The Forest's Secrets

Chapter Ten: Guns are Toys

"Elisa, if you resist arrest we only have more evidence to put against you", Brooks explained. It was obvious that he tried his best to stay calm.

The girl nodded and answered:"I'm not resisting arrest. I just don't like those." With that she nodded at the metal rings in the man's hand.

"Well, 'those' are necessary", he snapped at her.

As Eli didn't reply anymore, Brooks tried again, but the girl swiftly took a step to the left. Then another officer grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her in place.

Brooks smiled at her, as he put the cuffs around her wrists. The girls gaze met his and she hissed:"Don't touch me. Any of you."

As the policemen let go of her, everyone else turned around to get back to what they were doing before. Then metal clanked on stone, and all officers turned back again.

Eli rubbed her wrists between her hands. The cuffs lied on the floor in front of her. As nearly all guns, except Brooks, pointed at her, she reached into the fabric with one hand. Jamie, who had stepped closer, noticed that the girls dress seemed to have a pocket there.

As she pulled her hand out again, the tension in the air was so thick, that it seemed hard to breath. The girl held up something shiny. As Brooks squinted to look closer, he saw a bullet.

"Where did you get that?", he growled. The officer seemed very angry.

Eli looked at each officer behind him, until she sighed and pointed at a young woman. "This one's from her", the girl said quietly and dropped the bullet.

Then she took out another one. A smile appeared on her face, as she quietly continued. "This is yours", she said and locked eyes with Jamie, as she pulled out a hand full of bullets and dropped all of them to the floor,"These are from everyone here. Except me, I don't have a gun."

"Guns aren't toys, how did you manage to get that?", Brooks asked cautiously.

Eli was rubbing her wrists again, as she said:"I took them. Out of the guns. The mechanism isn't hard."

"We carry the guns with us all the time, how come we haven't noticed you?"

"Because I'm quiet?"

"You're literally shining through the dark, everything about you is light. There's a whole team of well-trained officials here. How. Did. You. Get. Those. Bullets?"

Officer Brooks sounded angry and more enraged with each word. Eli smiled and took a step closer.

"I went up to you", she started to explain, mimicking the things she'd done again," took your gun, opened it and took a few bullets out. Then I closed it again and went to the next one."

She didn't really touch his gun, the girl knew he'd get mad if she did so.

"How did we not notice you then?", the officer asked cautiously.

Eli just shook her head in reply, signalling that she didn't know either. Brooks rolled his eyes and grabbed the girls arm, to which she replied with a breathless scream.

Brooks told the other cops to get back to their work and pulled Eli into the cabin with him. "Stay right here, next to the door. Don't move, don't touch anything, don't disturb the team. Understood?", he hissed, gripping her arm tighter.

"I'd rather wait in the car. This is sad to look at", she replied.

"You think you can do better?"

Eli sighed. She knew he was just trying to provoke her and then prove that he was better, faster, smarter, stronger.

Pointing towards the open closet, she said:"Four peoples clothes, probably a girl, two boys and an enby." Next she pointed at the kitchen cabinets and continued:"Some dirty dishes, must have left in a hurry, also clean ones that are still a bit dusty tho, all the food that's good for forever is still here, it won't turn bad. Everything else to eat they probably took along. Then we have all those cupboards, it seems like those people lived here the whole year. And then someone came and disturbed them."

All the officers in the room starred at her. Then Brooks asked:"You assumed the people who lived here based on their clothing, how did you do that?"

"Well, there's pretty obvious a few dresses and tight things, girl. Male's clothes in the same size but doubled the amount of the first persons clothing, also there's two different styles, so two boys. And the Enby was pretty hard to make out, there's a lot of unisex clothing tho and I'm assuming that back in the corner over there, that's a binder", Eli explained. She seemed as if she was asleep, mumbling and stumbling over her words.

"I'll take you to the car", Brooks said. He still seemed annoyed, maybe because she had seen something no one in his team had cared to notice.

Eli nodded, turned on her heel and walked out the open door. Brooks followed close after and tried to get a hold of her arm, but she pulled away, as if, even though her back was turned towards the man, she knew what he was doing.

"Elisa you can either give me your hand or I'll get the handcuffs again", he declared. His mood seemed to worsen with every second.

"I don't like it, when someone touches me", Eli said, as she came to a stand.

"Well then the handcuffs", he said as he put his hand on her shoulder.

Eli closed her eyes. It was quiet for a moment, then she hissed:"No. Let go of me."

"You're not the one giving orders here", he growled back and dragged her along by the shoulder.

Suddenly, his hand felt warm and wet. Eli whined quietly as he pushed her into the backseat of a car. Now that the girl was inside the light, Brooks had a better chance of seeing her.

The girl's boots were dirty with mud, the bottom hem of her dress was smeared in mud and something red too. It took a long moment for the officer to realize that all of the red spots were blood, as well as a few more dried stains. He didn't see any visible wounds, other than were she had hit her head a few hours earlier. Her shoulder was bleeding as well and as the man looked down at his hand, he saw her blood.

"Who did that to you?"