The Woodland Man

Chapter ~ Three ~

The townspeople could feel Kagan’s power washing over them in waves of tremendous heat as he slowly walked over the raised ground from the lake. The Grenna residents moved into a tight ball when the force under the ground came closer ripping up the hard dirt as it approached and then resting on the other side awaiting his master.

The scent of thousands of young and newly planted trees came to Kagan’s senses. They were from his father’s garden that the townspeople continued to grow. His father’s blood was in the soil on this side of the river. It was all they could do to pacify him.


The fear of the people was palpable to the four visitors that now stood behind the Sheriff seeking protection as the Woodland man set foot on Grenna land. The force of his anger was so strong it shook their bodies and fear was the only emotion they knew.


Everything stopped once he stood on the foreign soil amongst the young trees. The force under the ground vanished and the trees across the river stopped swaying. There was complete silence as the man in the black hat stood there absorbing the scent of the new trees.

He was a giant of a man standing there in black not lifting his head to look at them. He let the power of the sun run through his veins and outward from his body. He let the rage of his awakening pour from his being.

“What is he doing?” Judith’s voice shook as the ground began to tremble beneath them.

Andy shoved her from his back as her nails dug into his shoulder. “Quiet” He snarled.


A loud crack and a puff of dirt from the first tree planted caused everyone to jump. Andy smiled as more trees began to crack and emit a puff of soil and then become stiff.


Judith again grabbed onto his arm. “What is he doing?” The voice was quiet and full of fear from the crushing force emitting from the man before them.

“He has accepted our peace offering and the trees are taking root.”


More trees began to emit puffs of soil into the air in the order that the townspeople planted them. Andy relaxed somewhat watching the process speed up as the Woodland man gained more power. The Sheriff’s eyes scanned the planted trees that had not taken root yet and stopped on one that began to waiver in the dirt.


There was a collective gasp from the townspeople and the woman that planted it dove for the falling tree and began shoving dirt under it to right it.


“Isn’t anyone going to help her?”

Andy turned and glared at Mark.

“You leave this alone or you will regret it. That is her tree of her life and only she can mend it.”
“You are the Sheriff shoot him.”

Andy glared at the four visitors. “I will shot somebody but it will not be him. Now quiet and he will leave and spare us.”


Mark watched the woman frantically pushing too much dirt in one direction causing the tree to tip to the other side.

“This is insane!”


Mark ran over to help her before Andy or anyone could stop him. He grabbed the tree and held it. The woman stopped pushing the dirt and looked up at him with fear in her wide eyes.


“You can not touch it.”

Mark noticed her eyes shifting to a point behind him. He heard Judith scream and felt the force under the ground come up behind him. Two long black spider-like legs slammed through his back, came out his chest, and then dragged him under ground. The woman looked back at the people of her village and the ground swallowed her up.


“MARK!”

Greg grabbed for Andy’s gun. The Sheriff was winning the battle against him until Rick and Judith helped and subdued him. The other police officers did not draw their weapons as they tried to talk the man out of firing Andy’s gun.

“Don’t do it; it will make him angry and he will kill us all.” One of the officers said.

Greg aimed the gun at the Woodland man standing in the middle of the trees as if in a trance.

Everything seemed to run in slow motion as soon as Greg fired the gun and emptied the clip into the Woodland man. The bullets just bounced off the black duster and fell to the ground. There was silence for a while as the last tree took root and the Woodland man came out of his trance. Greg lowered the gun. The force under the ground ran underneath him causing him to fly through the air and land at Kagan’s feet. There was complete chaos among the townspeople and they began to run from the rising violence.

“No! Stay still!” Andy screamed at them but it was too late, the force under the ground began to attack, shooting black spears from the dirt to impale some while dragging others down towards its mouth. Andy’s police officers and the remaining visitors did not move and watched the carnage unfold.


The humming began and Andy turned back to Greg to see the Woodland man grab him around the neck. Greg struggled trying to pull the right hand of the giant from his neck. The trees began to sway, the birds took to the sky, and the Woodland man began to raise his head.

Greg began a continuous moan as his body began to shake from the power enveloping him. He stared into the blue eyes of the Woodland man and began to bleed from his pores and then his body began to dry out and he evaporated into dust with a scream.


