Out of sight

Part 4

The Chudzynski family house was near school, on the other side of the cornfield. It was modern, but it looked like a flattened piece of concrete to Margo. Gray with black window frames, it brought sadness to the once-green area. The garden was large and seemed to encroach on the cornfield. No one in the town knew how Chudzynski convinced Drawski to sell a piece of his patrimony. However, they suspected that Chudzynski had offered a price that no one would resist, and Drawski had been up to his ears in debt and had started drinking.

Margo stopped at the gate. A lot of netting was lying around because Chudzynski was replacing the fence with something more durable. So far, only the front looked good. The night was cold, and steam was rising from Margo's mouth. The lantern didn't give off much light, but that didn't matter because the fog still hung heavy over the houses. Margo pressed the intercom button, but no one answered. She saw the light in the living room, so she leaned the bike against the gate and pressed the button again. Only now did Margo notice that the gate was open. The girl hesitated for a while, but then she grabbed the gate's handle and entered the property. Then Margo heard a screech-like sound behind the house. Without thinking, she walked around the building and through the garden.

"Mom?!" she shouted.

"Agata?!" She knew the girl was home because her parents never took her on weekend trips. They would always leave her alone.

"Hello!" Margo screamed again, and then she heard the rustle of dry stalks. Her heart beat faster and as if against her will, she took a few steps forward, where the rustling came from. She noticed the net separating the cornfield from the garden had been cut.

"Don't do this, don't do this..." she whispered to herself, but at the same time she kept moving forward. She simply couldn't resist. Before she knew it, she was already standing in the middle of the cornfield, and the fog covered the world so thickly that she could no longer see anything. Her breathing quickened again. Instinctively, she stretched her arms out and grabbed the plant. The leaf she was holding crunched and fell from the stem.

"No..." the terrified girl whispered.

"It's not possible..." Then she heard the quiet rustle of trampled plants. Without thinking, she started running, pushing away the corn stalks with her hands. One was so hard that Margo tripped and fell flat on her face. She felt some delicate material under her hand and crawled a little closer.

"Agata!" she screamed in fear, but the girl didn't answer. Margo noticed blood on Agata's silk nightgown. Margo frizzed. Her body was trembling, and her breath refused to leave her lungs. With a shaking hand, she pushed away several stalks of corn covering Agata. And then she saw Agata's blue eyes open in terror. Her lips were parted as if ready to scream. Blood was seeping from the wound in the neck. Margo jumped up from the ground and covered her mouth with her hands, not wanting the scream to reveal her location. But it was too late. The rustling of the stalks was getting closer. Then, she also heard the sound of an engine. The road must have been close, so the girl moved forward. She was so paralyzed with fear that she felt as if she was walking rather than running.

"Help," she heard a strange, high-pitched voice. It took her a moment to realize that it was her who was trying to scream.

"Help!" she repeated louder and ran out onto the road. At that exact moment, she felt a large hand firmly grip her shoulder while another wet hand covered her mouth, and Margo was pulled back into the cornfield. She could feel the taste of iron in her mouth, but she knew it wasn't her blood. The man was now pressing her against his chest, and Margo could smell alcohol. She fought hard, but she had no chance of breaking free. And then the man pressed his lips against her earlobe and said in a hoarse voice:

– Margo...