Rukopis+

One day a boy and a girl went for a walk in the forest… and they came back

This was not their first time, they lived together in the neighborhood, and they were separated from the forest by several houses and one road. After crossing the road, the path into the forest began, and its beginning resembled a very dense park. But then the trail slowly ends; mushroom pickers, hippies and just people who enjoy breathing fresh air usually go there. A boy named Edward managed to leave ribbons on trees and carry a flashlight on his belt, and the girl, Rose, took with her a bag with the most necessary tools.

After breakfast, Edward waited for Rose at her house. Parents have been notified and they are free until dinner. Together they headed towards the road, waited until the cars stopped driving, they carefully ran across the road and entered the forest…

They collected stones and made circles on the ground from them. They collected cones, put them in a bag and hung them on trees. It was as if they wanted to make a ritual, they liked this atmosphere, and wanted to believe that fairies and gnomes would dance in this very place. And they imagined themselves as animals and made sounds: birds, wolves, cats and owls. They danced around in a small clearing, spinning as if it would take them into a fairy tale written by them. All the trees, every branch, were spinning together. And everything would be fine, but in the whirlpool of the green vortex, for some reason a red spot appeared. At first they did not notice him, but when they stopped spinning, their eyes focused on an incomprehensible red-black spot. Somewhere in the distance a girl stood with her back to them, but there was something strange about her behavior. It’s abnormal to just stand like that, straight, without even staggering. When Rose came a little closer, Edward stopped her and pointed his finger at the log below. It turned out it was not a log. There, at the girl’s feet, the body was lying. It was small, and the wrinkled clothes made the child’s body look thin. The wind blew the hair from the corpse, how did they realize that it was already a corpse? The eyes were open and, apparently, were surprisingly dry from the blowing wind, and the blood from the stomach to the thighs seemed staged. Rose almost vomited. At some point, the girl slowly turned back. It is impossible for children to describe her face. So flat and simple? Too simple, as if she were sleeping with her eyes open. The children did not immediately notice, but when they lowered their eyes from their face to their hands, they saw a small hunting knife, covered in dried blood. Lord, how long had she been standing there, since the blood on the knife had already dried. Or, another question, how long had her victim suffered before finally leaning back into death?

It lasted forever, this moment before the inevitable. There was no time to even think, just run, run though it seemed to them very slow. Edward grabbed Rose’s hand and ran back to the road. The branches under their feet were treacherously tangled and now interfered with them. Run. It seemed as if his body was being pulled back on its own. Run. they didn’t even know if she was running behind them; there was no time to look back. Suddenly if you turn around and her face is right behind your shoulder. This thought only increased the adrenaline. It’s good that the sun was still shining like an orange sunset; they wouldn’t have been able to escape in complete darkness. They ran out onto a path, meaning the road was somewhere nearby, but Rose began to slow down. “I can’t do it anymore!”. Edward turned to her and assessed her condition. It wasn’t long until the road and he tried to cheer her up, but first he made the mistake of looking back. The hot sweat turned into a cold shower, and his clothes stuck uncomfortably to body.

He was afraid that a moment of weakness would kill them both, but he was not going to leave his friend. He picked up the stone and lifted it into the air. What a surprise it was, and then they were surprised that there was no one behind them. It wasn’t even far away, it wasn’t anywhere. It seemed like it’s not there, so had the danger gone? NO. They lost sight of her. They did not know from which direction she could run towards them. Or not even run, but just walk calmly. He glanced around quickly. She’s gone? Simply, no. There was no sense of security either. There was no peace. But you can’t stop. Edward took Rose by the shoulders from behind and began to push her forward, thus accelerating her.

They returned to the road. There was not a single car, they crossed the road without any problems. They didn’t know who to go first or who to call. The nearest house was Rose’s house. They looked back a couple more times before they went home…

Local news. 8:37 am.

“…More on to the news. The identity of the underage killer has been revealed. Alisa Vondervoord, 17 year old student at ******* school. On Friday morning she went for her daily walk with her sister Madeline in the woods , except that this morning she took her father’s hunting knife with her. At 9 am they left the house, where at 12 noon two children found Alice right at the crime scene.

According to investigators working on the case, the little girl died from 19 stab wounds and a broken neck. Alice is currently being observed in a hospital for mentally ill patients; doctors have diagnosed her with schizophrenia and PDH (mental disorder of hallucinations). The court decided to try Alice as of full age, and the trial process is expected to take no more than a month. Also, an investigation in the house showed that Alice was in a state of hallucination for quite a long time. Parents knew about the disease, but did not take it seriously and did not buy her medication on time; as a result, the symptoms intensified. Parents will also be held criminally responsible. The area in which the victim lived has already organized a memorial march in memory of the girl. They gather near the house…”