.' Zoe pressed send. She adjusted her phone to take a picture of the art piece and clicked the button when she was ready. She also attached it to her message and sent it to Mrs. Bedford as proof of her claims.
• Just moments later, Zoe's phone buzzed. Glancing down at the phone that was in her hand, she had clicked on the message from Mrs. Bedford. 'Could you drop off the art piece on July 25 at 9:30?' it read. Excitement bubbled up within her. Giggling like a little school girl with a smile across her face. She quickly typed back, 'Absolutely! I can't wait to see you then!' Zoe had pressed send. Breathing a sigh of excitement. She always felt this way once she was done with a project. The sense of satisfaction and pride in a job that had been done.
• Dropping her phone on her bed, she pulled out her laptop. 'It is time to focus on the next task!' Closing her eyes, Zoe allowed her mind to wander over the pictures she had seen in Sophia's parents' photo album, recalling the words that came from Mr. and Mrs. Byrd as they spoke about their time there. She could never really get over the shadows that lingered in the background. Mr. Byrd would brush it off as being the trees. It would be a logical explanation if they didn't have a slight sought of an elongated humanoid form.
• Zoe shook her head, "that would be called paradolia!" she scolded herself.
• Slowly opening her eyes, she mumbled aloud, "If it was so amazing being there, why did the family stop going?" she wondered if Lance was correct in saying that Mr. Byrd was scared of the cabin. "or it could be that they didn't have time to do so!" she countered.
• Zoe opened her laptop and typed the address for the cabin. 'You’re almost 19 years old. It’s time for you to leave the nest and create memories of your own,' she recalled her mother saying two days ago. 'And your adventure can start with going to the cabin with your friends,' her mother had added.
• How could Zoe possibly refuse her mother? Her mother's eyes had a sparkle in them. The thrill of adventure was there. Her mother was radiating pure excitement for her. Pushing out her chest as she filled her lungs, Zoe hesitated, groaning out loud. 'For Mom and for Sophia!' She allowed the cursor to move across the screen. In her mind, she was picturing exactly what she needed to do. "This is going to be a very bad idea." she had clicked on the Google icon.
• Going to Google Maps, she clicked on the icon for satellite viewing. Taking a breath, she realized there had been a couple extra beats to her heart. Slightly nervous, she was anticipating the worst outcome to happen as she began to move the cursor to see the roof of the cabin.
• 'Nothing looks out of place!' she thought to herself as she studied the familiar terrain. She could see the cleared patch of land. The area looked maintained even though no one had stayed at the cabin in years. The road leading to the small cabin twisted and wound before reaching the building. The cabin was situated to the left of the road. Zoe zoomed in to see the structure on the right side of the road. Snorting, she exclaimed, "An outhouse!? Oh, please tell me that is not what we have to use." The thought of stepping into something that smelled like a hundred year old restroom horrified her.
• Zooming back out, Zoe noticed a much smaller version of a house to the left of the cabin. "It has to be a shed!" she exclaimed aloud, noticing that its size indicated that it was. The only other distinct feature was a fire pit located roughly 10 to 15 feet away from the cabin.
• Feeling more relieved, "No icky feelings yet!" Zoe realized she was feeling fine, and the emotions she had associated with the family photos were absent now. "This is a good thing!" she chuckled. "Maybe Dr. Collins is right; I was just hyper-fixating on the negative and the possible 'what ifs' that aren’t there." Closing her eyes, a smile formed on her face, and she sighed. 'Maybe Sophia is right, I just get myself worked up for nothing!' she thought to herself.
• Feeling calmer, Zoe cleared her throat and went to her desk to seize a pad and pen. Plopping back down on her bed, she prepared to complete the task that had been requested of her. "Of course, Sophia would ask me to do this ... I am like the time management queen here!" she giggled to herself. Her spirits were lifting.
• Visualizing the interactions with Sophia and her mother. 'Come on, Zo, it will be a blast! Good friends!' she could hear Sophia in her mind. 'Great food!' Zoe recalled how she was using her fingers to count off the reasons for her to go on this trip. 'Memories that you can capture!' Sophia knew that not only was realism one of her passions, but capturing the moment with her camera was the next thing Zoe loved to do. 'And most of all, lots of laughter!' Sophia had a smile that melted hearts and could get anyone to do what she wanted. At least for her, Zoe was never the one to jump on board the ship just because others decided to follow along aimlessly.
