The Creature of the Woods (BxB)

Chapter 8: The investigation

I put on my most comfortable, but safest clothes. I avoided wearing something 'police manly' because today, I don't want anyone to notice me. I went out and headed to the flower shop on the neighborhood. The flowershop is a simple tent beside a house, owned by a nice young lady who goes by the name of Alice. I went to say hello and bought another red rose to, I don't know, look at it for a while?

"I must say, you are investing for someone." Alice smiled.

It reminded me of something. I could ask Alice about it. "Alice, do you remember when I bought my first flower?"

"Well, it was four days ago. Why?"

"Did I tell you something else? About where am I going or to whom am I giving it?" I asked again.

"Well, no. You only mentioned about... oh yeah, you asked me if a guy could appreciate a rose. I said yes, of course, if it's for love, but if it's for friendship, Carnation or Dandelion is the best."

"But I took the rose anyway? And for a guy?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Yep. I never knew you were gay, good thing it's to Geddie whom I have crush on. But you were blushing so hard. I think it's cute." She giggles. "Wait? Why are you asking me as if you don't remember?"

"No. I perfectly remember, I just dropped something here that day, so I'm getting back on my tracks. I guess that's all?" I begin to move along, but then Alice called for me.

"Wait, is this the thing you dropped?" Alice held me a small bag of... Ginger Powder? I would have said it's not mine, but I remembered Geddie carrying one of these, and also the tons of stocks we have in the basement.

"Yeah. Where did you get it?" I took the bag then put it in my pocket. I could verify it later on.

"Just on the way. A rabbit was fumbling on it, I was about to pet the rabbit, then it ran away and left this thing. I thought it could be yours because I saw you carrying one."

"Wow." Just wow. Alice is such a miracle worker, like the universe is helping me solve this case quickly than it should be. It feels like I'm only some steps away from the answer. "Did I tell you why I was carrying such thing?"

"Nope."

"But what's with ginger powder, though?" I asked myself.

"Don't you know?" Alice cocked her head to the side. "It's a natural repellant against Tree Demons. It's just a folklore because people in this area loved ginger flavored soup. That's all I know."

Hansel sense is tingling.

It's been tingling a lot, lately, but with no reason whatsoever.

"What are Tree Demons?" I asked.

"Hun, seriously, you've been acting so weird, asking me questions you should have known."

"But I don't know about Tree Demons. I'm not a local. I'm from Manila." I asked innocently.

"It sound stupid." She retorted.

"Stupid is fun." I giggled.

"Fine." She sighed. "Well, don't laugh at me, it's not my story. It's from my gramma's."

"Okay." I went further inside her shop and took at chair, looking intently on hearing till the end. Alice sat on her counter, facing me.

"Not too long ago, 15 years ago, to be exact, a lot of tall and demonic looking humans were making appearances. They were sighted to get out of this specific Balete tree in the middle of the forest, and people thought they were up to no good. A brave unit of Police officers said they were Demons, and if they're not, they are not citizens of this country and are probably undocumented. The Priests from a local Seminary said they are not Demons, and cannot be exorcized. They also don't want to take action. But a certain head of the police thought it was a good idea to destroy the tree. Since then, the Tree Demons were wildly attacking people. The Demons killed the head police by twisting his body into half."