The Shot

The shutter of her camera clicked ridiculously loudly in the eerily empty streets as she took a picture of the frozen squirrel that scurried quickly away as she straightened up and dusted none existent dirt on her black jeans.

A cold gust of wind blew past, ruffling her short auburn hair, and she pulled her long, dark coat around herself and walked along the sidewalk, the tiny heels of he boots clacking along.

She walked on beside a park, and derailed from her path to walk through it, towards the woods.

The trees swayed with the breeze, and she couldn’t help but capture their unusual synchronization, and she startled a little raccoon as her boots crunched on the dry leaves of the forest floor.

She had no clue where she was going, but hey, wasn’t that the fun in adventure?; Expecting the unexpected, and going where the spirit took you.

A strong smell stopped her in her tracks.

It wasn’t putrid, just…… odd. Like someone had overused something so sweet it now smelt sickly.

She followed the smell, unbothered by the increasing denseness of the woods that pressed around her as she move on.

The source of the smell came from two rotting trees, an odd sight in the see of orange and red leaved trees. They bent inwards, directly in front of each other, sort of like a doorway into a portal.

She HAD to get a picture of it.

She raised her camera and adjusted the lens an took a picture, then a sudden shrill shriek sent chills down her spine and she dropped the camera.

As she bent to pick it up, she looked back to the trees in her crouched position, and watched in a mix of fear and awe at large snake like creature with claws held a pale, unrecognizable human face in its claws.

She raised her camera and took a picture, and when she looked back to the trees, it was gone.

************************************************************

“What did your Mom say? Are we going to evacuate? Do we need a new math teacher? I mean, I hate math, but still….”

Avalon was used to his best friend Gabriel’s constant chatter and mostly ignored it, but at that moment, he was stressed and he snapped.

“Gabe, can you please SHUT UP for ONCE?” He immediately regretted his response at the hurt in Gabe’s eyes.

They were in the corridor of their high school, by their lockers.

Avalon ran a frustrated hand through his dark hair and crossed his arms across his chest.

Gabe pursed his lips and looked back to his locker, visibly upset.

“Gabe, you know I didn’t mean that-” He tried to amend.

“If I was talking too much, Ava, you should have just said so.” Gabe said stiffly, near tears, and then slammed his locker and stormed into the throng of students, leaving his friend feeling much more angry and dejected.

Ava planned to apologies during break that day, but if he had to be honest with himself, there was a lot more than being angry at his BFF going on in his life.

The night before, he’d come home from his gymnastics class with his single mother, a well-known private detective, at the table, sobbing.

From the news, she’d found out that Ava’s teacher and his mother’s childhood best friend, Mr. Tobi, had been killed, only identified by his ID card found in his pocket, as he’d been terrible mutilated, his limbs and head severed off.

New spread fast, and Ava had been given weird looks from the moment he’d arrived in school, dark circles under his eyes from a restless night, his dark shoulder length hair in messy curls.

Everyone knew how close they’d been, and all he saw when people looked at him was undisguised, aggravating pity and sympathy.

The bell rang before he realized he’d furiously dug his long nails into his palms, leaving slowly-seeping scarlet crescent moons on them.

He sighed.

He clenched his fists, flinching at the sting of his self inflicted injuries, and tried to walk casually to class and ignored the stares, until he stopped short at seeing Zara watch him from the back of the room.

He felt his heart twist, and scolded himself for succumbing to his crush at a time like that. She pushed her chair back, and walk to him, her camera that forever hung across her shoulders swinging violently, grabbed his wrist and pulled him out, all the while, his heart was slamming in his chest.

“Are you busy later?” She said, her head craned up to look him in the eyes.

“Uh, w-what? I-i mean uh, yes?” He was red in the face being so close to her: she smelled like the woods….. and her green eyes were mesmerizing…….. and how did she rock her short hair?

They were mutual friends, and didn’t talk all that often, so what did she need his help for?

She glanced around like she was making sure they weren’t being watched.

“I really need your help, preferably at lunch time, but I’ll get it if you aren’t up for it-”

“Mrs. De Vera, Mr. Bryne, I need you in class.”

The teenagers glanced to see their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Gafar, almost as tired eyed as Ava, flanked by two tough looking police officers.

One, Ava recognized from his mom’s time as a detective in the force before she went to be a private one. The other was new, completely pale, like she had never been in the sun, with scary dark eyes that looked almost black, and a scent that was so ridiculously sweet Ava almost gagged.

Zara stiffened when she saw the woman and glowered at her, before storming back into class, Ava trudging behind her.

As they took their seats, the rowdy class quieted at the teacher and officers arrival, sending them into a bout of whispers.

