Beneath The Blackwood Sky | ✓

Chapter Four: Haunting Experiences And Terrible Plans

Theo's face was etched with concern as he raised his hand and touched the spot where he had hit Will. He blew air out in relief when he saw that his hand was dry, no red fluid dripping over.

The pain had reduced to a dull throb when Will asked, "What was that?"

Theo put his hands in front of him in a surrendering gesture, dropping whatever he had hit Will with. "I thought you were a thief! I mean, we didn't really pay attention to locking everything up last night and I thought..." Theo trailed away before speaking up again, "I'm sorry, Will. You know I'm sorry."

Will's eyes softened, "Alright, apology accepted. What did you hit me with, anyway?" Theo's eyes widened at the question, and he hesitated. He finally held up an iron rod.

"Are you kidding me? I could've died, Theo McCallister!"

"That's the point. A thief should be punished for his sins."

"I'm not a thief you idiot!" Will exclaimed. "God, I can't even drink a cup of coffee without a direct threat to my life," he muttered but smiled at Theo nonetheless. "But this is what is bothering me," Will pouted in order to lighten up the mood, "is that you didn't recognize me."

+++

Everyone were up and eating breakfast. At 4 AM. The sound of Leo's bark echoed through the entire house. At first, Shay had assumed it was because he was hungry, and she tried feeding him, but he didn't eat anything. Will had later realized that Leo was barking because he was upset. And Leo was upset because all of them were upset.

Leo sat gloomily on Jade's knee, occasionally opening his mouth to bark or when someone fed him the food they were eating.

Turns out all of them were thinking about the day Anthony died, their thoughts concentrating on something else this time: the conversation they had with Anthony.

Will had been thinking about that too. While his brain was repeating the clip of him flinging himself off the roof over and over again, the audio clip playing in the background was the conversation they had with him.

All the people randomly dropping dead, they actually weren't committing suicide but are murders disguised as suicides. My girlfriend's cousin was investigating these suicides and after a few days, he committed suicide. My girlfriend started investigating them too, and she is dead now. Right now, I am convinced that these are murders, not suicides, and I am investigating them too.

The pattern had struck again, Will thought. Just as Anthony said, people who come to know about these things seem to drop dead. And as Anthony knew about it too, he died. Someone had killed him.

These aren't suicides but planned murders.

It certainly wasn't a coincidence. Anthony, his girlfriend and her cousin, all three of them died after they got hold of a deadly piece of information. For a second, Will thought if it was a prank. The thought went away as quickly as it came.

Will was horrified at what he thought before. His eyes drooped down and he realized the source of the crazy thought he had: not enough sleep.

He remembered how Anthony looked after he jumped from the building, the morbid image teasing his mind. Will shook his head to get rid of that picture. But he knew one thing: they had to do something about it. They couldn't just let it go. People were dying.

They went out to the beach to clear their minds and Will grabbed his notebook and other drawing instruments, just in case. Sunrises and sunsets are different every day, unique and beautiful. They were even prettier in winter, especially when it was almost the end of winter: just as it was currently.