This Neck of the Woods

Lydia and I left for the woods at about 11 AM yesterday.  Our goal was simple.  We intended to find that building that Lydia thought she had seen on the night of the murder.

As soon as we got into the park we quickly walked as deep down the trail as possible (her leading the way) and then left the trail for the thick forest.  We had walked in silent most of the way, but once we left the trail Lydia spoke.

"Watch out.  If you see any black spots on the foliage or any animals acting weird, try to move away from them."

"Why?"

"There's a type of fungus that lives out in these woods.  Only place in the world it's known to grow.  The park service is able to keep it away from the trail, but past that, it grows wildly."

"Okay... but fungus is like mushrooms, right? So it's harmless."

She scoffed.

"Let me tell you this much.  Whenever an animal dies in this forest, if you dissect it and look at its brain, there's strange... growths all over essential parts.  Those that control perception, for one thing."

"I wonder if our murder victim had those growths."

"Don't know.  Let's walk."

I shut up after that.  The rest of the walk was quiet.  There were far less strange spots in the woods than I had expected to see, but there were still enough that I wanted to stay cautious.  Once the time reached about 1PM, Lydia spoke again.

"Oh my god.  It's still here."

I looked up and it felt like the air had been punched out of my lungs.  Before me stood a grand building.  It looked like a hotel, in a "U" shape with a courtyard in front of us and the entrance on the other side.  A fence surrounded it, and a carpark, with cars(!), sat on the right side.  The ground it covered was all paved.

The lights were on, but nobody seemed to be home.

"Is this the same...?"

"Yeah."

We walked slowly towards it.

As we approached the fence, the hotel's image flickered, like a mirage, and then it was gone.  There was only forest.

"What the fuck!" Lydia yelled.  "You saw it too, right?"

"I did, are you okay?"

"Fuck, I thought we had proof!  What the hell just happened?"

I was thinking.  There were two possibilities.  One, that the hotel somehow disappeared, or two, that something caused both of us to think that we had seen the hotel.  Privately, I preferred the second option, even as I reassured Lydia.

Once she calmed down, we turned around and left.  It took another two hours to get out.  We got in our separate cars and went our separate ways.  I'm waiting to hear from her about what our future plans might be.

There's one thing that bothers me, though.  Even if the hotel is a mirage of some sorts, how did we walk straight into the woods for two hours?  The park isn't very big and we should have hit water after thirty minutes.

-Callie