Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees

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Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath

The Woodbrook Wanderer newspaper announces the small town’s bicentennial celebrations Sunday, September 30th. Woodbrook is the type of place where everyone knows everyone else. Samantha Strong, a bear, is walking through town, says hi to Roger then Melody, waves to the marching band practicing in the park, and greets the group of children crossing the road. Woodbrook is magical. Samantha passes Sheriff Patterson, a dog, and Martin, an elderly goat, buying his third newspaper of the day from Chip, the newspaper fox. Woodbrook may seem boring to some, but it suits Samantha just fine. 

Samantha owns a hardware store. Business is booming with people building their floats for the bicentennial celebrations. Charlie, a mole, works with Samantha at her shop. He's lovely but needs a little reminder every now and then of how things work or to stack things properly. As Charlie helps a confused Martin find the glasses on his face, Samantha is ringing up a purchase for Nigel, a rat. Nigel takes care of his elderly mom and has invited Samantha to join them for dinner the following night. Their conversation is interrupted by Martin looking for his glasses again. 

After another brief interruption by Charlie’s family who are late for school and have forgotten their house keys, Samantha leaves Charlie in charge so she can head into the city for an appointment. As she leaves the sign for Woodbrook behind her, Samantha’s smile changes into a look of determination. 

Samantha has a few rules. First, no playing in Woodbrook, only in cities - a person going missing in a small town would be the talk of the place for a year, in the city, people go missing all the time. Second, always keep it random. The panels change showing the different people of the city and ends with Samantha on a residential street, the hood of her car up, the car having “broken down.” A duck listening to his Walkman strolls past, stops, and offers to help. The duck determines that the ground cable is loose and if Samantha has some tools he can fix it. Together they walk to the trunk of Samantha’s car and as the duck is rummaging in her tool box, Samantha takes out a cloth and holds it over the duck's beak, knocking him out.

Samantha uses a hammer and nail to destroy the duck’s medulla. It’s quick and easy. She then ties the duck by his feet and uses a crank to dangle him from a tripod before slitting his throat. She drains the duck’s blood before cutting him into small perfect pieces, putting each piece into its own paint can, hammering the lid closed and burying them in their individual holes. The process centers Samantha and she finds it replenishing. Samantha is a serial killer with a body count of fourty-three over twenty years and nobody knows. 

Back at home, Samantha relaxes in a bath with her book, tea and plate of sweet treats. Later she goes to dinner with Nigel and his mom, Lola. Lola is the closest person Samantha could call a friend, they’ve known each other for forty years but now Lola is dying. It’s the usual dinner conversation, reminiscing about staying in Woodbrook (Lola), about traveling for a few years before taking over her parents’ hardware store (Samantha), and suggesting they go back to school (Lola to Nigel). 

It’s the day of the bicentennial parade. The hardware store is closed for the day, and Samantha is heading to the parade with Charlie and his family. The parade looks great, Bertie, a turtle Samantha helped in the store, is on his giant boat float waving to the crowd when one of the sail rings snaps and hits him. But it isn’t Bertie that is the problem. The fallen sail reveals a dead Martin strapped to the mast, crucifixion style. Someone is murdering in the open and it wouldn’t take too much investigation to find out what Samantha’s been up to. This is a problem. A major fucking problem. 

The Woodbrook Wanderer newspaper announces a local found slain in a grisly murder scene and the murderer is still at large. A town meeting has been called by the mayor giving the Sheriff the opportunity to address the town. The Sheriff announces that Martin, the town's former librarian beloved by everyone, was murdered, the first murder in over forty years in Woodbrook. The town is starting a curfew of 9pm that night as the investigation takes place. They aren’t discounting that it could have been a local despite rumors saying it’s someone from the city. Samantha watches the proceedings impassively, everyone else is shocked and scared. An annoying pig, Cherry fucking Gherkins (the town Karen), stands up and demands Bertie be arrested as it’s obviously him then storms out when the Sheirff dismisses her. 

Samantha leaves the town meeting with Lola and Nigel, but leaves them to walk home alone. As she walks, Samantha thinks. The town isn’t big enough for two psychopaths, especially one who is reckless, so she decides to solve the murder first before they catch the wrong killer. 

Samantha visits Bertie who is extremely on edge and nervous, and sporting a brand new black eye. When Samantha pops up, he hides in his shell. Samantha asks Bertie some questions, all the stuff he’s already told the Sheriff, but learns that Melody David, a cat, was helping with the decorations for the float, which he neglected to mention. He shares an interesting tidbit: finishing touches included lavender which Melody is allergic to, so she had to leave because of the sneezing. After Melody left, Bertie heard another sneeze, he thought it was Melody again, but what if it wasn’t… Samantha thanks Bertie before leaving, mentioning its obvious that Cherry fucking Gherkins gave him his shiner.

Samantha heads back into town. The Sheriff is at the hardware store backtracking the events before the parade and wants to know why she went into the city. Samantha gives a very fair and very reasonable reason that doesn’t involve murder or evisceration. Inside, Charlie reports a busy morning of selling deadbolts, locks and the likes. Outside, commotion signals it's eleven o’clock. Cherry fucking Gherkins is getting her daily latte across the street. Samantha, with a look in her eye directed at Cherry fucking Gherkins, offers to fetch Charlie a hot chocolate. 

