The Unexpected
Peaceful. The sun smiled lovingly over the hillside onto our village. I had spontaneously planned to do the mountain-like laundry pile, but as Jinx scuttled at my feet to prey on his next victim - the food bowl, I couldn't help looking lazily out of the window. Outside, was a mysterious, large crow nestling itself on my gate. Strange, I had never actually seen a crow before, yet I knew that this beast was by its gigantic charcoal beady black eyes and feathers which had a sense of protectiveness radiating off of it. The only protectiveness which this bird radiated to me however, was the kind which beheld secrets of others and made them unbeknownst to others. I had heard of the superstitious tales of crows, that they were a sign of death and bad luck, but I had never believed this. It was just an animal and in my opinion, superstitions didn't come with it. I breathed a heavy sign as he crow cawed continuously whilst perching on my eerily squeaky gate. Ryan would have to fix that, too.
Ryan Herring the local postman/salesman/fixer-of-all-things was the only person that I looked forward to in this isolated village, population of 121 persons. This village was filled with cottages alike to my own, yet this village only had one shop which would give you sufficient food and groceries. Small, delicate and pretentiously secluded. The only reason I had said I would rent this cottage out with my only ever room mate Jinx, is because my father had practically forced me to. At 29, I was renting a somewhat cold and frightening flat in Somerset where teenagers were either frolicking with each other or getting stoned on the 'most popular' drug of that moment. My father had decided to intervene. He had asked a fried of his to let me rent the cottage in Oxford ad here I am today. Plus, with the stereotypical receptionist job in London, things couldn't be better.
Then, the door bell rang frantically and the cawing had stopped, thankfully. Dodging Jinx who was forever eating, I made my way to the door without looking or even glancing out of the square windows to see who was waiting for my presence. The only thing that worried my father was the sort of village I was living in. He said that suspicious things could 'easily occur in that village'. But, I am sure that if he thought that it was much of a risk, would he have let me live here? I reluctantly opened the door to come face to face with Ryan.
"Oh, speak, or think may I add, of the devil. I was just thinking of you." The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them.
"You were thinking of me, Miss Jane Doe?" Ryan cheekily grinned. He was 34 and looked slightly like Johnny Depp in his younger days.
"Oh, of course not." Just as I said this, Jinx hissed ferociously at his feet.
"Jinx,stop that right now!" Frustrated, I gently tapped him out of the way.
"Did you need anything, Miss Doe?"
"Yes, actually. Could you fix my gate, please? It doesn't help that that crow has been swinging back and forth on it all day."
"What crow? There isn't a crow on the gate now."
"Oh, it must have flew away before you came in the gate." Quickly, I looked out of the window and there, the gate was breezing to and fro in the wind. "Would you like some coffee?"
"Love some."
Just as I turned my back to boil the kitchen, I heard Ryan come up behind me. "You can just stay in the living room, I can manage."
"I am sure you can." I felt a gust of wind. Tremors went through the back of my brain. An object was hit powerfully on the back of my head, by Ryan whom I thought was my only friend other than Jinx. I buckled forward and crashed to the hardwood floor. Standing over me was Ryan holding a silver trophy that I had won in Year 9. A trickle of blood was making its way down the side. "You should have never come to this village, Miss Doe. You see, when you first came to this village, no one wanted you here, not even me who you thought absolutely adored you. No, I didn't adore you, I disliked you with a passion." He spat the words out with venom. With one final blow to the head, he turned ad left me to die in a warm puddle of blood which eventually would turn cold.
2 days later...
Officer Caldwell and DCI Trafford were busy arresting a perpetrator of a local robbery. In this small village of Oxford, neither thought that occurrence of crimes were regular and were only rare. If only all villages were like this, thought Trafford.
"Hey, look over there. At that cat."
"Are you seeing things again?" Trafford teased Caldwell. Caldwell had suffered from a fall a year ago and when rehabilitating, he had claimed he saw things when they clearly weren't there. He didn't see things now, but was certain that he could see a cat.
"No, look." The black cat was in front of a cottage gate, almost beckoning him closer. "Maybe we should take a look."
"Sure, whatever settles your mind." The two police officers trailed down the pathway down to the cottage. Caldwell open the door to find the unexpected. There, lying in a pool of her own blood, was the lifeless body of Jane Doe.
