Good Soup Pt5

His window was open, cool air blowing through. Late morning sun illuminating the place Henry had lie down.

"Henry?"

Jose said. Asking for god knows why. Clearly he had gone somewhere. What was a 60 something year old man going to do in the middle of Appalachia alone?

"He should come back." I said to Jose.

He continued "The old man must have gone mad. Why go for a walk or even just get out of the building through a window. He didn't want to be seen obviously."

"Or he was in a rush" I chimed in

"Don't be dense" He replied.

"ANGIE!" Screamed Jose "GET IN HERE!"

"WHAT COULD POSSIBLY WARRENT YOU YELLING JOSE!!!"

"That's wise coming from you Angie." I muttered.

"What's that Andre?" She replied.

"Henry is gone." I said. "He must have left through the window.

"Is there a note?" She asked.

"We didn't check" Said Jose.

"Over there", She pointed at his night stand. Under the lamp. A corner of paper was sticking out. I rushed over picking up the lamp and throwing it on the bed. "CAREFULL!" Shrieked Angie. I Ignored it and unfolded the paper. It was unintelligible. Ramblings about how close he was to "Expiring" and how he needed to fulfil "The Purpose" before that time. It was the type of rant you would hear from a druggie, not an elder of the church.

We spent the day at the cabin. Looking for the phone as well as setting smoke signals so Henry could find his way back. We already got lost once in those woods. Bad Idea to go out lacking a phone or any source of potential recovery.

Evening now. I was sitting by the window after dinner, soup again, In the main living space. Tea in hand, book in front of me. I was researching North West tribes of the US. I figured maybe they had tried to place a different type of curse on us and It got Henry. Or maybe Henry saw something at the site of the sigil to scare him into a frenzy. All I know is it took us multiple hours to get to the sigil and a few minutes to walk back. That's not normal. Now Henry disappeared. That's not normal. This place isn't normal.

"What now?" Said Jose.

I said the truth "I think we just stay here for the night. Lets go in shifts. Ill stay up first and keep the signal going. If he isn't back by morning, he probably wont be coming back at all..."

"Your right Andre." Said Angie. "But it feels wrong just sitting here."

"There is nothing to be done. Get some rest Angie, Jose"

They walked off to bed as I dug back into my book. Haven't found anything of use yet. Just general mythology points. Major Gods, methods of worship, sacrifices, ETC. Nothing new or mind blowing. Henry crept back into my mind. Why would he just leave? Something must have scared him to shit. Or sent his brain to shit. Neither an easy

thing to do. He had a habit of staring down things he was afraid of. Turns out when you have God in your heart and head like that nothing scares you. I my mind wandered as I felt my own dose of fear creep up my legs, piercing my stomach and invading my mind. I got up and looked around. Just the fire blazing outside as it lit the room in a red and orange tinge. I felt a gaze. My head snapped to the fire. Nothing in plain view. I sighed. Maybe that's enough reading for the night. I turned my chair to face the woods. It was oppressive. The woods where staring at me with intent. Something moved. I saw it. Right past the fire. It looked like someone was hiding behind it. I ran out. "Hello!?" I said, "Who are you? What do you want?"

No reply. I walked up to the fire now. It was hot. The air thickened around me with smoke corrupting my lungs. It got hard to breathe and hard to see. I walked around the fire. "We don't want any trouble." I said to open air. "Just here to learn, that's all." Still no response. I looked around. Nothing.

A bird flew from the cabin on my walk back inside. Too dark to tell what type. Jose's turn, fuck this.