In the coffee shop, Cherry fucking Gherkins, as usual, is being a pain in the ass to the poor barista and annoying everyone else. Samantha enters the shop and mentions seeing Bertie and his shiner, how it must have been a hothead who jumped to conclusions. Cherry fucking Gherkins explodes saying whatever he told her is a lie. With annoying calm, Samantha asks where Cherry fucking Gherkins was the night Martin was killed. She’s got such a short temper… which is demonstrated further by her pushing Samantha to the ground and grabbing her coffee without paying. 

That night, Cherry fucking Gherkins is getting ready for her nightly walk, ignoring the curfew. She kisses her owl husband on his feathered head before leaving. It’s all going well until she meets someone else breaking the curfew. At first Cherry fucking Gherkins thinks it’s a like-minded individual until they pull a knife. They slice off Cherry fucking Gherkins’ fingers as she starts to berate them, then follow her as she runs, crying out for help into the elementary school. They follow her with an axe and cut short her begging. 

The next day the principal opens the school doors to Cherry fucking Gherkins’ head on a pole in the entryway and the announcement of her death is on the news quickly. Bertie is shocked and worried, Cherry fucking Gherkins’ husband is angry with the Sheriff, and the crowd around him echoes his displeasure. 

The Woodbrook Wanderer newspaper announces the killer has struck again and is taunting the frightened community. Everyone locks their doors, but if you don’t know who the killer is, you may be locking yourself inside with them. The butcher shop is a hive of gossip and anxiety as Melody, still stricken with her allergies, serves customers. After Melody closes for the day, she walks past Samantha’s hardware store, and Samantha notices her still sneezing. At home, Melody makes dinner and sits to eat alone with only the radio playing, she does the dishes, then gets ready for bed and greets her husband. She doesn’t realize she’s being watched from the outside.

The following day, Melody heads to work again, greeting Samantha on the way. It’s a wash-rinse-repeat of the previous day for Melody. At the end of the day, Samantha makes an excuse not to walk home with Charlie and his family, and instead throws a brick through the butcher shop window, forcing Melody to come and check the disturbance since the alarms have gone off. While Melody is out, Samantha breaks in and starts to search. First, she finds a closet filled with felt cat masks, and in the bedroom, she finds a life-size doll of Melody’s husband in the bed. Melody comes home quicker than Samantha bargained for and she is caught. Melody is devastated Samantha suspected her as the murderer. Melody explains that she puts on a mask every day. Her life with Frank was wonderful, but then he died and she needed to put on a front so people would stop worrying about her. She gets lonely and the doll helps her sleep at night. Samantha promises not to tell anyone and leaves. 

At Martin’s funeral, loads of people have shown up. Samantha overhears someone complimenting another about her lavender perfume and during the service, she sees Nigel, sitting next to the perfumed person, sneeze. They lock eyes and Samantha thinks, I’ll be damned. Nigel gives Samantha a hard stare back. 

The Woodbrook Wanderer newspaper announces a dark day in Woodbrook as the police are still searching for the murderer. On the paper in blood is written POOR MARTIN. Samantha is cycling through Woodbrook. It’s a ghost town. Everything looks the same, but it doesn’t feel the same, everything has changed and Samantha doesn’t do well with change. She arrives at her destination, Lola’s house. Lola answers the door and Nigel is sitting on the sofa. Samantha has brought cakes and they sit and enjoy them over tea. Unfortunately Lola has a bad turn and needs to lie down. When Nigel returns from settling his mom, Samantha is waiting. They need to talk about how things are getting way out of hand. 

Nigel knows he’s a little over the top, but he did it to get her attention. When he came back to town a year ago, dissatisfied with school and not having any friends, Nigel noticed how different Samantha was. He started following her, just around town at first, then into the city then into the woods. Nigel couldn’t believe it, he’d found someone just like himself and wanted to prove himself so they could be together.

Samantha tells Nigel to SHUT UP. They are not even friends, they will be nothing together, certainly not partners. Samantha works alone, and says Nigel can continue but not in Woodbrook because he’s fucking things up. Nigel gets mad then calls Samantha a phony like everyone else. Samantha leaves and she’s pissed, Nigel has been watching her and putting his dirty, greedy hands on her moments. Angry, Samantha cleans her home.

The next day, at the hardware store, Samantha stops a customer holding a paint can. She recognizes it as the same kind she uses for the body parts and sees it has a suspicious red splash on it. Smoothly, Samantha swaps the can for another. Charlie thinks he’s made a mistake, but Samantha reassures him and gives him the rest of the day off. Alone, Samantha pops the lid and finds a hand in the white paint. It feels like everyone is watching her and knows what she’s done. That night, Samantha has a nightmare and thinks she sees Nigel's shadows at the first floor bedroom window. She opens the window and shouts for the coward to come out but only her neighbor Chip, smoking on his porch, hears her but he isn’t bothered. 

