Small Town Curiosity

The hanging tree

The group ended up going home around 10 at night. Yeah it was a late night and now it's gonna be a long day at school too. It's the first period and I have just been sleeping or on my phone not in the mood to do school work and I'm supposed to be writing for my interview but I haven't been able to find anything that sparks my interest. I looked around to see what we're doing but I noticed Justin is gone again, hmm that's weird he never skips school. Oh well I'll talk to the group later to see what's going on.

During lunch period, I and the group are talking about Justin and how he's gone. We're gonna go check up on him later after school. The lunch bell was gonna ring but that wasn't before everyone's phones started going off about an early news report. We all turned on the news report and the unexpected happened. "For the daily news of Burkeville it's a little early today when the policeman of our town has found another dead body. Yes it is shocking that our small town has this much action in just a week. The police haven't given out the body or information of what happened except that it's a young girl who was found in the woods." "OH MY GOD" everyone in the lunchroom was freaking out and saying that this wasn't a coincidence.

I started texting my mom freaking out asking what was going on. She said she had no idea because this has never happened in our little town before. Everyone kept rechecking their phones to see if there was any update even though we all knew it would be days before there's a new update. They ended up canceling school for the rest of the day because of the shock and fear everyone was going through. I knew this couldnt be a suicide it was impossible. We are a happy town. Even if there wasnt a suicide who could be doing this?

It's been 4 days since they have told us there was another body, they haven't said who it was or why it happened which scares us more. I called my mom into the living room because the daily news was on and we were hoping there was finally something about the body. "On today's news in Burkeville, Arizona the weather is gonna start being cold so everyone gets out those winter clothes." "ughh, why won't they just say something already they know who the body is." I asked my mom in annoyance. "They're probably doing an investigation of what happened." My mom said that but it doesn't feel like they're actually trying, I haven't seen any police in the woods. Maybe they're just lazy because it's the second thing that's ever happened.

*Next Day*

I'm going back to school today since they haven't said anything about the body. The group is talking about what's going on and all the rumors spreading around. Justin was finally here so I wanted to ask him about what was going on with him. "Hey, Justin, it's been a while, how's everything going?" "It's fine, I've just been sick." But for some reason, it feels like he's lying. I have known him since we were little kids and he never misses school. He made a promise to his mom before she passed away 2 years ago that he would put all his focus into school. So he hasn't missed a day since not even when he was sick so either he was badly sick or he's lying. I wasn't going to push it any further because I know he has a reason he's just not comfortable with sharing.
Finally, I'm home. Me and mom are waiting for the news to come on to see if there's finally an update. "On today's news of Burkeville, Arizona the body of 18-year-old Jessica Yarrow was found deceased in the woods, the police have also ruled out her death after investigating closely that it was a suicide." "There's no way, that's not even possible mom." "Sweetie it's possible the kids could have gone through more things than we knew of but I do gotta say it is strange for this to be happening." I went up to my room to think about it. There have been two deaths in the last week that are teenagers and ruled out as suicide. That doesn't seem possible. Jessica and Brian were not like that. They were more bullies than depressed sad kids.

I stayed up that night reading the articles of the suicides to see how it was done, they said Brian was shot and Jessica had neck marks from a rope. I kept digging and it said the shot was in the back of his head and the rope was nowhere to be found. That's not right. How could Brian do that from the back and there would be a rope from Jessica unless someone else did it? My mind was running and I couldn't concentrate on what was going on. These were no accidents, it's not possible. Once my head started calming down I had the motivation to write for the town newspaper, I was gonna figure out what happened to Brian and Jessica and who did it if it's true. I wrote down everything I thought and knew so I could keep track of the crimes.