Chapter 11

3K 57 7
                                    

It was well after midnight and Lainey still hadn't called. Fawn was so worried about her she couldn't sleep. She felt as if she'd been watching her phone for over an hour, waiting for a call. Or a text. Anything. Why did Lainey have to be so naive? Nothing about Rita's ridiculously creepy story made any sense.

Nothing!

Fawn decided to try calling Lainey a third time. This time she managed to reach her voicemail.

"Lainey, please call me as soon as you get this message," Fawn said after the beep. "I'm worried about you. And so is your mom! She came by twice looking for you." Fawn sighed. "Please be okay. Bye." She ended the call and stared at her phone for a full ten minutes before deciding that she wouldn't hear from her best friend that night.

She exited her room and made her way down the hall to her parents' room, slowly peaking inside. Mama and Papa was sound asleep, Papa snoring loud as ever. She watched him for a few minutes. She missed him. Whatever was keeping him working so late the past few weeks was also keeping him away from her. She crept inside and made her way over to his side of the bed and kissed his cheek before queitly making her way back out. She made her way into the kitchen to make some coffee. Since it was the weekend, she'd decided to pull an all-nighter doing more research on the Grisly Murders. One online chat room that she'd been visiting the past few nights catered to the idea that the deaths were caused by creatures of mythology and folklore. Many users had their own beliefs. Some believed demons were behind the deaths. Some thought the murders were caused by vampires or werewolves. Others believed it was angels sent by God to punish the wicked. Fawn didn't believe any of that nonsense, but couldn't help but feel intrigued by the idea.

Fawn had always been interested in mythology and folklore. When she was younger, Mama would tell her stories of witches. But the witches in her stories were different from the evil witches Fawn read about in fairy tales. The witches she had spoken of were righteous. They were guardians of nature and humanity.

And they were beautiful.

Fawn wanted nothing more at the time than to meet a real witch. She'd beg her mom to show her one. Mama would smile at Fawn and tell her that the witches were busy protecting the world and everything in it. Every person. Every plant. Every animal. Fawn would stay awake all night and think about the witches. She was obsessed with the idea of good and beautiful witches. So much so that she cried herself to sleep out of frustration for not being able to see one for herself.

Fawn sat her steaming coffee mug on her desk when she returned to her room and started up her desktop, causing pale blue light to illuminate her dark bedroom. She tapped her desk as she waited for her computer to boot.

"Come on, you old thing!" she said impatiently.

When her computer finally booted up, she opened her Web browser and typed "Grisly Murder victims" in the search engine bar. Several graphic images showed on her screen. Mutilated bodies. Bloody corpses. All photos of people killed in the Grisly Murders from around the world.

"Holy hell," Fawn gasped.

Every bloody photo was a slap of reality. It was all too real. Every one of those mutilated corpses were people. Now they were hardly recognizable. One photo made Fawn tear up. The victim was an older woman. Maybe in her mid to late thirties. Blood was leaking from the huge wounds on her neck and arms. She was being held up by a distraught-faced man in tears. As heartbreaking as that scene was alone, the woman was pregnant.

Fawn quickly closed the tab and leaned back in her seat with her hands over eyes. She'd never seen anything more traumatizing in her life. She almost understood why some people were looking toward mythology; what human being would commit such heinous and unforgivable crimes?

Rot & Romance (Rewriting)Where stories live. Discover now