Zach
Zach sat on the log, his dad next to him. The sun had crept over the top of the trees now, brightening the shadows of the forest. “Dad, what’s going on? Why are you here?”
“Son, what I’m about to tell you may be hard for you to believe.”
“Try me,” said Zach.
“Some of your friends are missing, right?”
Zach nodded. “My roommates, yeah.”
“Your brother is missing too.”
“Dad, I know Chris has been missing for over a year. What does that have to do with Michael and Tristan disappearing?”
“I think it may have everything to do with why your roommates are missing,” said Robert.
“I’m so confused, Dad. Just tell me what’s happening here!”
“Zach, after Chris’s disappearance, I moved to Two Harbors.”
“I know that.” Zach was becoming impatient.
“If you will just let me speak, I’ll explain everything,” Robert said.
Zach didn’t respond. He slid his hands under his thighs, feeling the rough bark scratch his palms. Then he waited for his dad’s explanation.
“I moved to Two Harbors because I wanted to be close to this area. You see, Zach, I’m confident Chris is still out there somewhere. I truly believe he’s alive and he may be a lot closer than you think.”
“How close?” Zach asked.
His dad stood up, raised his arms, and looked out into the forest. “He could be right under our noses. I moved up here so that I could scour this forest for Chris. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past year.”
“But why do you think he’s in this forest?” Zach had so many questions. He hardly knew where to begin.
Robert sat down again. “That’s the part you may have a hard time believing.”
“I don’t think that’s possible after what I’ve been through the past two days.”
“About eighty years ago, the most important industry around this area was logging. There were two large companies that dominated the business. One of the companies was run by a guy named Fredrik Sutinen and the other was run by—”
Zach interrupted. “Let me guess … Victor Leppla.”
Zach’s dad looked shocked. “How did you know that?” he asked.
“I met someone who knows about this story.”
“Who is it?” Fear was in his father’s voice.
“Her name is Miranda. She works in the cafeteria at Pine Ridge.”
“What did she tell you about them?”
Zach rehashed Miranda’s story. Fredrik becoming mayor of Finland. The rivalry between the two companies. The fire that caused Kristian Leppla’s death. Victor’s ghost. “Dad, Miranda’s last name is Leppla. She’s Victor Leppla’s granddaughter.”
Robert’s face remained stoic. “Oh, my God,” he said. “I can’t believe I didn’t know about her.” He paused for a moment. “Do you believe everything she told you?”
Zach took a deep breath, stared across the trail into the brightening woods, and said, “Yeah, I think I do. If I would of heard her story a week ago, I probably would have laughed in her face. But now … it all makes sense.”
“Why does it make sense?” Robert asked.
Zach looked his dad straight in the eye. “Because I think Victor Leppla is after me.”
Mr. Sutton didn’t look surprised.
Zach went on to explain the trauma he had been through since arriving at Pine Ridge. He told him about everything including the nauseating smell, “losing time” at the cafeteria, the missing truck, and the mysterious figure in the woods.
His dad nodded his head. “I was afraid of that,” he said. “I guess I don’t need to tell you that Miranda’s story is true.”
Zach jerked his head in his father’s direction. He had not expected such a blunt response.
Robert continued. “But it sounds like she left out some important details. Details that you need to know.” He looked into Zach’s eyes. “Are you ready to hear the whole story? The whole story as it relates to you?”
“To me?” said Zach.
His father nodded.
“Yeah. I’d like to know what’s going on out here,” Zach said.
“Well, I suppose we should start with Fredrik Sutinen.” Robert scooted along the log, trying to get more comfortable. “Zach, he was your great-great grandfather.”
Zach showed no reaction to this bit of news. Nothing could surprise him anymore.
“He was an immigrant from Finland. When he and his family settled here, that’s when they got into the logging business. Our family name became Sutton a generation later when immigration papers were misread by the government.
“Fredrik was very motivated and showed a lot of initiative. So, not only did he start a successful business with basically no money, but he also became the mayor of Finland, Minnesota. Pretty impressive, huh?”
“Yeah, it is, but what does this have to do with me and Chris?” Zach asked impatiently.
“It has everything to do with you, Zach. The feud between Fredrik and Victor was real. Victor’s son was killed in a fire at the logging plant and Victor blamed Fredrik for it.”
