ꜰʟɪɢʜᴛʏ

✂︎THE FIRST CASE✂︎

TWO GIRLS CHARGED TOWARDS a wooded area, laughing and yelling as their parents watched from a distance, smiles on their faces.

The oldest girl with brown hair in a neat braid with a bow holding some of her hair against her head paused at the first few trees and looked behind her to look at her mother and father. The couple waved at their daughter, but the youngest girl darted right past the oldest, her messy dirty blonde hair flowing out behind her. "Izzy!" The oldest cried, ignoring her parents' voices and chasing after her little sister.

Izzy giggled and ran deeper into the woods, finally pausing and stumbling onto a fallen tree's mossy trunk. "Kaylee!" She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled her sister's name.

She perked up at the sound of a twig snapping and some heavy breathing coming from behind her.

Quickly, Izzy turned around and gave a cry of fear as she tripped and fell backward, landing on the messy ground, her hands digging into mud and slightly scratching on small rocks embedded in the brown substance. "Kaylee!" She cried angrily. "That was mean!"

Kaylee was peering over the fallen tree, her hazel eyes wide. "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

Tears threatened Izzy's eyes and she gave an angry huff. Kaylee lightly bit her lip and crawled over the log and crouched next to her sister. "Let me see your hands," the brunette ordered.

Izzy hesitantly pulled her hands out of the mud and held them out to Kaylee. The 9-year-old lifted her shirt up a bit and wiped some of the mud off them and inspected them. "They're only scraped, not bleeding," she stated confidently. "You'll be fine. Now get up or I'm going to tell mom you said the f-word."

"That's not true!" the 7-year-old yelled, pushing herself to her feet to tower over her sister just a little bit.

Kaylee stood up and grinned "Then get mo-"

Both girls snapped their heads towards the snapping of a twig. Izzy looked at her sister. "Let's go check it out!" The dirty blonde said happily, leaping over roots and rocks to a group of shrubby bushes.

Kaylee followed her little sister, never taking her eyes off Izzy and the bushes. "Be careful, Izzy," she warned, drawing closer.

A bloodcurdling scream left Izzy as she quickly stumbled back and tripped, continuing to scooch back until she bumped into Kaylee's legs.

A man with a wild gray beard and barely any hair on his head was using his hands to pull himself out from the shrubbery, his blue iris bright and his sclera lined with red. "Come on, you idiot!" Kaylee barked in a quick voice.

The man continued to drag himself towards Izzy, who was frozen with fear, her eyes wider than a deer's who had been caught in headlights. "Izzy!" Kaylee cried, trying to pull her sister back, but her feet slipped on moss and leaves and she fell to the ground a few feet from Izzy.

A strong hand wrapped around Izzy's ankle and she choked out a scream. Kaylee crawled to her sister and pulled her back as hard as she could. The nails of the groaning man dug into Izzy's ankle and ripped down when Kaylee pulled her back. Tears streamed from Izzy's eyes as blood quickly seeped from the scratches. "Izzy, get up!" Kaylee urged.

Izzy weakly got to her feet, pain searing through her leg as a branch rubbed against the fresh scratches. Kaylee lightly pushed her sister forward, looking back at the man dragging himself towards them, seeing why he wasn't walking. two bloody stumps with white things poking out were in place of where his legs would be. Horror and disgust made Kaylee feel like barfing, but she choked it done and continued helping and guiding her limping sister through the woods. "Come on," Kaylee urged, holding her sister's hand as the younger dirty blonde girl sobbed from the pain in her leg.