The Witch's Doll ⚢

Chapter 34

A/N

Had I mentioned that the end is near? Only 6 chapters left.

Isla woke with a splitting headache. For a sweet, groggy millisecond, she had no idea where she was. There was a buzz around her and movement. She kept hearing voices. Her attention sharpened into focus.

"The funicular marks on her neck suggest she was strangled by some kind of rope. She has scratches in her neck from struggling while being strangled." An older man said. "Her jaw is starting to stiffen. It's been two or three hours since she died."

"Thank you for your report Sergeant." Footsteps echoed until disappeared out the door.

The dim ceiling lights flickered wearily, like an exhausted child trying to keep their eyes open. The realization came to her slowly, as if through a thick haze, and she could feel someone squeezing her shoulder, hard. It was DI Soleil and she was in a hospital bed.

"Isla, what's wrong? You had a bloody nose." She hadn't let go ever since she'd pulled Isla away from the dead body and carried her to a seat. The Welsh woman's fingers were grasping hers so tightly she might have been trying to siphon the pulsing pain out of Isla's body and store it in hers.

She blinked and instinctively touched her face. It was wiped clean except for the tracks of tears on her pale cheeks.

"W-what happened? What time is it?" Isla tried to stay focused on the warmth of the hand around hers. She concentrated on the strength of the grip, how her mentor showed no signs of loosening her hold even when literal hell sprung on one of Fortuna's classrooms.

"Damn, I was hoping you'd tell me what happened yourself. So does that mean you don't know who killed Harper?"

"She's dead?" her chest constricted for a second and all she could hear was the sound of her lungs screaming for air. She waited for words, a facial expression, even disgust would have provoked relief in her. She hated the waiting part most.

"You're a witness, Isla... to a locked room murder case. The killer had no explainable escape route for now. On the scene, investigators found no traces of breaking. Apart from signs of the struggle that had taken place. Please remember something."

Not more than a few hours ago, Isla had been with Harper, ready to face the world together, but now Harper was dead. Isla squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember the scene from playing out again in her mind to recall who the murderer was. Watching the life fade from her, watching Harper's face go slack, just after hearing her final words.

Isla had always been weighed down by grief, but now, hearing about Harper's dead body, Isla felt different—carved out, hollow, as if all the emotion had been scraped out of her.

After the bliss of a complete mental shutdown, the world suddenly came rushing back too fast. The air was choking her, the silence deafened her, and the thought of Harper's corpse hurt her head.

"That could be due to strangulation or from a concussion." DI Soleil said. "The block in venous drainage causes capillary hemorrhage. And the increase in blood pressure. Can bring on a bloody nose as well. Whoever killed Harper Anderson tried to do it to you as well. Needless to say, they were unsuccessful as one student approached the room after hearing a commotion. So they fled the crime scene."

"Who was it?"

"Pardon?"

"Who barged in the room?"

"Claudia Morgan."

Isla thought she needed to personally thank Claudia. She wrapped herself into a ball when she winced cause of sudden pain. She stared at her arms. There were angry red lines embedded on her skin—scratch marks.