• "And yet, here I am, going to the one place I really don't want to go!" Even with the bantering going on in her mind, Zoe took the time to scold herself. She sighed for not standing her ground and simply saying no.
• Tap! Tap! Tap! Zoe rhythmically rapped the pen against the pad of paper. Something she had always done when she was in deep thought. "Rule number one," she paused for a moment. "No one heads into the woods once the sun goes down!" she murmured. Her gaze landed on the cabin displayed on the screen. The morning sun was hitting the structures just right for the perfect picture moment. Smiling, she admired the one and a half story cabin that seemed peaceful in the sunlight. The imperfections of the cabin roof were clear to Zoe's watchful eyes. The shadows cast on it gave the place character. And to her relief, none of the shadows from the trees appeared to have a humanoid form.
• Resting the tip of the pen on her lip, she reminded herself, "Rule number two," she mentally reinforced the rule. "Clean up after ourselves." 'Straightforward!' she bitterly thought. That shouldn't be an issue, but Sophia had a tendency to get others to do the cleaning for her. Always dodging her responsibilities. Zoe recalled countless times Sophia had jumped up and left the science lab, yelling always something along the line of 'Thanks Zo, for cleaning up for me!' leaving her to deal with the mess. Sighing, she realized, "I’m going to be doing a lot of cleaning that weekend." The realization sank in her chest as she spoke her words out loud.
• Declining her head, she thought, "Last rule," the one that caused her heart to skip a beat, then rapidly catch up. "At no time are we to enter the northern section of the woods." Swallowing the saliva that had been building in her mouth. She wasn't getting the icky feeling. However, she was apprehensive about the northern section of the woods. 'There is something there?' the right side of her mind told her. 'Your imagination is going wild again Zo!' her left side of her brain poked fun at her irrational thinking.
• Zoe leaned in, her eyes fixed on the screen as she navigated the map of the location she and her friends were to stay. The cursor slid across the display, holding the left button down on the mouse; she was able to see the boundaries perfectly.
• She zoomed in enough to rotate the image, trying to get a better view of the landscape. Narrowing her site on the image on the screen. She continued to navigate around the image. Looking to the bottom right of the screen to consult the compass provided. Adjusting the image when needed. "Bingo!" Zoe had pinpointed the exact stretch of the northern woods. She was able to identify the direction Mr. Byrd had been speaking about. "This is effortlessly done," she jotted down the necessary information on her notepad.
• After finishing her notes, she looked back at the screen, and her heart began to race. A shiver ran down her spine. Breathing in her nose and out her mouth, Zoe began regulating her breathing. Darting her sight across the screen, from left to right, she was trying to locate what it was that was upsetting her. Clicking the mouse several times to zoom in on what she thought she saw. Her hand trembled as a face glared back at her. The child like features seemed to be watching her. While the body was obscured by undergrowth, it was unmistakable; a childlike girl's face peeked out from the leaves. The haunting gaze fixated on her while Zoe could not take her wide eyes off the screen. Her breath was hitched in her chest. She could not breathe. She got the feeling the ghostly apparition was actually seeing her in real time.
• Zoe was having a panic attack. Squeezing her eyes shut, she followed Dr. Collins’ advice, counting from one to ten and back down. When she opened her eyes, she placed a hand on her heart, laughing and breathing rapidly. "It was all in my head," she said, nervously chuckling. "These daytime nightmares need to stop!"
• Quickly moving, Zoe jumped off her bed and rushed to her medication in the desk drawer. Fumbling around with the sealed lid. It took a bit, but with a few tries, she was able to open the cap. She popped a pill into her mouth, allowing it to slide down her throat. "It's just a daydream and nothing more. You silly fool, you need sleep."
• With a shaky hand, Zoe closed her laptop and put her items away in a safe location. With her mind racing, she was trying to find a logical explanation for what had just happened. "It is just paradolia!" The best explanation she could come up with. As she was getting undressed, she realized that her sleep schedule had suffered greatly. "Another reason I am holusinating!" she remarked out loud. "I have overextended myself, something doctor Collins has warned me several times to stop doing. it is not good for my mental health." she inhaled deeply as she slipped under the covers. "I need a little bit of R and R!"
• Yawning as she closed her eyes, Zoe said, "Tomorrow, I will write down the path that would be needed to get from the city to the cabin." The darkness of her subconscious took over.