The Woman In Black

The mystery

I sat traumatized, and expressionless on my creaky bed inside the inn, and thought over the events of that afternoon.

Images of the little girls, dead and spattered in their own blood, kept popping up unexpectedly in my head, and every time I remembered, it felt like the first time.

I gasped in terror and shock as I again recalled the tallest girl, blood encrusted on her corpse and some of her body parts, lying disturbingly on the grass beneath her gnarled feet.

I couldn't bear to just sit here and think about it, as it seemed the images got more wild and twisted, the more I thought about it.

I got up and paced. To keep me busy and distracted really, but also being the sort of woman who would mope for a while before digging her fingernails into the dirt of the subject, and attempt to get the full detail.

That's two now, the mystery of the girls, and of course of Arthur...

I suddenly had a partially irrelevant thought.

Maybe the two were connected! I suppose it sort of made sense, I mean two mysterious deaths in one tiny village? The chances of that happening were incredibly slim. I decided, that even though the village was probably still in shock, but I wasn't going to wait to them to get back to their senses. I thought myself as a woman of business, whatever the event, and the next morning, I would head out, to try and get some information, from someone, well perhaps more useful.

*

I walked around the town slowly.

There was an eerie atmosphere, and a cold breeze tickling the back of my exposed neck, but I carried on slowly walking. The village was empty and I realised I didn't have the faintest idea where to go, so I randomly turned to the first thing I saw.

It was a small, grubby pub, called 'The Rose and Sword'.

Before entering, I looked back up the empty, isolated street. All the windows were firmly boarded up in the cottages, and there was not a soul to be seen anywhere.

The incident that happened yesterday, took place, in the forest, probably a mile from here, so what was everyone so worried about?

I pushed the maroon door in front of me to reveal a dusty little bar, surrounded with crooked tables. No-one was in the bar, except a small woman, standing at the bar, with light blonde hair, and a stripy, blue apron.

She was drinking what looked like beer, when she suddenly saw me shuffle in, and choked, splattering brown goo onto the floor boards.

' I'm sorry, we're closed.' She said coughing lightly between each word.

'Closed!' I snorted in a disbelieving tone, 'Why?'

'Erm....we ran out of beer, please come next week, when our stock is once again full.'

I chucked and gestured at the half empty mug she was clutching.

She scowled.

' Why are you here?' She snarled, with such venom in her voice, I nearly put my hands up in the air as a sign of mercy.

'Nothing! I just wanted to know if YOU, knew anything about the incident that happened yesterday. You know, about the girls?'

Anger washed away from her face in a heartbeat, and the beetroot colour of her face, suddenly turned a pinched white.

'Are you from London?' She whispered, fright in her voice.

'Why yes I am, is that significant for any reason? I started to worry, as the woman's face had become even more pale than before, if that was physically possible.

'I am afraid to say, you have brought her back. She must've smelt new meat, and now she's upon us. We are doomed.'

She was dotty. She had done her nut. I didn't even know this woman, maybe she had seizures often, and was in the process of one now. Or perhaps bipolar. I had never met anyone to change an emotion so quickly and one time.

'Um, would you like to sit down, I think you may be unwell, um is there anyone else here, I can...'

She shook her head sadly, almost in a sorry sort of way.

'Alas, if only,' She said in a small voice.

I smiled comfortingly at her.

'Its all going to be fine, but breathe deep, and we'll get through this together, and maybe I can make some tea? Have you got a kettle anywhere?'

She stared up at me, with a trace of madness in her eye.

'You saw her didn't you?'