Kagan turned to his left to catch another of the townspeople by the neck and looked at her, she began screaming, and bleeding then evaporated. Kagan began walking towards Andy with his head down.


The Sheriff began to shake from the force of Kagan's anger. Some of his officers wanted to run away but Andy held up his shaking hands to stop them. The black duster billowed in the Woodland man’s wake as he continued towards the sheriff. Andy heard the humming and closed his eyes. Kagan grabbed him around the neck and heard the man cry out for God. Kagan began to squeeze his neck digging his nails in the man’s flesh. He then began to raise his head.


The sound was of a woman crying. Andy was not sure where it came from or why he could hear it so clearly over the screaming and running of the hunted townspeople. He felt the hand leave his neck and he fell two feet to the ground. He opened his eyes to see the black duster fly up in his face. The Woodland man walked some distance away then disappeared into the ground and then everything was quiet. Andy fainted.



He walked into the bedroom where Manon lay and saw the tears on her cheeks. He outstretched his arms and the black duster and hat moved from his body. He lay naked next to her body and pulled her into his arms. He began to hum into her neck and her crying began to subside as the dream that haunted her began to fade away.


“You can not keep us here.” Judith gripped the bars of the cell in fear.

Andy held his head back so that the doctor could finish bandaging his neck. “You brought about the deaths of 40 people. You are staying right where you are.”

The other officers in the room glared at the woman and she moved back from the bars and towards her husband who had not said a word since they entered the cell. He just stared at the wall with a blank expression.

“What is that thing?”

Andy touched the bandage around his neck when the doctor finished. He nodded at the man and the doctor left the room.

Rick looked through the bars at the Sheriff sitting in the chair in front of the cell. Andy pulled out his gun and stared at the two in the cell.

“His father’s name was Ona and he just appeared out of nowhere from what my father said. He came with his two-year-old son Kagan. He did not talk much but you knew what he wanted somehow. My father said he used some sort of telepathy. My father gave him land and he built that shack at the end of the town. He never came into town after he built the home for him and his son. That did not set well with some of our less intelligent folks, especially the Mayor Theodore Jackin and his brothers. They decided that they would teach this unsociable visitor a lesson. So one night about ten of them took rifles and knives and walked to Ona’s home and knocked on the door.”

Andy shifted in his chair. The other officers seemed afraid of something.

“I do not understand why people can not just ignore those who wish to left alone. They went to his home and demanded that he attend the celebration for the birth of the town. Ona closed the door in their faces and they kicked it in. Kagan watched them beat his father and his blood covered everything in that house. Ona was not a violent person. My father did not think he even knew how to fight but his son did. Somehow, three of the men flew out of the house as if someone threw them with a lot of force. My father said he heard gunfire and then the others ran out of the house.”

Andy checked the bullets in his gun and then continued talking.

“He said the little boy walked out of the house dragging his father’s bleeding body into the Woodlands. My father does not know what happened after that because the woods just seemed to close up after Ona died and they stayed that way for a long time until Kagan grew up and came back for those that killed his father.”

“What is that thing under the ground?”

“We don’t talk about that.”

“Why don’t you talk about it?” Judith asked. She sat down beside her husband when Andy nodded at his officers and they walked out of the room.

“Because it can hear you and it will come for you.” Andy stood.

Rick and Judith looked at the expressionless face of the Sheriff as he stared at them. “All of this could have been avoided if your people would just listen. Now we have to spend the rest of our lives trying to repair what you have broken.”

He raised his gun towards them. “I am going to start the healing now.”


The fed ex woman waited patiently as the District Attorney signed for the package that arrived for him that morning. He smiled at the woman and took the small box. He walked into his office, laid it on his desk, and began to open it. Inside he found a disc and a letter.


“If you are reading this then I am dead. My name is Sherrie Tarren and all you have to do is watch the disk.”


William walked over to the large entertainment center in his office used for viewing evidence for cases and the occasional football game. He inserted the disk.


The first thing he saw was the police Captian sitting and talking with a black man about killing someone. He walked towards his desk while still looking at the image on the screen. William pressed a button on the console of his phone.

“Yes Mr. Garren.”

“Get Stanley and Hank of internal affairs in my office immediately. And tell Marsha I need her to find out everything she can about a Sherrie Tarren today.”