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You don't want to stay and listen to this. You push open the front door as you hear Candi start to moan. The door closes behind you and you stand in the cool late afternoon. The sun is just dipping down to kiss the horizon in fiery shades of red in the west. Birds call and a cool breeze blows from the east.
You rub your face with your hands, trying to clear your mind. You don't need to think about anything right now, but you are curious what's out in the woods, out beyond the pines. You cross the house's overgrown yard and stop at the edge of the woods.
You used to be scared of them. You stopped being afraid of the dark when Dad started to hurt you. You learned that human monsters are always worse. You step into the woods, dry pine needles muffling your footsteps, and you start walking.
A long time ago, before your time, this used to all be pasture. Your grandpa had initially run a dairy farm here. Sometimes you come across a rotted fence post jutting form the ground or a tangle of wire running in a straight line off into the gloom.
The dairy farm didn't pan out. Apparently there was also some boondoggle with a coal mine. You never knew grandpa, but if he was anything like Dad then things just weren't meant to work out for him.
You pass through a small clearing, the trees overhead are full of crows which caw angrily at you. They flap their wings, hopping from branch to branch as they shout at the intruder. You stare up at them for a minute before continuing on. In the bottom between hills you find a creek trickling along. You stoop down by the water's edge and trail your fingers through it. It's ice cold.
The impulsive part of your brain wants you to bend down and take a drink of this clear, cold water. You don't do that because you know that same part of your brain would be eaten alive by waterborne parasites if you drank creek water.
You step over it and continue on, starting up hill. Behind you the crows take to the sky in a flapping mass, wheeling away.
You try not to think about what Candi is doing right now. Better that you don't. You thought being out here in the woods would make it easier but it doesn't. All you can do is clench your teeth and keep walking. It's more difficult going uphill, but if you have one virtue it's endurance.