The next morning, the sun shining through the windshield woke Katie with a start. The sight of the old house in daylight was ten times worse than it had been the night before. Now she could clearly see how badly the house was in need of repair, and how overgrown the yard had become. It would take a miracle for her to ever get this house fixed up enough for her and Boo to make it a home. She let Boo out to sniff around and do his business, and she went back inside to survey the rest of the house. She found a bathroom off the kitchen, a small bedroom with a single closet, a pantry and a set of stairs at the back of the house that she assumed led to the second story bedroom. Assume was the best she could do though, as halfway up the staircase the stairs had sunken in on themselves and there was no way for her to climb them to view the upper level.
She wrenched open the back door of the house and looked out into an overgrown yard with a pathway that led to a little shed. The shed had a pump and a rusty old sink and shelves lined with dust-covered jars. Outside the door there were clotheslines hanging from two wooden posts, so she figured this must be what was used as a laundry room, minus the convenience of an electric washer and dryer, of course. Beyond the shed were several small outbuildings and what looked to be a falling down old barn, and woods that seemed to go on forever. She remembered the attorney had said the property had more than 20 acres of land and from what she could see now, it was mostly wooded.
Katie and Boo spent the day exploring what they could of the buildings and barn, finding them to be in much the same condition as the house had been. They tripped over rocks and stumps and saw old farm implements buried in the weeds and overgrown with shrubs and brambles. There was a pathway leading into the woods, so Katie decided to see how far it went in hopes of finding a clearing of some sort they might discover. Together, they walked down the pathway, deeper into the woods, Boo running a short distance ahead sniffing and marking so he could find his way back. Instead of the clearing she had hoped for, it seemed to get darker and darker the farther they walked. The light through the trees was minimal and she could hear rustling in the bushes and saw birds overhead, flittering from branch to branch. A twig snapped and Boo ran off in search of whatever critter had dared into their surroundings, leaving Katie on the path alone. She walked on, knowing that Boo would eventually come back to her, hoping he wouldn't have a soft bunny hanging from his jaws. The path started getting narrower and more overgrown until suddenly it didn't seem to be much of a path anymore, so she turned around to go back. That was when she heard Boo's distressed bark far off in the distance, so she called him to her. His barking got louder and more high pitched until suddenly it stopped with a terrifying yelp. She called his name over and over but there was nothing but dead silence in return. Katie ran off the path toward the spot where she'd last heard Boo barking. Tree limbs whipped her in the face and sticker bushes clawed at her arms and legs. The woods became thicker and thicker the farther off the path she ran. She tripped over a fallen log and hit her head on a rock and was knocked unconscious.
Later, when she finally came to, Katie sat up and put her hand to her head. It came away wet and sticky, so she knew she was bleeding, even though it was literally too dark to see the hand in front of her own face. She remembered Boo's yelp and got herself to her feet and called his name. All around her was darkness. She could barely make out the trunks of the trees, and gingerly she walked on, calling his name. An owl started hoo-ing above her in the trees and the sudden sound of it sent a chill up her spine and stopped her dead in her tracks. It was a mournful hoo hoo-ing call that echoed through the woods. Pretty soon another bird answered the owl with a long screeching kay-teeeee! kay-teeeee! and the owl would answer back, hoo! hoo! The hair was standing up on the back of Katie's neck and she wished with all her soul that Boo would come bounding out of the darkness to be by her side, to lick her hand and guide her out of the woods. She started to cry and run at the same time, desperate to find her way out of these dark and scary woods. Her feet felt heavy and clumsy as she tripped over rocks and fallen branches. In the back of her mind she thought to herself how no one would ever find her because no one even knew she was here. Without Boo, she was all alone.
She stumbled again and fell to her knees in front of a mound of rocks. She felt around with her hands and the rocks were smooth and covered with moss and seemed to form a curve. In the darkness she heard a whimper and soft whine and knew it must be Boo. The sound seemed to be coming from in front of her, where the rocks curved into the ground. She inched her way closer to the rocks, crawling on her knees and then she felt the rocks give way and nothing but empty air in the darkness on the other side of them. She knew it was a hole, probably an old well in the ground, long ago abandoned. Boo whimpered again and she realized the sounds were coming from down below. Boo had fallen into the well! She leaned over and strained with all her might to see into the darkness for a glimpse of Boo, but it was so dark and all she could see was black nothingness. She called his name and her voice echoed back up to her from the deep hole.
All of a sudden, Katie sensed a presence from behind her and before she could turn her head, she felt something shove her hard from behind. She lurched forward into the darkness and tumbled down the well. She landed hard on the rocks and dirt below. She laid there a minute, trying to catch her breath as the fall had knocked the wind out of her. She tried to raise herself up, but realized she had broken her arm. The pain sliced through her like a knife. With her other hand, she was able to prop herself into a sitting position. She felt something soft under her legs and reached out to find Boo's lifeless body. She pulled his head into her lap and cradled him with her good arm, tears streaming down her face. She looked up into the darkness and glimpsed a sliver of the moon in the sky through the trees. Far off in the distance she heard the eerie call, kay-teeeee hoo! kay-teeeee hoo! and she knew it was the last anyone would ever hear of her again.
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