Post by CHRIS ARGENT on Aug 31, 2022 19:46:16 GMT
For most the woods at night were a thing of terrors. Shadows shifted uneasily out here, the clouds that drifted over the moon above alternately painting the landscape silver and turning it pitch dark. The group that had gathered at the edge of the woods an hour before had been decidedly uneasy, all except for their ring-leader, whose son was the one who’d been found missing earlier that night. Richardson hadn’t only put out a call for his fellow officers, any connection the man had in town had been roped in. If it hadn’t been for what these woods were known to contain and the sheer number of missing and dead people in this town Chris would’ve called it overkill. He knew though and if it had been Allison out there he would’ve done the same, rallying her friends and every damn person in town who had a clue who the Argents were. Maybe he wouldn’t have done it with Richardson’s cold fervor but he and the man were very different in their approaches.
Chris had stood, leaning against the fender of his car as Richardson had filled them all in. Hours before, having realized he’d left something at home that he needed on shift, he’d returned home to find his son gone. There’d been something in the officer’s voice that had his eyes narrowing faintly but he hadn’t called him on what he suspected was a lie in some way. Either way, whatever reason Richardson had for going home to check on his son, he’d gathered up what seemed to amount to a posse to look for the kid. Areas had been divided up, Richardson’s face seeming to take on an apoplectic hue as one of the off duty officers had started to question him about it all. Having received his orders Chris had nodded, his face impassive, his intention always to slip off to his own chosen area instead of the sector around the falls themselves. Any kid who’d ever been out here in the town knew that the falls were the focal point of these woods and if there really was a reason Storm Richardson didn’t want to be found then he wouldn’t head to the most obvious spot and just send up a big red flag that screamed ‘I’m here’.
The men had all split off on the paths that led him into the woods, leaving him on his own. Chris preferred it that way. He was at home gliding near silently amongst the trees, his senses extended as far as humanly possible in an attempt not to get himself caught unawares out here by something that might take advantage of the number of people traipsing around the woods tonight. Hours of walking later and the phone at his hip hadn’t sounded to let him know that the boy had been found. If he had been taken instead of just heading out on his own he might never had been found out here but the more he’d thought about it, the more Chris was sure this kid had gone of his own accord. The house loomed dark on the horizon as the clouds shifted once again, the moonlight making the shattered windows look like mouths full of broken teeth. Chris turned, blue eyes narrowed, scanning the ground around him as he picked his way closer. There’d been a few trails out here tonight but all had the earmarks of false leads. The others might’ve followed them but he wouldn’t have been able to call himself an Argent if he had.
Catching the pale gleam of broken brush on the slope that led away from the house to the river Chris moved quietly in that direction. There was no sign of footprints, nothing that screaming human but people were capable of hiding such things, of sticking to the areas where impressions wouldn’t last. As he broke silently through the last stand of trees Chris had to give the kid kudos, if it hadn’t been for his sheer amount of practice the kid might even have evaded him. Moving lightly down the last of the slope, Chris slowed. It wasn’t a boy sitting there on the bank, it was a red fox, just enough out of place in Mystic Falls to have him stopping a dozen yards up slope. He shifted on his feet, studying the animal. ”Either the wildlife in this town is as screwed up as they say or appearances are trying to deceive,” he said softly. He was veering heavily towards the latter, waiting for the animal to give some sort of sign of bolting. ”Storm?” If it was the kid he honestly wouldn’t blame him for taking off at the sort of speed he probably wouldn’t be able to follow. A man like Richardson with a were or shifter as a son, that wasn’t likely to go down well.
Tagged: @mackenzie * Word Count: 815