7 Days of Darkness

Chapter 2 - The Game is Afoot

Night 1

I rushed outside with my small handgun that I had recently bought at a pawn shop a few miles away from Mournstead. I recognized the sound that I had heard not 3 minutes ago; gunshots. I ran as fast as I could to the scene where I heard the shot, it was right behind Travis's house.

Travis had a house almost identical to everyone else's, only it had a large sheriff's sign plastered on the front of the building and a small deck that led out onto the street. Behind the house there was nothing but desert, as with the other houses in the small village. Travis's yard however, had a few decorations in it. He must've lived here for some time before everyone else arrived. Placed against the back wall were rain barrels, which was odd seeing as the deserts of Texas never get much rain. There was a small garden near the back fence and a little fountain spewing from the centre of it. In the back fence there was a small gate that would just barely allow me to pass through, and it was opened.

"Odd," I thought "Travis doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd leave his back gate unlocked." As I entered the narrow passage, I noticed that the lock on the inside of the gate was busted, almost completely unattached to the gate. I looked around for any sign of human activity, and finally, after several minutes of searching through Travis's yard I found something horrifying.

Lying among the saguaros in The back garden, was Travis's dead corpse. He was shot in the chest, and had blood all over his western style clothing. His body lay hunched behind a huge cactus, his eyes staring fully opened into the dark moonlit night. Someone had murdered him in cold blood, and dragged him behind the cacti.

The sight almost made me tear up. Travis had done nothing wrong, and yet here he was, his cold dead body leaned up against the giant 10 foot saguaro in his own backyard. When I helped the police, I didn't kill for revenge or for fun, I killed for justice. Sometimes, jail isn't enough for people, sometimes they need to be punished more severely.

I've only ever killed one person in my life. That person was a man who had lived his whole life a thief, and a murderer, and I couldn't let him kill any more people. So, I snuck into the rafters of a warehouse where I had planned for him to be, and when he was least expecting it, I pulled the trigger and fired a bullet right into the back of his neck. The police never found out why he was murdered, and they never will.

Day 2

"Travis!!" Austin rushed from his house to the town square where Chi and I had moved the body. When I was leaving Travis's backyard, Chi was walking towards me in the darkness. He said that he had heard the gunshot and came over to see if he could help. We carried him over to the centre of the town square and rested his head on a rock.

"No!" Austin was now leaning over Travis's body with a hand on his gut where the bullet had penetrated his skin. "Who did this!?!?" Austin screamed at the other people who were standing in a circle around the body. I put my hand on Austin's shoulder to comfort him, but he was still filled with rage.

"It appears we have a secret mafia in this town." Peter said looking around at the others.

Harry started back towards his house but was stopped by Victor. "Where are you going?" He asked, his hand placed against Harry's chest so he couldn't walk any further.

"To get my bags. I'm not gonna be a victim to murder here." He pushed Victor's hand out of the way.

"No. We can't let anyone leave." Victor looked at him dead in the eye.

"He's right." I said, standing up. "We still have a murderer to catch." Harry sighed and nervously turned around to face everyone else. "No one leaves this town, until we find whoever is responsible for this murder. If that means staying for another month, so be it. We can't let this person escape." Austin stood up, his hand covered in blood from the wound, tears in his eyes. He was furious.

"Whoever killed Travis, my best friend since 3rd grade, will be punished severely. Remember, I have a jail and the power to execute." That made some people step back a little, John stepped forward and picked up Travis's body. Austin tried to stop him but John was so much larger than him and easily ignored him. "Where are you taking him?!" Austin shouted at John.

"We can't just leave him here." Tanner convinced Austin who then stopped trying to free his friend. "John and I will give him a proper burial in the back desert. He headed off in the direction that John was already walking in.

The sky grew dark as everyone started heading back to their own houses except for Chloe who moved closer to Austin and I who were still standing in the town square. Chloe turned to Austin who was still sobbing and gave him a tight hug. Austin quit crying for a second and noticed Cheryl who was walking into her front door. His eyes grew wide as he saw a thick, red stain on the end of Cheryl's bleach white coat. He pushed Chloe away and lifted his hand to point at Cheryl "You!!"