The Butcher of Whitewood

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Oli

"Good morning Mrs. Murphy, can we go see Chris?" Oli, Jasper, and Hannah stood at the door of Chris's house. Gabby hesitated, and then replied, "Yeah, it might be good for him to see his friends." They went upstairs and knocked on his door. They heard a soft "Yeah" from inside. Oli opened the door. "Hey man..." said Jasper. Chris rolled out of bed and sat up, saying "Hey guys." "How are you feeling?" asked Hannah. Chris has a sliver of a smirk and replies "Better days." "Chris if there's anything we can do, you let us know man. We're here for you," said Oli. Chris looked up and stayed silent for a second. "There is one thing," he said "When we were in the woods, Ryan and I found a hut. We were looking for Sarah and..." his sentence slowly gets quieter. He looks up saying, "There was something in there, I think. But I didn't have time to look around. I don't ever want to go back to those woods again...Would you guys check it out?" Oli nods. "Of course Chris," Hannah said. They started to walk out of his room; Jasper turned to Chris and said, "We're going to find the bastard, Chris." Chris quietly nodded, as his friends closed the door behind them.

"I still think it's bullshit we have to go to school with this psycho running around," said Jasper, pushing a branch out of his face. Oli looked around, replying "Yeah I agree, but guys. I see something up there, a few hundred meters back." Hannah started to walk over, the guys followed. "Hey man, have you talked to Rosie?" Oli asked. Jasper glared at him with a stone cold face, "Fuck her." Oli wasn't the smartest guy but he knew when to drop something. He waited for a second, before saying "Hey, have you seen the new girl Ashley? Maybe she's your type." Jasper laughed, as Hannah gave them a quick dirty look. The hut was actually bigger than they expected. It was the size of a medium room but built with a combination of stick, leaves, brick and tarp. The walls were a mix of branches and brick, while the roof was branched with a tarp and a ton of leaves on top.

It was spooky, this stick and stone hut in the woods sent a chill down Oli's spine. He pushed the makeshift tarp door out of the way, preparing for a fight if he had to. The hut was empty, but the group noticed pictures on the tables. As they got closer, Oli picked one of them up. It was a Polaroid picture of a group of people. Oli flipped the picture around, reading the back. "Mark Forrester, Gabby Mathews, Carter Cane, Duncan White, Kim Lopez, Amanda Flint, Fred Philips, Sam Westford, Madison Ripley" He glanced back and forth between the picture and the names, matching them up. Jasper and Hanna looked at the picture taking turns.

Oli looked backed at the table seeing a bunch of clippings of the 2001 murders, and there were a few written by Gabby. Oli feels his phone vibrates, as he receives a text. "You shouldn't have come here" he reads. "Guys we have to leave," he said, turning around to face Hannah and Jasper. "You're right," Hannah said. They grabbed the picture of the 2001 victims and left, rushing back to the car.

Chris

It had been two days since Sarah had died, and Chris was ready to try and go to school. Oli told him they had found a picture at the hut of his father and some of the other victims, with Gabby, Duncan, and Carter. Gabby drove him to school in silence that day, understanding he wasn't ready to talk about it. "Have a good day Chris," he heard his mother say as he got out of the car.

The bell for lunch had gone off about thirty minutes ago. Chris's day had gone alright so far. He had run into Oli earlier and had gotten the picture from him. He was walking down the hall when he saw some pictures on the display board in front of the office. He got closer and saw that it was pictures of Ricky, Kal, Wendy and Sarah. There was a picture of Chris and Sarah together when they had went to the Halloween dance dressed as Salt and Pepper. Chris smiled to himself, he hated that costume but he loved her excitement. Hell, he loved her. Before he knew it he was starting to tear up, and stormed off down the hall. As he turned the corner, he crashed into Mike, sending both of their books flying. "I'm sorry," Chris said crouching down to grab his chemistry books. Mike leaned down, saying "Don't worry about it, man. I hope you're doing alright, I can't imagine how hard this is for you." Chris looked at him and for a second he didn't see the son of a killer, he just saw a regular kid. "I'm not just sorry about the books, I'm sorry I've been such a dick to you. I should never have hated you because of your dad. That's not your fault. You want to grab a bite down the street?" Chris asked. Mike smiled. "Sure."