The Curse of Thelonious [✓]

nine

CHAPTER NINE

 The week following Anya’s death was the busiest week of her family's lives. Even when they went to sleep, it was only their bodies that were resting. Their minds were whirring: thinking, wishing, remembering, wondering.

Lera lay like a statue in between her parents, sheets pulled up to their chins. She hadn’t been able to sleep and could hear her parents whispering amongst themselves so she had crawled in their bed with them. It was so childish but she felt safe there nestled beside them.

The three of them were falling apart, her mother perhaps the most: there was no love like a mothers love. Lera felt as though she had been ripped in half. Anya was her twin – they had the same faces, the same laughs, the same DNA. How would she manage without her? Her sister was the very last person that Lera could ever imagine living without and now she had no choice but to have to. 

Anya Petre was dead. 

A tragic accident, Clearford’s local newspaper had said. The whole town was somber with the recent deaths adding up but it didn’t make sense to Lera. This couldn’t be coincidental – there was a reason people were suddenly dying and she was determined to figure out what it was. 

Call it twins’ intuition but she refused to accept her sister’s death was purely accidental by a random, rabid animal. Anya was purposefully murdered, she was sure of it. She didn’t know how or why or by whom but she knew in her heart it was true.

The school was going mad with accusations thrown all around. She hadn’t attended again but as Clearford was so small, the news had spread quickly and condolences were pouring in. Jubaida had sent her a long text about how sorry she was and had added in the end that Mrs Hudson had also passed away during another arrest at the hospital. 

Lera had dismissed all the blame thrown onto Atlas previously but she had to admit it was suspicious. He was the last person to see Anya possibly alive as well as Callum and Mrs Hudson. She knew he hadn’t killed them but it was too big of a coincidence to ignore.

‘It wasn’t him,’ a voice whispered inside her head. For a moment she was sure it sounded like her sister but she quickly dismissed that impossible thought; it was her own subconscious.

She needed to find out the truth - she just had to! Something far creepier than she could imagine was in Clearford, killing off its residents one by one and she needed to know who it was. She lay in her parents’ bed trying to understand the events leading up to this particular moment as tears trickled out of her mother’s eyes. Erik was running a tired hand through his wife’s hair as they fell apart, completely oblivious of the plan their remaining daughter was thinking up of.

She first had to find out if it was Atlas who had caused all their deaths, which meant she had to make her way back to the forest. With a slump of her shoulders, she sat herself up and faced her parents. “I’m gonna go to sleep,” she whispered, her heart breaking as they barely acknowledged her. She knew it was hard for them, especially as she looked so like Anya but it still hurt.

Walking out of her parents bedroom, she made up her mind. She was going to find out what was really going on to get justice for her sister. 

She was going to unravel the truth.

She didn’t know where the urge came but it was strong; something was pushing her to go to the forest and face Atlas. The entire town kept well away from the forest with the knowledge that Mad Manning lived there and although she had never ventured amongst the towering trees apart from her run that one day, she really wanted to today.