“Did Fredrik really cause the fire that killed Kristian?”
“Nobody knows,” said Zach’s dad. “There was never any proof, but Victor certainly thought so.”
“So what did Victor do about it?” Zach was on the edge of the log waiting for the next chapter of the story. “Was he really some kind of witch? Miranda said her grandpa was a witch. Is that true?”
Robert paused for a moment. “What do you think?” he asked.
Zach nodded. “It makes sense, I guess. I’ve seen some crazy stuff up here. But I still don’t understand what this has to do with me and Chris!”
“Be patient, Zach. I’m getting there. You see, Victor did have certain powers. And when his son was killed, he wanted revenge. So he laid a curse on the Sutinens. But it didn’t stop there. The curse was to plague all the generations of the Sutinen family. And now the Sutton, family.”
“That’s where we come in, right?”
“Right. Our family is cursed, Zach.”
Even with everything that had happened to Zach, those words were difficult to swallow. The idea that he was related to Fredrik Sutinen, that he was “cursed”, seemed completely absurd, as if he were in some kind of horror movie. “So, what is the curse, exactly?”
“Think about it for a second. Do you remember me telling you about my younger brother?”
“Yeah, didn’t he die in a car accident when he was little?”
“Yes. He was seven years old. And my dad’s younger sister, your aunt, Beverly? Do you remember that story?”
Zach thought for a second. “Oh yeah! Didn’t she die of some strange disease?”
“Tuberculosis. It was a very rare case. Almost no one gets tuberculosis anymore. She was only fourteen when it happened.”
Zach could feel his dad looking at him. Waiting for him to put the puzzle together. “Dying of a rare disease. Killed in a car accident. Chris disappearing.” Zach stood up and walked over to the trail. Then turned around to face his dad again. “They were all young. The curse must have something to do with Sutton kids, right? Something bad happens to them?”
“That’s right. All of these tragic cases happened to a Sutton, or a Sutinen, who was under eighteen years old. There are other stories like that too, from earlier generations. But here’s the thing, Zach. Apparently the curse doesn’t hurt all of the Sutton kids. Nothing ever happened to my older brother, my uncle, or me. The list goes on.”
Zach nodded. “Yeah, that’s kind of weird. I wonder how Victor picks and chooses who gets hurt.”
“Well,” Robert continued. “Not only are the victims young, but they are the youngest. Every strange case I could find seemed to affect the youngest Sutton. But you could look at it another way too. Maybe this curse is meant to torture the survivors as well. The youngest members of a family being killed or disappeared? That takes its toll on everyone involved. It has certainly done that to our family. Maybe Victor realized he wouldn’t have to attack all of the Suttons to make an impact on everyone. All the kids are cursed whether they’re the ones hurt or not. You understand?”
Zach nodded. Everything his dad had said made sense. Everything except one thing. “Yeah, it’s been torture for all of us, but I don’t think he’s done with me. Taking Chris, if that’s really what happened, isn’t enough. I’m not the youngest, but he still wants something from me. Why else would he be putting me through all of this? Why would he take my roommates? Why would he make me see all these weird things in the woods? The only other person I’ve met who has seen any of these things is Miranda and she’s Victor’s granddaughter! He haunts her because she wouldn’t help him with the curse. Why is he haunting me?”
Robert stood next to the log as Zach paced back and forth on the trail. “Come here, Zach,” he said, sitting down again. Zach went back to the log and sat next to his dad. Robert put his arm around Zach’s shoulders, pulling him closer to him. “I wish I knew, Zach. Trust me, I wish I had all the answers, but I don’t.”
A couple of minutes passed as Zach considered everything that had been laid before him. He still had one more question. “Dad?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
Zach backed away and looked his dad in the eyes. “Why didn’t you bring this up when Chris disappeared? Why did you keep it a secret?”
Robert didn’t respond immediately. After gathering his thoughts, he finally answered Zach’s question. “Son, for years, this legend has circulated throughout the Sutton family. My dad and grandpa used to joke about it at Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations. No one really believed it. It was just a story they entertained us with. So, I never bought it either. Magic. Curses. Why would I believe it?”
Zach nodded in agreement.
