Playground of Bones

Chapter 6

Eliza lay there, unmoving. Blood dripped out of her open mouth and trickled down her pale neck.

Her baby blue eyes were unfocused and clouded, moments before death. The dagger lying in the pool of blood stared at Erica, mocking her inability to help her best friend. She stood there, unable to do a thing to save her. Every moment that passed, more crimson liquid gushed out, slowly draining the life from the young girl. Her breathing became hitched and uneven, gasping for air.

The other children were all too far away to help, busy with their own things.

Seth and the twins were down at the meadow, collecting twigs for their fort and Elena was studying underneath an faraway birch. Everyone was doing what they usually did, just another day in the endless routine of this paradise. None of them knew what was going on.

Wrapping her fingers around the dagger, Erica seeked her revenge, not noticing the intestine still connected to it. It was squishy and smeared with the blood that covered the rest of her body. The place where the tip of the dagger punctured squirted out a red liquid, tinting the already stained grass with a darker hue. Horrified, Erica dropped the weapon as if she were touching hot coals.

She grabbed her dying friend's hand and squeezed it, it may have just been her imagination, but Eliza squeezed back.

"It's going to be okay..." Erica whispered, not sure who she was reassuring.

Suddenly, Eliza's eyes locked on her's. She gasped, trying to say something that Erica couldn't quite make out.

It was clear that talking was impossible for the girl. The blood was coming out even faster now and half an intestine spilled from the deep wound. At this pace, she would be dead in under a minute.

Slowly, Eliza dipped a shaky finger in the pool of blood. Her breathing was even fainter now and Erica could almost see her soul separating from her body. Tracing her finger on a clean patch of grass, she wrote. As she finished the last letter, her breathing stopped. For a moment, everything was silent.

Then, a shout came from behind her.

All the children had seen the blood now and were all running frantically towards the slide.

The first one to reach her was Felix, followed by his sister, Sofie.

The two of them had been playing soccer nearby and had noticed the pool of red.

They stared at the corpse, surprised but not coming close to shocked. Sofie clenched her fist around the sheet of paper she was holding.

On the front it said: Go see Eliza

On the back: she knew too much.

All eyes fell upon the thing written on the grass, in a deep crimson colour.

It was one single word, already drying in the harsh sunlight.

Spiders.