I read a story in the paper about a little girl, she is all that anyone in town ever talks about, the mystery that surrounds her captivates peoples imagination. I am the only one that is truly horrified by her, just looking at her makes me sick to my stomach. I know she has something to do with the disappearance of Matthew Hopkins all those years ago. And I know its connected to Eli, everything strange always traces back to him.
My name is Stefani, I'm 20 years old and I work odd jobs here and there so I can slowly scramble together enough money. I want to study psychology but most importantly I want to live in the city among a ton of people in a cramped little apartment with one fat cat to keep me company, maybe even two. My mom is very supportive of my dream and she would finance me if she had the money. She has always supported me the, only thing she ever worried about was me getting pregnant at a young age which should have been the least of her worries since we live in a town were people have a habit of disappearing.
My hometown is small and its name is very difficult to pronounce no wonder so many people forget it exists, its seclusion is what makes it a very special place. Most teenager don't appreciate it and find it boring with nothing to offer but trees surrounding a bleak and rainy town. I guess I still feel that way a little.
I should write about Eli and about Mat and Jason, I should write the story down before I forget the details. Dear god I still tear up a little when I think about Mat, I always picture him trapped in the forrest screaming for help and cursing my name.
It started when I was15 years old.
In school I was considered a little weird because I always acted on my emotions and behaved childishly but it didn't bother me since I had a close group of friends. Because of my extreme shy nature I enjoyed being mostly unnoticed except when it came to Matthew Hopkins, Mat as he was called. Many girls had their eyes on Mat not only because he was good looking but he also had some charm about him he himself didn't seem to know about or care about. Mat was more focused on his friends and Jason was his best friends although I felt sorry for Jason since he always got compared to Mat. I liked Mat ever since we where kids and I saw him running around the kindergarten table. His erratic behavior often led him into trouble but he seemed to enjoy the attention in any case he never grew out of being a trouble maker. I suppose it was his destructive nature that attracted him to Jason and the two became unbearable together always egging each other on until things got out of hand. those idiots
I saw Mat right before he disappeared, that day always hunts me. School had just ended and most people had gone home already but I had been roaming the school grounds in my teenage crush obsessed mind. I knew that Mat and Jason usually hung out behind the school, it was a empty area where a broken up pavement met with the thick walls of the forrest. It was a perfect place to smoke a cigarette since no one bothered to come there. Still when I arrived I notice that Peter a skittish bookworm from my class was sitting on the stairs of the backdoor kitchen, he didn't even look up from his book as I passed him. But we weren't the only students there. Squatting over a puddle that had gathered in one of the pavement cracks was Eli. I was surprised to see him there since he was a creature of habit and would spent most of the time staring out the windows. I didn't know much about him other than that he was autistic or something like that, my mother told me he had been neglected as a small child which was likely the cause of his strangeness. They found him wandering outside alone his parents had seemingly abandoned him. I use to think that the horrors from his past must have haunted him since he had such a eerie presence about him. But now I know that it had nothing to do with his past, the horror is was in his nature. I wasn't the only one who felt it.
As Eli continued to stare at the puddle Mat and Jason showed up and I couldn't control my blushing when I saw Mat. Their attention however was immediately brought towards Eli and the two approached him with nasty grins. Eli didn't acknowledge them when they talked to him even when they called him names they couldn't get a reaction from him. I could see their frustration and so the teasing escalated to a point where Jason pushed Eli harshly but Eli didn't even budge. Mat following Jason's lead pushed Eli even harder and this time Eli tipped over and fell with his head into the shallow puddle. Both Peter and I curiously approached the three boys. Eli didn't cry or scream he just turned to face Mat and calmly washed his dirty wet hand on Mats clean school west while Mat stood by speechless, it was almost comical until you saw the fury building inside him. Mats face was so twisted with anger he quickly pulled the small boy closer and held him by the nape of his neck and hit him hard in the face. The force was brutal and Eli fell lifelessly to the ground. I was a little anxious until I saw Eli move, he crawled away but stopped not far from us and started shaking strangely. I realized he was laughing.
you want some more freak? Mat said smiling sadistically. He made a move towards Eli but I intervened. No Mat I stuttered while I pushed him meekly away with one hand. Mat didn't object he was happy enough with the punch he had given Eli.
Don't misunderstand I didn't stop Mat for Elis sake, I'm not a heroic person or that particularly righteous. I intervened because I was scared of Eli, hearing him laugh had hit me with a terrible foreboding.
Trails of blood were running down his nose but Eli turned to us smiling like he had the upper hand. With a shrill voice he said Thank you, it was directed at Mat but he didn't response in fact no one did we were all dumbfounded. Eli lifted his hand and pointed to the Forrest, his dirty nails were like claws that contrasted his pale skin.
