𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬

𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫

One day later I woke up from my sleep to the sound of the blood-chilling scream. It has just passed midnight, and I already knew what had happened. I shot out of my bed, hitting my head into the side of the top bunk. Helen woke up as well.

"Did you hear that too?" she asked. She looked scared.

"Yes. Yes I did," I responded. She could hear the sadness in my voice.

"What's wrong?" she asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"She knows, what I do." Sonny beamed, jumping off her bed. The boys got out of bed too.

"And what would that be?" Andy queried.

"I bet you my pants that this was Margaret," she said casually, then looked at me, "The girl from dinner."

I nodded my head in agreement, then put on a cardigan, and rushed out of the cabin. By the time we got out, a small group of kids had already been looking for the source of the horrific sound.

The forest around us was beyond scary even more than it was during the day. The ancient, huge trees were roaming above us threateningly, and the clutter of creatures of the night became louder and made me question if I was ever safe or not. I looked in the direction of the gates, where the two tree-lovers were holding each other imperturbably.

"Hope you guys do watch over us," I whispered.

"Yeah, me too." a soft voice whispered behind me, and I jumped out of my skin in fear.

"Oh god, I didn't mean to scare you! Advanced hearing you know..." Helen giggled a little bit.

"No problem. It was just unexpected."

Somebody found the girl, Margaret. How do I know? A terrified boy's scream rang through the forest. The sound of pure terror and some kind of disgust.

We were one of the first to reach the crime scene. I have seen dead people before. In my kind of "family business", blood sacrifice is kinda essential since it's my auntie's hobby. But this one was way too much even for me. Blood was everywhere. It was spilled on the trees, the soil beneath our feet, everywhere. And in the middle of it, lay the blonde girl. I gasped in disbelief when I saw her. Her stomach was ripped open, her flesh hung limply, and her insides were completely liquidized, and all her blood - well at least what could have stayed inside her - was drained.

I felt Helen burying her face in my shoulder.

"I don't wanna see it, do I?" she asked, sobbing into my cardigan.

"I do not recommend," I said, my voice cracking a bit, and choking back tears and holding back my dinner at the same time.

The boys and Sunny reacted quite the same way, I did, Octavian had tears in his eyes, Sunshine tried to stay calm, but she was pretty upset, and Andy just froze in place, sighing deeply. Just as I did, he grew up in a murderous environment, so a dead body wasn't new for him either. The way of the murder though...

The boy, who found her, stood still, staring at the body, he was in complete shock.

Sunny was the first one, to come to her senses after the initial shock, and took the manners in her hand.

"Tavvy! Take Matt to the infirmary! He might need therapy or a doctor at least. Andy, you go, find Darcy! Hurry up!" she ordered the boys.

"Helen, you go with them!" she added, and the girl didn't protest.

They quickly did what they were told, and helped the guy, Matt, away. Octavian had to pick him up, the poor boy couldn't even walk, let alone talk.

We stayed there for a while, all alone, in the dead silence, with the girl, whose life ended cruelly and unexpected.

"You know she was cursed, don't you?" Sunny asked after a while, looking straight at the girl. Or at least what was left of her.

"Of course, I-"

"Oh my god!" a little scream came from behind us, and we jumped back a bit, then turned around just to meet a quite tall, girl with white hair. She had fear in her eyes, and her hands went up to her mouth, to muffle her outrunning sobs.

"Annie! What are you doing here?" Sunny asked the girl.

"I- I heard the scream, and I came to investigate. Is that- Is that Magre? Oh god, she was such a good friend! How could this happen?" she asked, all stoked.

"We think it might have been a curse. Do you know anybody who may have wanted to cause her harm?" I asked in full investigator mode. I watched enough movies to know how one does it.

"Cause harm to her? Margie? Of course not! Everybody loved her! She was such a nice girl, she couldn't kill a fly!"

"Thank you. Please, go back, and don't raise panic. Don't tell anybody, she died, until Darcy tells it, okay? We don't want anybody to point fingers at one another, do we?" Sunny said.

"Sure. Okay... But since when are you the boss here?"

"Since when I said so. I'm the one who understands curses, and her. Not you. You only can help by not telling anybody else. Please, Ann."

I haven't known Sunny for long, but I knew she was usually cold, calm, and liked witty remarks. She wasn't the kind of person, to say 'please'. She wanted Annie out of the picture.

Today during launch I could see her looking at Annie, and I realized, she wasn't her sweetest pie. They might have had a history or something?

After Annie left, I asked Sunshine, why did she chase her away.

"Annie is a nice girl," she answered, "but not the trustworthy type. I wouldn't trust her with such a secret. She's gossipy. And she might tell something, that's not true. She likes to enlargen everything. So it's better if she's as far as she can."

"Are you talking out of experience?"

"I do. But you should ask Hel. She could tell you more about it," she said, cutting short on our conversation.

I was about to ask what she thought about what the motive of the killer could have been, when Darcy arrived, rushing in, with Andy following in her footsteps.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED HERE?!" her wrath and worry was obvious.

"She died. Matt found her. We know nothing more." we explained.

"Dear gods!" she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

When she opened her eyes, she walked to the poor girl and kneeled next to her. She looked into her stark, empty eyes, and the everlasting fear in her features then placed her hands on her eyes and shut them closed.

"May the gods have mercy on your soul, dear child. Mother Earth, let this girl go back to you."

She started murmuring words, I didn't understand, and soon light shone through the forest, then disappeared forever.

"She helped her soul to the other side. Wouldn't want a vengeful spirit around. Though she didn't know anything. She just felt dizzy. Then her insides exploded. That's all," Sunny whispered to me.

"How'd you know that?"

"I felt her presence, and I asked her."

"Oh. Okay."

Darcy then told us, to leave, and let the professionals take over the investigation from here on, so we returned to the cabin. I got the uneasy feeling of being watched, but when I looked around, it was nothing, but one single crow on a branch. I shivered as I looked into its dotted black eyes, and then I turned away. I couldn't take its all-knowing stare. The others were already there, waiting for some news, but we did not have any. Needless to say, none of us could shut one eye that night. We stayed up, sitting or lying awake in the dark, thinking about what happened after dusk. The awful events officially killed the mood - Andrew's words, not mine.