GRAVE MISTAKE

7. MURDER

…after the celebration…

Early the next day, five people searched the woods for someone who was missing from last night.

      "Are you sure she came here?" One of the watchmen asked Clara and she nodded her head. She was so worried and afraid for her friend's safety.

      "Did she tell you why she came here?"

Mr Fleur, Jecinta's father, questioned Clara. He had deep lines on his forehead to show how anxious he was.

       "I didn't hear what she said as I was far away, running to meet her," Clara briefly explained.

In this part of the woods, the trees had lost all the leaves on its branches and it had an eerie look even though it was day time.

The two watchmen went ahead of them and Clara followed closely behind them while Jecinta's parents were at the back.

Jenna, Jecinta's mother, had a heavy heart and she was deeply worried for her dear daughter.

       "Jecinta!" Clara screamed her friend's name with tears in her eyes. That night when she had gone to inform the watchmen, they had come to search the place but they couldn't find her.

Despite not finding her, they still came early the following morning to search for her.

        "Stop," one of the watchmen who was ahead of them raised his hand for them to stop and they frowned in confusion and got more worried.

The watchman sat on his heels as he observed the ground and his fellow watchman came to stand beside him and a deep frown marred his forehead.

"It goes in that direction."

"What?"

Jecinta's mother inquired from him and he turned his head to face her with a serious look as if in thought.

        "The trail of dried blood."

His response made her eyes go wide and her heart raced wildly.

Clara stood frozen but she didn't want to think things so she followed the watchman as he straightened himself and resumed walking with his eyes following the dark trail of dried blood.

The deeper they went into the woods, the more the faint smell of blood wafted to their noses.

Fear clouded Jenna's mind and so she paused because she didn't feel right, especially with the smell of blood in the air.

        "What's wrong darling? Is everything alright?"

Her husband enquired with a deep furrow at his forehead as he came to her side.

Her breathing came out labored and she tried to control it but couldn't due to the sudden feeling of sadness.

Clara's mind was clouded with thoughts of 'what ifs' as she followed the watchmen without realizing that Jecinta's parents had stopped.

'What if she was abducted?'

'What if she's not here?'

'What if she had found her way out of the woods and was back home?'

'What if something bad happened to her?'

The two watchmen came to an abrupt stop and one of them quickly looked away with a mystified look.

Clara snapped out of her thoughts and hurried to stand beside the strong watchman to see what he was looking at.

The moment she came to stand beside him and her eyes lowered to look into the deep ground, she gasped loudly and moved away in horror.

Her eyes were wide and tears filled them as she screamed in disbelief.

Hearing the scream of Clara, Jecinta's parents looked in the direction they heard the scream.

       "Quick, come…"

"No! I don't want to go," at this point, Jenna broke down in tears because what she feared was true and she didn't need to see it with her two eyes to know what it was.

Clara's cries reached their ears and it made Jenna cry painfully.

        "I'll be back, please stay here."

Mr Fleur said hurriedly to his wife before rushing in the direction of Clara's cries. His heart was pounding wildly and inwardly he prayed it was something else.

On reaching where they stood, he saw Clara on the ground crying while the senior watchman kept staring down into the dug ground.

He ran up to him and stared down the dug ground.

His eyes grew wide and his lips parted at the horrific scene displayed before his eyes.

The ground was dug six feet deep and at the bottom rested an innocent young lady who had been brutally killed.

Her milk colored gown was shredded and there were ghastly deep cuts all over her body which showed that she was attacked by an animal.

       "Oh my goodness!" Mr Fleur exclaimed in disbelief.

The other watchman had moved away from the scene because he couldn't bear the sight of blood.

While the senior watchman's gaze was intent on her as he observed her body.

From what he saw, he could already decipher what happened.

'She was attacked by a feral beast or wolf.'

What he wanted to know was why she came into the woods in the first place.

Brightburn town was quite far from here so what propelled her to come to the woods at night?

Was she with a man?

That was the only suitable reason he could come up with.

But if she came here with a man then why did he abandon her here for her to be attacked? The senior watchman wondered deeply.

Her eyes were still wide open as if she was in shock and life was no longer in them.

Nevertheless, something strange happened, the air around them turned chilly and one by one, white snowflakes began to fall for the first time in all history.

But what they didn't know was that a spirit stood in their midst staring down at her corpse which rested in the grave with vengeful eyes.