Thursday, September 22nd, 2016

Ever since their conversation about the woods, two days ago, Sid felt uncomfortable around Cory. Not just because of his attitude, or his words that had only reached the opposite effect of what Cory wanted—they had gotten even more curious about the woods—but mostly because Cory so ominously added the fact that especially Sid shouldn't go into the woods.

Sid wanted to know why he had singled him out with his warning. Did it have anything to do with the fact nobody else seemed to notice the cold Cory was carrying along with him?

Yet, Cory refused to explain why.

Still, he got no answer.

Cory hadn't showed up for gaming at Davy's place, but Sid thought it was best to get some distance between Davy and Cory anyway; they didn't really seem to get along, and the woods was a topic that was getting in between them. It was fuelling their arguments every time they had seen each other.

Sid knew better than anyone, that Davy couldn't handle a loss. He would continue until he got his way. In this case, he wouldn't stop until either Cory told him what had happened, or until he had found a way to enter the forest and see what the deal was about for himself.

Sid was right in the middle of it. Part of him wanted to desperately find out what was held a secret from them by the government, while another part of him didn't take Cory's warnings lightly. He was a thrill seeker more than anything, but Cory's words kept ringing through his mind anyway.

But nothing had made Sid feel as uncomfortable as stepping into the apartment Cory's lived in with his father. It was a sad and depressing mess, and that was still too positive. It was just as cold as Cory was all the time, and Sid wondered if that was why; but then he noticed the temperature was normal, according to the thermostat.

The only reason he was in there in the first place, was because they had gotten an assignment for a school project in Biology, and Sid felt bad for Cory ending up alone since he was the only one in the classroom who made an effort to get to know Cory.

The rest was just scared of him.

"Do you want a drink?" Cory asked, as they walked into the living room with boring taupe-coloured walls, stained carpet and what seemed to be second-handed furniture that didn't match. An older man—presumably Cory's father—sat on the couch in dirty clothes, beer in hand. He glanced at them for about a second, before he turned back to the TV, staring at it with empty eyes, not greeting them in any way.

"Eh, water, please." Sid turned to Mr. Dunn, mumbling a greeting, but still didn't get one in return.

"Let me grab drinks and we can sit in my room to work on the project," Cory said, while he headed into the kitchen. He seemed unfazed by the lack of emotions or greetings coming from his father, so Sid decided to try and ignore it as well.

But something felt off in their apartment, and he wasn't sure what it was.

When he looked around, he noticed a handful of family pictures on the wall. They were the only ones, and they only showed a younger Cory and a young girl about his age.

Sid knew who she was; Kim Dunn.

She was one of the missing children and disappeared about fifteen years ago. He only knew her name because when things happened to Cory, everyone started talking about the misfortune of the Dunn family; with a second child missing in the woods.

Their father was included in two of the pictures, but there were no pictures of Cory's mother present. Not anywhere in the living room or hallway.

Sid turned around when he heard Cory say something incomprehensible in the kitchen.

"Sorry, what?" Sid asked, walking closer towards the kitchen. But he stopped when Cory dropped a glass, which shattered on the floor by his feet.

"Fuck," Cory hissed, rushing to clean up the mess he made, while Sid stood in the door opening to the kitchen, shortly looking over his shoulder to see if Mr. Dunn had anything to say about the broken glass.

But he just sat there, ignoring everything around him.

"Did you say something to me?"

"What? No," Cory shook his head, but didn't look at him when he spoke up. "The, uh, walls aren't very, uh, well insulated... you know. Neighbours."

"Right," Sid frowned, knowing pretty sure it was Cory who he heard, and not the muffled voices of the neighbours—that he hadn't heard so far. "Neighbours."

Sid helped Cory clean up the pieces of glass and watched how Cory quickly vacuum cleaned the kitchen to make sure every piece of glass was gone before he followed him back into the long hallway and towards the last door on the left.

With a quick tap on a door on the right, he showed Sid where the bathroom was, and told him not to go into any of the other rooms since his father wouldn't appreciate it.

Sid couldn't help but wonder if his dad would even notice it if he went into the wrong room but didn't comment on it. Cory's family business wasn't his business, right? Then why did he get a weird vibe from this house? His gut was telling him something was definitely off. But was he good enough of a friend to Cory to ask?

"Right, sorry for the inconvenience, but I only have one chair," Cory apologized, waking Sid up from his stupor.

Cory's room indeed only held one chair, simply because there wasn't any space for more furniture. There was a bed, a small desk with chair underneath the window, and a closet. The rest of the floorspace was needed to open the door.

"I'll sit on the bed," Cory gestured towards the chair, where Sid reluctantly took a seat. "The project—"

"Is everything okay at home?" Sid blurted out, unable to hold back his worries. "I mean..."

Cory had snapped his mouth shut and instead of looking at Sid, he was staring towards the door.

Which only made Sid freak out because he felt like Mr. Dunn had suddenly gotten a boost of energy and decided to check in on them. But when he turned the chair, there was nobody there.

"Shit, sorry for my loud voice..." Sid apologized, but Cory cut him short.

"It's okay," he mumbled. "I'm not afraid of my dad, if that's what you think. He's... doing his best. But with everything that happened..."

"But he's treating you well?"

"Yes," Cory replied with a small smile. "He loves me. I know it doesn't seem that way, but he does. He's a great dad, just, you know, struggling. It's not easy to lose your daughter, have your son admitted to a ward and then lose your wife to a divorce because she blames you. But he's trying."

"Fuck, that sounds like a lot indeed. I didn't know your parents divorced."

Cory shrugged. "She blamed him that I went into the woods."

"Did you go because of him?"

Cory shook his head. "I went there because I wanted to find Kim. Things hadn't been great at home for a long while, and most of the fights were about her disappearance. Mom said Dad wasn't trying hard enough to find Kim, and Dad kept repeating she was gone, like the other kids. I wanted to prove him wrong."

Sid slowly nodded his head to tell Cory he understood what he said. But he didn't really know what to reply.

"In case you wondered, I didn't find her. I didn't find my dead sister's body. It's not what made me freak out."

Sid stared at Cory, noticing his eyes were flickering back and forth between him and the door.

"They're gone, all of them," Cory eventually said. "All those children that ever disappeared in the woods? They are all gone, they don't exist anymore. There's no trace, no proof, nothing. There's nothing to find in those woods, Sid."

"I—"

"Promise me you won't go in there looking for answers. You won't find them."

"If there's nothing in there, then why are they trying to keep us out?"

Cory shrugged. "Government can be hard to understand. Do they ever really need a reason?"

"It's not just the government though. You're hiding something too. And that makes all of us even more curious. Everyone out there is curious. That's the whole reason Davy, Ed and I started about it again."

"If people would believe me, I'd tell them the truth. But I don't want to get locked away again."

"Try me, seriously. I've heard some crazy shit." Sid pushed, wondering if he had reached some form of connection with Cory that enabled him to get more answers. Maybe Cory trusted him enough to tell him the truth. "I won't laugh at you."

Cory quickly shook his head, his eyes focused on the door again, before he grabbed his biology book. "Let's work on the project. That's why you're here after all."