I remember the confusion in Jason's voice as he suddenly asked Mat What are you doing? at that point Mats expression had changed dramatically. Mat seemed transfixed on the forrest as if he saw something that possessed him and he didn't even seem to notice Jason was there. He slowly began walking towards the trees and they seemed to greet him with open arms, Jason tried to stop him but Mat had shut off the world around him. We just watched helplessly as Mat disappeared into the forrest. It was a strange feeling that took over us we were all filled with terrible dread.
No one spoke for the longest time we just stood there in front of the forrest gates, Jason was sobbing by then. It was the last time anyone saw Matthew Hopkins.
I wish I could go back and do something I was just a stupid kid, I could have stopped him.
It was fairly soon after that the police started searching the woods, they never asked me any questions but I am sure I couldn't have helped them anyway.
They really where relentless in their search, so many people tried to help. I remember seeing Mats face on the missing posters you could even make out the birthmark he had below his left eye. My school was filled with those posters which made it very hard for me to attend. I had to hide my emotions, push them far down since I didn't want to cry in front of everyone. I was so filled with guilt that I would get physically sick and I would start trembling and breathing heavily. I had nightmares about the forest I even spent some nights in my moms bed, she was so worried about me but she didn't know what was wrong. In my dreams I was in the forrest looking for Mat and there was a woman, the branches where her bones and her hair was long like a foxes tail. She held onto Matthew, squeezing him passionately in her long arms as if she would never let go. When she noticed me her cruel yellow eyes stared back as she said with jealous hiss, he is MINE.
Those dreams scared me so much because I could strongly feel her emotions and her rage it made her seem real but I kept telling myself it was just a nightmare.
During school I did my best to avoid Eli, I didn't have any prove had had done anything to Mathew but it didn't matter I didn't want to be near him after that day.
One morning I decided to skip class and I was wandered aimlessly around the school hallway. I was in a foul mood after I had seen Mats father Mr Hopkins outside my school he was preparing to search for his son by retracing his steps from the point where he was last seen. Mr Hopkins's face had been so sorrowful and desperate I felt my stomach sink and that guilty feeling started boiling up.
While walking the hallways I noticed that Mats missing posters that where hung on the school lockers had been vandalized. Someone had scribbled all over them with a blue pen, the words where spiteful and cruel; he is dead, he will never be found. When I got to my locker there was a single poster hanging on it almost intentionally placed since it was not a part of the cluster of posters. I took it down and examined if there were any blue scribbles on it but it seemed normal. I was more sad than angry at that point but that changed quickly when I saw Eli standing in front of me next to the cluster of vandalized posters. He was holding a blue pen and he looked so pleased with himself it almost seemed like he was showing of what he had done to Matthews missing posters.
I have never been so angry, I couldn't hold it in I felt the a warm tear sliding down my cheek. How could he be so cruel, I know that Matthew Hopkins was not a saint he was still so young and had so many years to grow into a batter human being. Eli didn't care, he Just stood there entertained by my emotions. There was something about Elis expression that made me suddenly realized I hadn't looked at the other side of the poster I had found by my locker. As I turned it around I recognized the blue pen marks but there was a drawing there and a message was written above it. He is with her......the woman in my dreams, did he know about them?
Eli never talked to me nor did he show me any attention after that day. Two months after Mat disappearance they were openly talking about him as if he were dead. People believed he had wandered into the woods and died somewhere where he couldn't be found it was strongly indicated that drugs or alcohol where involved but they never found his body so nothing was ever proven.
I started watching out for Jason after the police gave up searching for Mat in the forrest, it was clear that Mats disappearance had taken a heavy toll on him. Jason became very quiet and moody, it had me worried even if I was too afraid of his temper to approach him directly. I think I felt guilty over what had happed and for not being able to stop it. Sometimes during a break or lunch I would catch Jason staring daggers at Eli, I should have seen it coming.
Jason disappeared a little over a year after Mat. I don't know what happened I wasn't there but Eli showed up with a burse on his eye the day after Jason disappeared. My guess is that Jason violently confronted Eli and after that something bad happened to him, probably the same thing that happened to Mat although I never had a nightmare about Jason and the woman in the forrest.
Peter and I where the only ones left who knew what had transpired that day between Eli and the two boys but we never said a word about it to anyone, at least I never did.
Jason and Matthew became nothing more than urban myths to the next generations and life seemed to go on. My nightmares stopped as I grew older and I never saw Eli after I finished school I'm not even curious about what he is doing now.
Life goes on in its own twisted way
This brings me back to the girl whose story I read in the paper and why her story compelled me to write all this down after so many years. At first I didn't put it together I was just shocked to read about a young girl who had been so terribly neglected and left behind by her parents to fend for herself. They found her by the edge of the forrest, she was suffering from some kind of mental disorder they think its autism but it's not certain if she was born that way or if four years of neglect made her that way.
Her parents have not been found although they are still searching, I know they will never find them, they never found her father after all.
Her face..............
When I saw the her picture she reminded me so much of Eli, those piercing yellow eyes and black massy hair. But she had something Eli had not, a birthmark below her left eye
it was just like the one Matthew Hopkins had.