Believer

-Prologue-

From a young age, you are told these fairytales filled with romance and friendship and morals. You will have your villain with their evil henchmen. You will have your hero with his goofy side-kick who helps him save the damsel in distress. Then you have the town folk who celebrate the return and victory of their hero who has saved the day. And that's what you expect in every town, especially the ones with the castles. But that's not what happened to our little group of heroes in Castlestone.

Castlestone. This is where our story begins, in the little town located in the state of Pennsylvania-near the border of Canada. But that's not important right now. Now I know what you are thinking-how could anything big happen in a small town where the worst crime is petty theft? The answer to that, my friend, is murder. The murder of Vanessa Evans.

Our little adventure starts on the first week of summer, schools out and the bathing suits are on. It was a lovely Saturday morning when they Williams' family decided to take a lovely day trip to the river for a celebratory picnic. What were they celebrating? The recent, and sudden, promotion Mr Williams had just received from work. So Mr and Mrs Williams took their 3 children-Jacob, their 16 year old son, and Jessamine and Janet, the 8 year old twins. They arrived at Bellwood River at 8:30am, sharp. As the parents set up the picnic, little Jacob decided to take his sisters into the Bellwood Forest, not knowing the tragedy that awaits them.

"I heard that witches live in these woods." The boy told the twins in a hushed voice. "They lure kids, especially little girls. They hypnotise them into becoming their personal slaves. They boil them in their cauldrons and then feed them to the ogres."

"But you will protect us, won't you?" Little Jessamine asked her brother, her voice barely a whisper as tightly gripped her twin's hand. "Hmm, who else would?" He told them, one hand ruffling each of their heads, causing both girls to giggle. The Williams had their traits- bright green eyes, luscious blonde hair and the knack to stick their noses into situations that don't concern them. Sometimes for the better, or the worse.

Jacob smiled down at the girls, yet a mischievous glint sparkled in his eyes. He quickly glanced behind the twins as his eyes widened in shock, his lips parted. "Ahh! Witch!" He yelled, pointing behind them at the blank clearing. Jessamine and Janet looked at each other before screaming and rushing off in different direction, leaving the teenage boy in tears of laughter.

After recomposing himself, the teenager set off in one direction to find his little sister hiding behind a tree with tears streaming down her face. He kneeled down next to her, pulling her into a hug. "Hey, shhh, don't cry. I was just joking. There is no witch." He told the scared girl, rubbing her back in a comforting manner. "Really?" The small voice asked him in which he nodded in response.

Jacob eventually pulled back with a small smile. "Let's go and find-" But the teenager was cut off by a loud scream. His eyes widened as he quickly bolted in the direction of the sound to find the small blonde girl kneeling next to something. "Janet. Janny." The boy whispered desperately to get his sister's attention. But as he neared the girl, he was not expecting what he was about to see.

There, in front of him, laid a corpse. Dull brown eyes staring into his green ones. The mouth hanging open as a few bugs scurried out of it, causing the blonde boy to cringe and quickly pull his sister behind him. The skin of the corpse was a mix of blue and purple and green and brown. He couldn't tell what was a wound and what was mud. The body itself was displaced in an awkward position that no human body could form. The boy, unwillingly, took a few steps forward to get a closer look at the body, in hopes of finding anything that will tell him who the person was. From what he could see, the body was so disfigured that it was hardly recognisable. Hesitantly, he kneeled down next to the corpse to see a small ring on the left hand. One that he knew to well. One that he had gifted. The one thing that gave him any clue of who the corpse was.

"Oh my god, Vanessa!" The boy cried out to his dead lover, and he didn't know wether his screams had notified his parents or the twins had ran back to the river. But the next few hours passed like a blur. By one hour, the police had arrived at the scene and questioned the family. By two hours, the body was taken away and the forest was closed off for investigation. And by three hours, the whole town knew about the horrendous murder of Vanessa Evans.

And that, my friends, is how our story begins.