The Legend of Youngs Corner XXVI

PART XXVI
The Winter Quest

From Denny’s, our 3 car caravan reached Hotel Rd. Before the intersection of Young’s Corner, there was a series of several small homes on the right side of the road, across the street from the edge of the Northern Woods, the same woods where Bobby saw the Old Woman appear just a few months ago.

I knew that our caravan needed a place to park, and one not too suspicious. I considered Lost Valley, our previous rendezvous point for the first trip. However, it was now the middle of winter, a bad winter at that, and none of us were prepared for the arduous hike from Lost Valley to the woods. We had not planned to go on this journey tonight and as a result, few of us had winter coats or even gloves. We had to find a place to park that offered a short hike distance.

One of the homes on Hotel Rd. was under construction. There was even 2 bulldozers in the driveway. I realized they could provide excellent cover. I pulled the car into the driveway and behind one of the bulldozers. The other cars followed suit. We left our cars and assembled at the end of the driveway by the road. Across the street was an expansive snow covered field on which lay my home, far off to the right. The lights, I noticed, were off this time. But my home was of little concern now, for looming ominously at the left edge of the field were the Northern Woods.

We crossed the street and stepped onto the field. I strained my eyes and could see the old snowmobile path forming the dark tunnel on the forest wall. We began our march across the field and reached the tunnel. My hands, once shivering from the deep chill, now began to thaw. The adrenaline was coursing through my veins, but this fear was different than the one I felt this summer. Even with Bobby’s revelation, the fact that the Old Woman was still alive, wasn’t enough to quicken my breath or hasten my heart. The fear I felt now was a cold fear, an enveloping fear, one that could not comprehend my whereabouts nor contemplate my future. My fear was one that came after surviving a dangerous task, one that tested the very foundations of reality. And now, having discovered that the thing I feared most, the thing I believed was dead had now returned, and that I was daring to brave the heart of darkness once again knowing full well risks on my life, well, my sense of fear reached a new plane, one indescribable from all others.

“This is it, isn’t?” Nick whispered to me. “This is the entrance you found last time?”
“Yeah,” I responded. “Let’s do this.”
And without a moment of hesitation, I stepped forward…