The next day, tired from the disturbed night, Samantha drives to the hardware store. When she stops at a corner, Nigel takes her picture. He wants some momento before she leaves. He turns then, looks at the hardware store which is cordoned off with police tape. He tells Samantha that Charlie got a call last night from someone who sounded like her, needing him at the shop straight away. He never made it home. Oops, he made one hell of a mess in there… Charlie has been decapitated and his head has a circular saw blade stuck most of the way through it, cutting his glasses in two. Oh, and he left a whole bunch more of the paint cans in the store for the police to find. The Sheriff issues a BOLO for Samantha. She’s now suspect number one. Samantha flees. 

The Woodbrook Wanderer newspaper announces a murder suspect has been identified. Samantha Strong is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. PHONY is written on the page and it is splattered in blood. Samantha goes to the city, wanting to disappear. She can see the ghosts of some of her victims in the crowds, parts missing and organs exposed, the cut lines from the dissections dripping blood. In the rain covered streets, police are trying to find her. Her world shrinks further on the road when the police put up road blocks, checking every car for their prime suspect. Annoyed, Samantha peels off into the woods and stops when the dirt track is blocked by a fallen tree. These woods aren’t familiar, but that doesn’t deter her from continuing on foot until she reaches a cave. 

Inside, Samantha finds a mirror wall. She puts her hand to it and steps through. It's time to face herself and look beneath the surface. It’s horrific. The parts of herself are depicted as different colored snakes, covered in blood and buried in her neck. When she’s through the ordeal and comes to terms that they are a necessary part of her, she leaves the cave and the sun is out. Heading to a river, Samantha encounters a bear, an actual bear not a bipedal wearing-clothes bear. Its face is covered in blood from its kill, a deer. Another bear approaches and the animals fight viciously. Samantha loves it, the violence, the gore, how two predators are fighting for dominance and only one can win. It’s the natural order of things and it gives her an idea. She has work to do.

Samantha heads back to Woodbrook and sneaks into the hardware store for supplies and retribution. She can fix Woodbrook with the right tools. The store is still covered in Charlie’s blood and the police have done a terrible job at the crime scene because Samantha finds a wedding ring on a chain sticking out from under a shelf. She grabs a blade, tape, plastic cloth… double plastic, it’s going to be messy. 

In the woods, Nigel is burning a pile of photos, ones he took before, during and after his murders. He then sits down with a lockbox in front of the fire. Inside the paraphernalia of trophies is a gun. He then buries the lockbox and walks out of the trees into a park with his camera around his neck. He encounters a young tiger girl playing by herself. Thankfully her father collects her a moment later. Because Nigel is a creepy-creep, he took pictures of the girl playing and of her with her dad walking away. Nigel then heads to the newspaper stand, the Woodbrook Wanderer’s headline has Samantha’s name on the front in capital letters. Nigel comments to Chip that it’s always the one you’d never suspect, but Chip doesn’t fully believe it - he’s lived next to Samantha for twenty-five years. Nigel then takes pictures of the barista Cherry fucking Gherkins harassed as she shops for groceries. He even goes so far as to follow her around the store. Creepy-creep. He develops the photographs in a makeshift dark room in a rundown apartment he’s renting.

At Lola’s house, Samantha pays a visit. She lets herself in wearing safety goggles, an apron, and carrying her bag of tools. Samantha tells Lola that Nigel is the killer, Lola knew Samantha didn’t do it, and guessed she knew it was Nigel. Lola also knows Samantha is similar to Nigel, she’s known for a while. Samantha tells Lola they’ll continue their conversation back at her house. Nigel will show up when he sees her truck parked outside. 

Samantha is right, Nigel sneaks into her house through the kitchen window. There is music playing covering any sound he’s making. Nigel quietly makes his way through the house to the living room. He spots someone reading in a chair, pulls his gun and starts lamely taunting them. He gets a bit of a shock when the person turns out to be his mom, throat slit, blood running down her front with a knife buried in her chest. Samantha comes up behind Nigel and injects him with something that blocks neuromuscular transmissions. He’s awake but can’t move. 

Nigel can only lie there while his bowels release. It’s kinda embarrassing. He won’t care soon though as the Sheriff is on his way. Samantha has the whole story sorted. She was in hiding until she could prove her innocence. Lola agreed to meet her when they both figured out that Nigel was the real killer. They know about his lockbox and dark room. When they were going to confront him, he stabbed his mom repeatedly for the betrayal. Samantha then cuts her arm as if they are defensive wounds. Samantha will shoot Nigel in the head, it happened as they were struggling for the gun. Such a shame, it’s going to create such a mess. Such a shame Nigel killed his mom, the only person who loved him, believed in him and overlooked his whole being-a-murdering-psychopath-thing. Oh well…

The channel 8 news reports the story of a small town nightmare being over in a shocking revelation. Samantha Strong was framed by the son of her long-time friend, Lola. Nigel, the actual killer, who, after viciously killing his mother, died during a confrontation with Samantha. It’s a dramatic conclusion but the town can return to normal. The Sheriff apologizes to Samantha for suspecting her, Samantha returns Charlie’s wedding ring to his widow, and she decides that she needs to hibernate a little, just until things calm down.