Forest of Faces

The only thing the murderer left behind was a delicate web of vines woven through the headless corpse.

The number kept on increasing, while fear settled in the town. Detective Lorcan tries to find the serial killer responsible for their demise and all the headless bodies sprawled all over Kalis, as the forest grows in the eerie silence of their deaths and the smell of their blood.

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"I need to arrest you." was all Lorcan could manage, she aimed the revolver straight at the barber, breathing through clenched teeth, willing her lips to stop trembling.
Claeg shook his head and a smile touched his face, eyes shining in the dark like emeralds.
"You cannot" the grim expression on his face easing into a bitter smile. He slowly moved towards the grave, the machete gleaming in his hand, a faint stain of red smeared over it.
"Don't move or I will have to shoot you" Lorcan warned, her voice firmer than before, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears, as Claeg still moved at the edge of the grave and then paused.
"You cannot kill me. When people like us die, Et'hiwas spirit is passed over to another worthy person, who is then bound with the forest, a guardian gifted with incredible potential." Claeg repeated the words under his breath and then loudly, they sounded more like a parable, passed down for centuries, living only in the heart of some people.
Lorcan lost her grip around the revolver before tightening her hand again as Claeg stared down at the machete in his hand. Contemplation lingering on his face.
"Will you do me a favor, Detective Lorcan?" Claeg asked calmly, his eyes moved to Lorcan's hands before gazing back to her face, "Will you bury my head?" he looked at her, flickers of hope dancing in his eyes.