The Wandering.

Chapter 1

The roses are red
Violet is dead

1

I could tell you indefinitely that the haunting that stained Sachem Bay - and a terror none like it - was eternal. The trepidation of the shadows that slithered between the trunks of Secular Woods kept the mothers wide eyed at night, kept the shot guns defiantly loaded and surely kept the children fearful enough that many would sleep between their parents on some nights. Secular Woods, on the outskirts of the sleepy town of Sachem Bay, was one of the biggest in the state of Virginia - and the most feared.

The ghost stories, along with the horror began - or so it seemed - in the year of 1993. Whilst there's big debate on whether it truly began on this year or if it simply came back - I couldn't tell you. All I know is the terror started with Violet. And I promised to tell the events as perfectly as I could from there.

Violet Heckle was around five, going on six when she squeezed her tiny feet into the winter boots her grandmother had bought her.

"They ought to make a walk as comfy as comfy can be." Pamela Heckle muttered, adjusting the buckle on the left boot.

Violet looked pleased; the winter was approaching fast now and held no thought of slowing. "Thanks, Grandma."

"Should you step in any puddle too big, any dirt or any unpleasant whatnot, you come straight to me. I'll sort 'em out. But a good hiding may be in order, they cost a lot of dollar, girl." Pamela said with a sure nod. "Now let's get your little legs to school!"

Things would've gone just fine for them both, if Pamela Heckle hadn't of threatened Violet with a good hiding in such case she dirties up her boots. In contrast, nobody really knows if it could have gone different. Because it didn't.

And it was in the playground at Sachem Bay Elementary in which that happened.

"Violet fancies Carter Mason!" Eddie Lizard teased at recess, giving Violet a little shove.

"Do not." Violet retorted defiantly as Carter Mason blushed a furious scarlet.

Ryan Rivers laughed, giving Violet Heckle a much harder shove of his own. "Do too."

Violet stumbled on a bump in the grass, her boot sliding into the wet mud the previous rainy day had left behind.

Violet's mouth shaped an 'o', glaring at the muddied-up shoe, as Eddie Lizard and Ryan Rivers waltzed away singing heartily "Violet and Carter sitting in a tree..."

Carter, who still resembled a tomato, turned his back and sprinted away.

I could tell you right now, that Violet arrived home that day to receive a good hiding from her grandmother and that was that. But I'd be lying. The truth is, when Violet skipped out of her Grandma's truck and into the gates of Sachem Bay Elementary with a hearty "goodbye, Grandma!", it would the last time Pamela Heckle ever saw her granddaughter again.

Hours later, Pamela Heckle would he sat in her chair, her absent eyes staring hopelessly at the school bag Chief Rich Wheeler had found by the boundary of Secular Woods.

"Is there anything we can do to help, Mrs Heckle?" Samuel Tenner, Rich's assistant would say and Pamela would slowly shake her head. Not a blink her eyes would offer. And no tear would fall. Pamela was as missing as her granddaughter, and it seemed she was as presumed dead as poor Violet was too.