Tales of Aridia

Murderers

As a month past more killings began to happen. Murders plotted about randomly. Everyday somebody new had been found dead. The victims were untraceable, Each person had no background and no records could be linked to them. It was as if every one of them never existed.

One day I decided to track them. I lugged my body down to my basement where I pulled out a musty old table and dusted off a few cob webs. A small bulb hung down, swaying back and fourth by the breeze that had been let in by an open window. I shut it and stumbled behind a shelf where I found the switch. The room became illuminated by a dull glow, shining on the surface of the table.

I laid down a sheet of white paper and began plotting. At first, there was no pattern, and then one formed clearly before my very eyes. I used small pins from my mothers drawer to pierce a death into the sheet. I had drawn a small sketch of my hometown and labelled landmarks.

A long line of pins was struck straight through the forest. Or from what I could see, a circle filled with tiny squiggles made to look like trees. I shouldn't have been surprised. Everything happened in that forest, it held about nothing but darkness. As I positioned one of the last pins a knock came to the basement door and as I jumped  .

"Robyn, your friend is here to see you!" my mother called. Hope stumbled down the steps and I frantically tried to disguise my work with a shirt I had found thrown on the floor. "What have you got there?" Hope asked. Hopes health had diminished in the past month, and along with it the light in her eyes faded. Darker hair could be seen underneath the wig she was wearing. "It's nothing," I said, sprawling my body across the table. Hope spotted the pins and eyed me curiously, "why so nervous?" She asked.

Eventually I gave in. I let her examine the sheet I had made from police records shared on the Internet. "This is amazing," she said, with a twinkle in her eye. "I'm walking along that line tonight, in the forest." I explained. Hope sighed and looked disappointed. "Are you crazy?" She asked. I shook my head dismissively hoping she would let the matter be. "You could die Robyn", she said. I didn't say anything, I just continued to plot the remainder of the pins on the table.

"I'm coming with you!" She exclaimed. I shook my head violently, "you can't Hope," I said. She sighed and looked down at the floor. "We can be in this together Robyn," she said. I tapped a pin on the table, concealing my frustrations. "And what if I told you I might go and never come back? I am an aridian but I am also their heir, Aridia is in trouble and I have to go there whether I like it or not." I said, trying to stay calm. Hope rested a caring hand on my shoulder, while she deliberated what I said.

"Heir?" She questioned. "I am their future queen," I replied. Hopes jaw dropped, she stared at me in amazement. "Wow it's like... a fairy-tale." she said. I rolled my eyes, "sure...a fairytale."

"I had an idea." I said. I pointed to the book laying on the table, "I know how to do this spell, I can turn the sight seen from one of our eyes into that of the killers." I explained. Hope looked about confused. "So we would see where we were but also where the killer was?" She said. I nodded excitedly, hoping it would work.

That night we snuck into the forest, holding our hearts in our hands. I walked to where the pins were most concentrated, trying to retrace the steps of the person I could see through my eye. The sounds of their breathing could also be heard, panting slowly like they had been running. The cold breath of a killer made me shiver. Through one Eye was a bundle of shrubbery and trees, through the other was a person slumped down on a tree stump. I certainly was not sitting down.

Hope hung close to my side, flinching at every sound the forest made. The leaves crunched beneath my feet and the mud splattered up my leg. The moon had retreated behind the clouds, covering the forest in a dark sheet of grey. We came to an opening and before us were two oak trees. The grass had become sparse, and the shrubbery had receded leaving a circle of mud and dirt. I edged closer to the trees in the middle, still with Hope attached to me. 

A string of rope was tied around both trees, as I examined it closer. Hopes curiosity overwhelmed her and she bounced around the corner to see. "Oh..." she said. Her eyes were fixed on the trees, struck with surprise.

Two boys were tied to the tree and bound by the mouth with rope. Their eyes looked shocked as I emerged from behind the tree. "Max?" I said, looking one boy in the eye. My head tilted to the other,"Jayden..." I said. 

A sense of betrayal grew, for they were the killers. Using my magic I untied them, letting their bodies fall limply onto the floor. They stumbled up, spitting out the rope in their mouths. "It's not what it looks like," Jayden exclaimed.