North Woods

North Woods.

Tommy and Suzy spent every summer in the north woods. They each would spend the whole summer with their respective grandparents who had cabins a half mile apart. They both had brothers and sisters but since tommy and suzy were the same age they preferred each others company. They loved swimming in the lake and exploring the surrounding woods. 

Everybody in the immediate area knew about a old man who lived in the woods. All the children in the area had been told to stay away from him and stay off his property. The old man owned a substantial area of land by the lake and he had warnings posted everywhere on his property lines. 

It was rare that anyone ever saw him. One day tommy and suzy spotted him on his land both kids had never been on his property but they made it game or adventure to play close to the old mans property line. This day they saw the old man was carrying a large bouquet of roses, it seemed odd to the kids that this old man would be carrying a large bouquet of roses in the woods, as they watched the old man stopped by a very large old tree, the old man placed the roses at the base of the tree, then they saw the old man start weeping, after a few minutes they saw the old man leave. Waiting a few minutes they decided to investigate this tree, at first they saw nothing extraordinary about this tree till they spotted the markings in the tree, it was two initials and the year 1915. 

At that moment both kids decided to mark this tree with their initials and the year 1965, of course they smart enough to put their markings on the other side of the tree out of view. They also found climbing this tree was quite fun, over the course off the summer they returned to this tree each day, and everyday they would spot fresh flowers placed at the base of the tree.

One day in late july suzy went to rendezvous with tommy, after waiting a bit she left and headed for Tommy's house, at first she was startled because a police car was parked in the driveway. Immediately she had a dark fear wash over her, slowly she made her way up to the house. She was told tommy had never made it home that night and he was still missing. Tommy was never found, that summer or ever. 

When the next summer rolled around suzy decided didn't wanna go, she didn't wanna go if tommy wasn't gonna be there. That spring suzy had turned 13 and other things held her interest now. Over the years she thought about tommy and wondered what had happened to him, this thought always made her sad. The spring suzy turned 40 she was informed she had inherited her grandparents cabin in the north woods. Suzy had not been to the north woods since the summer tommy went missing. 

Suzy decided she needed some closure and decided on a short vacation to the north woods. After getting settled in suzy decided to take a walk and go to her and Tommy's tree, at first it was hard to find but finally she did, suzy was immediately startled when she noticed fresh flowers at the base of the tree, she thought to herself that old man still couldn't be alive, in fact many years she recalled her grandmother mentioning that the old man had passed away sometime in the early 70s, this recollection and flowers gave her the chills. 

As suzy moved around the tree she saw her and Tommy's initials still there but below them was another carving..." I AM STILL HERE "... this carving unnerved suzy something fierce, so much so she passed out at the base of the tree. 

Many hours later suzy woke up groggy and cold, that made sense it was near sundown. Standing up suzy glanced one more time at the carving but was in total shock and fear at what she saw, another carving was there now...

"I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU...PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE...I AM STILL HERE " Suzy scared slowly started walking away, her mind racing she heard a loud whisper in the wind...SUZY...SUZY...SUZY?