The Footprint

Chapter 7

The strange little disturbances around the cabin never disappeared completely.
A noise in the woods. Something moved from where Nifty remembered leaving it.
A shape between the trees that vanished when either of them looked twice. Corey noticed them now too.
That made them harder for Nifty to dismiss. One night, while they sat inside the cabin, a branch snapped outside.
Nifty stopped drawing. Corey looked toward the window and said
"What was that?" Neither of them moved. For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then another branch snapped farther into the woods. Corey stood.
Nifty looked down at the unfinished face on the page in front of him. Neither of them knew what the sounds meant.
Neither of them knew what was coming. For now, Nifty had found one human he could trust.
And for now, that was enough.
For several seconds, neither Nifty nor Corey moved. The branch had snapped somewhere beyond the cabin, followed by another farther into the woods.
Corey stepped outside first. Nifty followed close behind.
The night was still. Corey swept his the light from his phone across the trees.
Nothing seemed moved. " it was probably just a deer," he said.
Nifty did not answer. They walked around the side of the cabin, checking the brush and the ground beneath the windows.
That was when Corey stopped. "What is that?" In the damp earth beneath the window was a footprint.
It was faint. Barely more than a shallow impression, already softening at the edges.
Nifty crouched beside it. Corey looked at Nifty's feet, then back at the mark.
"Looks a lot like yours." Nifty leaned closer. It did.
Not exactly. The toes seemed different, and the heel was difficult to make out, but the ground was wet and the print was poor.
"Probably is mine," Nifty said. "You walk around out here barefoot?" Nifty looked at him and said
"Im a gremlin." Corey just smiled. That was good enough for him.
They went back inside. Neither noticed that the footprint was pointed toward the cabin, not away from it.
The next morning, Corey brought up something Nifty did not particularly want to hear. "Hey buddy, I've got to leave town for a while." Nifty kept drawing.
"Okay " "its for work." "I heard you." Corey watched him for a moment. "I'll be gone longer than usual." Then it clicked and Nifty's pencil slowed.
"Um, How long?" Nifty asked "I'm Not sure. A few weeks, maybe." Replied Corey.
Nifty nodded as though the answer did not matter.
But it really did