“But when Chris went missing, I started to dig. I thought about my brother and my aunt. Then I found other Sutton kids who had died, disappeared, or come down with some terrible disease. Could all of this be coincidence? But what would your mother or the police have said if I had told them that Chris had been a victim of a family curse and the perpetrator had been dead for fifty years?”
“They would have laughed at you,” said Zach.
“Exactly. So, as hard as it was to leave you after your mom and I divorced, I had to come up here so I could do some searching on my own. I started to read. The Internet, old letters and papers I rounded up at the college. Everything I read led me to the conclusion that Victor did want revenge for Kristian’s death, whether Fredrik caused it or not. But there was one letter in particular that convinced me.” Robert bent over, unzipped his backpack, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It had yellow stains on it. It was old and worn. “Because Fredrik Sutinen was the mayor of Finland, many of his documents and letters had been archived, so I accessed them through the college library.
“Fredrik had saved a letter from Victor Leppla. I can’t imagine what Fredrik must have felt while he read it. In the letter, Victor called him a murderer. He told him he and his family would pay for what he did. But it didn’t end there. The whole letter was written in English except the final sentence, which was written in Finnish. I had to have it translated, but when I did, I was convinced the curse was for real.”
“What did it say?” Zach asked.
Robert unfolded the piece of paper and pointed to the last line. Suojella Lapsia. “It says, ‘Protect your children.’”
Zach looked at his father. He squinted his eyes, and said, “So, it’s true.”
“This is where Victor Leppla lived. After reading that letter I came here, to these woods. I’ve scoured this area looking for Chris, but I haven’t had any luck.”
“You haven’t found any clues at all?”
“Well, there was one. A few months ago, in the middle of winter. The snow was deep and hard to walk through, but I was able to find something. An old cabin. Probably about a half-mile from where we are right now. It was weird. There was nobody there. All the doors were unlocked, as if someone wanted me to go in. So I did. At first, I couldn’t find anything to help me find Chris, but then I did find a clue. On the table in the living room. A bowl of rocks.”
“Chris had a rock collection!” Zach said.
“I know. After I found the collection, I searched every corner of the cabin, but couldn’t find him or any sign of Victor until I stumbled onto a small, dark room at the back of the house. The only thing in the room was a table. On top of it were more rocks. They were in a circle like they were being used for some kind of game. Some kind of strange ‘cursing game.’”
“So, what did you do then?”
“I went straight to the police. I didn’t call you or your mom right away because I wanted to make sure the clue was legit.”
“Did the police come look? What did they find?”
“When I returned to the area with the police, we couldn’t find anything.”
“You mean the rocks were gone?” Zach asked.
“No. The entire cabin was gone,” Robert said. “It was as if it had vanished into thin air.”
Zach sat quietly, soaking it all in. Then he remembered the old truck he saw in the woods. How it had been there, but then disappeared when he came back with his friends. “I think we should go look for the cabin together. I have a feeling it’ll be there this time.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’m not sure. Just a hunch, I guess,” said Zach.
“Well, if you think so, we should check it out. We may be able to find something to help us. Maybe even your friends. Maybe even Chris.”
Zach and his dad got up from the log and made their way to the trail. “Dad?” Zach said.
Robert turned around to face his son.
“Why are you here now? Is it just a coincidence that you were here at the same time I was?”
“No. Actually, I got a phone call from your mom. Your teacher called her when you disappeared from the camp. So I came up to Pine Ridge and spoke to her. What’s her name? Mrs. Lomeier?”
“Lomeier,” Zach corrected.
“Right. I told her I would start searching. The police were on their way, but I had a hunch I might find you out here.”
Zach’s dad put his arm around him. Your mom is on her way up here, too.
“Mom’s coming here?” Zach asked.
“Yeah. She’s pretty worried about you.”
Zach turned away from his dad. He looked deeply into the forest. “How worried can she be? She doesn’t even want me to live with her anymore.”
“Is that what you think? Zach, your mom and I agreed that if your schoolwork and behavior didn’t improve you would come and live with me because we felt it was time for you to make a change. But that was my idea. Your mom does not want you to leave. Trust me on that.”
Zach gazed into the woods. As he turned around to face his dad, he nodded. “Maybe,” he said.
Robert put his hand on Zach’s shoulder.
Zach took two steps down the trail and turned around. “Dad,” he said. “Victor’s house is out there somewhere. Let’s go find it.”