Unknown L (Book 1)

~~ And So It Begins ~~

Glancing to the window again, L immediately thought of going on one of her walks. Usually, she didn't think twice about it and just went out, but the stranger in the street made her think again. It felt like he'd been waiting for her to come back to the house. Though L had no clue who he was or why he would wait and then just leave without saying anything.

L's first thought was danger, naturally, but she hadn't annoyed anyone enough for them to come after her, not even Zoe would send some stranger. Plus, he did walk away. If he wanted to hurt her, why didn't he do it there and then in the middle of the deserted street?

L decided she wasn't about to let a random occurrence like that stop her from going on her walk. She would handle it if something bad were to happen and she knew this town better than any stranger. She scoffed the rest of her cookie, zipped her jacket, secured the letter in her pocket as usual, and opened her window as wide as possible.

She wasn't going to risk sneaking downstairs in case Eileen caught her. Several minutes later, L had climbed down the drainpipe and was on her way down the next street. She had to avoid any of the main roads since Mr Smith would be on his way home from the pub, something he did every Sunday night. If he saw her walking around the streets, she'd have more than a lecture from Eileen to worry about.

L walked casually through the back streets of the town, lost in her thoughts and trying to enjoy the peace it usually gave her. However, she couldn't stop thoughts of the stranger coming to the forefront of her mind. The same questions kept circulating around her brain despite the fact that she'd tried her hardest to brush it off as a random occurrence.

The night didn't feel any different now, and she found herself walking towards the church where the elderly people congregated and gossiped during the day. L didn't know what made her go there. She hadn't really thought about it until she looked up at the spires and stained glass windows looming over her.

She took a slow walk through the grounds of the church. She sometimes took this route for a change of scenery. Most people would have called her crazy for walking into a church cemetery in the dark, all alone, but it didn't bother L. The dead weren't exactly something she feared, and they definitely weren't judging her.

She stopped by a particularly old and worn headstone that had long been forgotten. It still looked sturdy, and it was the perfect height for climbing. L managed to find a foothold at the back, and she climbed easily up onto it. She perched herself on the top. She probably looked like a large bird to anyone who might walk by. Though she knew nobody would think about coming near there at that time.

She was left alone to reminisce about her day spent at the Worcesters' house. It had felt so amazing at the time, and L thought back to the bubble bath and the food they had eaten. She was almost too distracted to notice the fog that had started to roll in until it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She pulled her hood up to keep out the cold that had seeped into her body.

Suddenly, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned quickly to find something or someone moving slowly towards her from across the cemetery. It was stirring up the fog, which was getting whiter and thicker. The thing across the graveyard didn't seem to notice. Its movements were fixed on her.

It was too big to be a dog, and L tensed while she watched it coming around a row of headstones; no, not one single thing, there were two of them. She realised they looked more like men, but their shape just didn't fit a man's. They were short and wide with long arms, too long to seem natural. They drew closer, and L saw that everything about them was pure, ghostly white.

Every muscle of their shirtless physique was toned and defined. All they wore was a pair of black shorts covering most of their pale legs. They were both bald, and their mouths held big, tusk-like teeth that jutted out at odd angles from their lower jaw. L would have reasoned that they were drunks coming from a fancy dress party, but the noises they made weren't humanly possible.