In a cold forest, hides a creature of myth. Two opposing groups have come to find it. One seeks answers to a mystery. The other... a trophy. Who will reach it first? And what will they find when they do?
We arrived at the town of Salem's Noose in the late afternoon.
It was a quiet town with a nice little main street that sported many small mom and pop stores and businesses. The place seemed like it came directly out of a picture post card, making me wonder why it would have such an ominous name.
Salem's Noose.
It conjured up images of the infamous Salem witch hunt where, in the year 1692, residence of the town of Salem, Massachusetts began to accuse their neighbors of engaging in witchcraft, resulting in a state of paranoia and mass hysteria that led to the executions of several innocent people. I had studied the case as part of one of my many random subjects of interest, and I wondered if this place had some kind of connection to that horrible incident. Perhaps a survivor or a later descendant of a survivor had migrated west to this part of Pennsylvania and founded the town, choosing to give it this dark name in reference to the favored method of execution used by the witch hunt accusers. If I had any time later, I planned on checking into the founding of the town and seeing if my theory had any merit.
I'd looked up a few facts about the area during our trip in so I could be prepared for what we found.
The town itself was nestled deep in the part of the country known as the Allegheny National Forest. The forest itself was large, over five-hundred thousand acres of mostly woodland. It spanned four counties, each with a modest spackling of small and sparsely populated towns such as this. Though people did live in this region, it was still very dense and wild, ninety percent of it covered in forests of black cherry, red maple, and American beech trees, to name a few.
Declared a national forest by the federal government in the 1920's, much of it was protected land with two ranger stations, one ten miles away in Marcksville, the other three counties over in Delroy.
Due to its rich ecology, it was an ideal place for scientists to conduct forest related research, study vegetation, animals, soil, nutrients, which would account for why they were here now, I knew.
I couldn't wait to meet Gary Grey and hear more about the thing he claimed to have seen.
But it would have to wait until tomorrow. It was getting late, and Sky thought it would be best if we settled in and met up with Grey in the morning.
It made sense. We were all tired from the trip and looking forward to a quiet evening.
Before tracking down Sky's cottage rental, Stu thought it would be a good idea to stop at a grocery store and pick up a few supplies.
We found a convenience store and parked. Still reeling from his earlier conversation with Sky, I opted to stay in the car; my nose buried in her crypto book while I digested the information again for a second time.
A tap on the window stole my attention away from the book. Looking up, I was surprised to see a woman standing outside of the car. She looked to be in her forties, somewhat pleasant in appearance but with a hint of urgency in her eyes. She was obviously trying to get my attention. For a second, I felt apprehensive at the thought of being alone while a stranger approached me from out of the blue. But Stu and Sky were in the store just a few feet away, so I decided that it would be okay if I talked to her on my own.
I opened door and stepped out. The woman kept a respectful distance.
Trying her best to smile, the woman said, "I'm sorry to bother you, young man. But I saw you there and I thought maybe you could help me. I'm looking for my daughter. Her name is Samantha."
The woman handed me a flier from a stack she had in her hand.
"She's younger than you, but I thought maybe you'd seen her around."
I looked at the flier. It was a missing person's notice with a recent picture of the girl. According to the flier, she was ten years old.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm from out of town. I haven't seen her."
The woman's eyes sank with disappointment. "Could you keep her picture anyway? She's been missing for the last three days and I'm..." she trailed off, looking as if she was about to burst into tears.
"Of course," I said. "I'll keep my eyes out and call this number if I see anything."
"Thank you."
The woman continued to the next car, leaving a flier on the windshield wiper before continuing on to the next. She looked extremely upset and worried. I read the flier immediately.
Missing. Samantha Cross. Last seen January 14th. If you see her, please call...
That's awful, I thought before folding the flier and putting it in my coat pocket. A chilling breeze compelled me to step back into the car. Once there, my thoughts turned from Sky's crypto book to this missing girl lost somewhere out in the cold, and I hoped that she at least had a warm place to stay for the night.
Someplace where hungry Sasquatches didn't roam.
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