Willow Moon and the Coven's Call

"What do you mean the road is closed?"

The burly, orange-vested man smiled patiently, but the veneer was wearing thin. It was the end of the work day, and he had better things to do than argue with this hippy chick. "Closed for maintenance, maam. Trying to get the damn thing up and running again before the summer season starts. I'm real sorry, but you'll have to turn around."

Willow Moon's green eyes moved from the imposing man to all the other construction workers, packing up their things and breaking down for the day. A line of caution tape and numerous "ROAD CLOSED" signs stood in the middle of the road as well, and it wasn't hard to see why. The pavement behind the signs was cracked and shattered, revealing the rough and unfinished gravel underneath. She mumbled out a curse that, on today of all days, her quickest route to the coast would be closed for a complete reconstruction.

"But I'm trying to get to Lincoln City! I've already got the rental, all my friends are there!" She wasn't really pleading with the construction worker; she knew that would get her nowhere. Somehow it seemed like it would be less futile to beg the universe itself for a remedy to her plight. "I need to get there!"

The man's face twitched in annoyance. "Well I'm sorry, you'll have to circle back around and head north to Highway 22. Unless you want to take the logging roads in the middle of the night, which," he glanced at her dusty Subaru, "I wouldn't recommend."

Willow's slender shoulders slumped in defeat. She knew that arguing would be useless, the man was just doing his job. But she had gone this way because circling around to Highway 22 would add hours to her trip, and the sun was already setting. Highway or not, she didn't want to be driving through the Coast Range mountains at night. The little mountain road that now stood closed before her was supposed to be the answer to her prayers.

But it seemed her prayers had gone unanswered.

"Ok. Ok. I'd rather not drive through the mountains at night, even on the highway. I can call my friends and let them know I'll be late. Do you know if there is a hotel or something nearby...?"

A big, meaty hand reached up to scratch at the man's nose. He was relieved that the girl was being reasonable and not making more fo a scene, but he did resent being treated like a tour guide a little bit. "We're all staying out in Dallas, there's plenty of motels there. Or you could go to that town down the way on 223, what was it called again?"

He called out to one of his guys. "Hey Chuck, what's the name of that haunted town you keep bitching about?"

A voice, presumably Chuck's, answered back from the sweaty and dusty horde. "Cedar Falls, and I never said it was haunted!"

"Whatever, sure made it sound that way." The man snorted. "Anyway, Cedar Falls, its a couple miles north on 223. Pretty sure they got a motel there, and you'd have a head start in the morning. Local guys tell some crazy stories about the place, but I don't buy any of that crap. Everywhere has got a nearby town up in the hills that people tell crazy stories about, right?"

Willow nodded. 'Travel Blogger' was one of the things you could call her, and she had indeed heard lots of rumors about strange local haunts wherever she had gone. And while 'Instagram Influencer' and 'Hippy Chick' were also things you could call her, 'Paranormal Investigator' was not, so she tended to avoid those places. But still, the promise of a nearby bed with an early start in the morning was enough to entice her to this small town with a shady reputation. Besides, she'd been in much more dangerous places than this. She was confidant that nothing would happen to her here in western Oregon.

She smiled brightly at the construction worker, and she was happy to see him melt a little at the sight of it. A little charm went a long way, and her smile had a *lot* of charm. "Thank you so much for your help, Mr...?"

"Sutterdown. Bill Sutterdown." He reached out to shake her hand, suddenly feeling a lot more well-disposed to the young woman. She took his hand, showing a small tattoo of a crescent moon over a dashed line on her wrist.

"Willow Moon, a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for your help Bill, I'll get out of your hair now."

His eyes followed her as she turned and got back into her car, the movement causing her wavy blonde hair to blow softly in the breeze. "Alright, get there safe, ok? And have a nice trip!"

She waved back at him and flashed another smile. Then she put her car in reverse, turned around, and drove off down the highway. He watched the old Subaru drive away, taken aback at how quickly he had come around on the girl. Was he really that easy, that a pretty smile was all it took to brighten his mood? He smirked a little bit. It had been a while, after all. But then he moved on with his end of day cleanup, going about his business and quickly forgetting about the pretty young blonde. Truth be told, he never expected to see her again.

But as a matter of fact, he would actually see her later that very night. And she would be the last thing he ever saw.