🐺Wolf Creek:Volume One🐺

Chapter Fifteen: A Body In The Woods

          A body had been found in the woods. The news was spreading all around town. It was being whispered in school, talked about in the grocery store, and viewed in the local paper. It chilled me to the bone when I had heard it, and my mind had went racing. The police weren't releasing names or even the cause of death.

          The mystery victim could have had a stroke or heart attack. They could have been snacking on something during a perfectly normal walk and ended up choking. There were so many perfectly logical reasons for a body to be found in the woods, and yet something kept nagging at the back of my mind. I felt it twisting deep down in my gut and making it hard to focus in class. Something was very wrong.

          I had left Theo alone to deal with his car the night before. I had been out walking alone. Our broken window was still covered in nothing but trash bags. I was alright. But it was the end of the school day, and I hadn't seen Theo once. My heart lay in my stomach, and I felt completely cold.

          My classmates didn't have as much energy as usual as I walked out the front door into the cool fall air. The wind was heavy, and leaves were being shaken from nearby trees. Instead of twirling gracefully in the breeze, they smacked everyone in the face and clung into their hair. The day was as grey and gloomy as everyone felt. The sky was a single, foggy sheet that sent whisps of mist dancing across the school yard. I kept my head down as I numbly trudged forward, mentally preparing myself to walk home.

          "Kelsey!" A familiar voice called. My head snapped up, and I felt my eyes widen in surprise. Gran was waiting by the curb in a shiny black truck. It's wheels were so tall that I knew she had to have climbed just to get into the cab. She smiled excitedly through the open passenger window. I plodded over and crawled in as I tried to hide the misery inside of me.

          "When did you get this?!" I tried to act excited for her.

          "Today. Kelsey, we need to talk." Gran stated.

          "Okay..."

          "I'm going to drive you to work, but you need to know something before you get there. You can not tell anyone yet. It will just be you and Em. Mrs. Bernz won't be there. She won't even be upstairs. The man who was killed was her husband." Gran explained solemnly. I had been right! It was murder! Gran watched me carefully.

          "Are you alright?" She asked tentatively.

          No. Hardly anything is anymore. I nodded anyway, and buckled up. Gran changed gears and made her way out of the parking lot. Theo was still nowhere to be seen. I never thought he had been very close with his boss, but his absence told me that I had been very wrong.

          My jumbled thoughts made the drive to the library quick, and I'm what seemed like moments I was clambering down out of the new truck. It was mostly dark when I went inside. Only the lights above the front desk were on. Snowy was nowhere to be seen, and it was dead silent. My footsteps echoed from the wooden floorboards. Em peeked her head out from behind a shelf.

          "Oh, hey! You're here earlier than usual."

"My Gran drove me. Are you alright?"

          "I'm okay. We weren't close." Em replied. She made her way around the counter and to one of the desk chairs. I nodded before silently putting my things away and sitting next to her. The day's tension brought in no customers, and so we spent the evening talking and munching on cookies that Em's mom had made.