Mrs. Gafar raised a hand to silence them, and she looked like sort of a queen in her green dress and hijab, and the officers at either side of her.

“Good morning everyone. As you all know, sadly, our beloved teacher Mr. Tobi was viciously murdered just yesterday. We will pay our respects in the school hall later today.”

The mood in the room became grim in her short silence.

“On a better note though,” She said a little more cheerfully, “The police force are doing everything they can to bring his killer to justice.”

She gestured to the tall, brooding man, who stepped forward and cleared his throat.

“My name is Detective O’Brien, and from all the information we have gathered so far, we know that Tobias Richards’ last known location was this high school.”

The woman continued his words, but Ava couldn’t help but notice her gaze was set firmly on Zara, like she was daring her to do something.

“If you have any information or evidence that may link to the homicide, immediately report it to the Police force.” She was still watching Zara, who held her camera tightly, looking determined, and Ava had a sudden distrust of the detective.

The detectives talked to them all for a full 15 minutes, educating them on safety ethics and things to do in suspicious situations.

By the time they left, Ava was pretty sure he wouldn’t be trusting those cops any time soon.

************************************************************

The hours crawled by, Ava anxious to know what Zara needed from him

Did it have something to do with the investigation?

In the hall, despite the funeral atmosphere and the huge ‘We’ll miss you, Mr. Tobi.’ poster with his smiling picture hung on the wall, it felt like a drowning lecture, and he kept throwing apologetic looks at Gabe to redeem himself (he was totally ignored), and sparing glances at the tense Zara.

Ava practically sped to the cafeteria at lunch time.

He spotted her in the line at the serving point, and, too nervous to go up to her, her got into the line.

He stood awkwardly in the middle of the cafeteria unsure what to do, till he spotted her again at the far end, signaling him to join her on a table with a girl beside her.

“Uh, h-hey. You wanted to meet me?” Ava found out it was ridiculously difficult to talk when your heart was slamming in your chest.

He took a seat beside Zara, who was going through her camera. He had enough courage to lean over and see magnificent pictures she had taken.

Ava knew she was into photography, but she was a serious professional.

“Me and Sahar here are starting up our OWN investigation.” She said firmly.

“The detectives WERE pretty sketchy…..” Ava muttered.

He was mostly honored she wanted him to join her detective crew……. for whatever reason.

Zara thrust the camera into his hands to look at the screen better.

“I took this picture 3 days ago.” She pointed at the black rotting trees that arched like some sort of doorway to another realm.

“Eerie.” Sahar mumbled behind them.

“I mean, weird, but that’s nature I guess.” Ava shrugged.

He wasn’t totally impressed by what she found. It didn’t really link to the crime.

“I hope you don’t have a sensitive soul.” Zara warned as she swiped to the next picture.

Ava had seen enough pictures of dead bodies in his life time, courtesy of his mom’s work, but bile still rose in his throat and he tried not to gag.

The face of an amputated head was horribly mutilated, its remaining features echoing an expression of horror, but what Ava thought most was, ‘Dang, what the HELL is that snake creature!?’

Sahar munched on her pizza as she examined the picture. “Is that a Zilant? Wait, no wings…….a lindworm?”

Ava shoved the camera back into Zara’s hands with a shudder.

He looked at her, a little pale.

“The… the head doesn’t bother you?”

Zara shook her head “My grandpa used to be a Forensic Technician, and I’d watch him do autopsies, so me and dead bodies aren’t strangers.”

He looked at Sahar.

“And you aren’t bothered why?”

The girl shrugged.

Ava pinched the bridge of his nose.

“So you think that’s…..” He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Mr. Tobi? Pretty sure.”

She was confident, but Ava was wary. Should they even be meddling with that kind of stuff? It was the authorities job.

Then he suddenly remembered that weird detective and pushed the thought away.

“In the news, they DID say his head hadn’t been recovered.” Sahar added.

Ava looked at her with an expression that read, ‘Spare me the gory details.’

“Remember that Detective lady?” Zara whispered. “When I was in the woods, I smelled the exact same odor she had and followed it, and that was when I saw the head.”

There was a touch of excitement in Sahar’s voice Ava was a little concerned about. “So the homicide is supernatural?” Sahar grinned. “Awesome!”

Ava leaned back in his chair.

“Are you completely SURE you saw that in the woods?” The way Zara was believing in all that was setting him on edge. He even had a fleeting thought that she was messing with him, but you can't find such disturbing images like that online...... maybe.

Zara’s face fell. “You don’t believe me?”

She frowned, then crossed her arms on her chest

“If you won’t believe me, that’s fine.” She mumbled, putting her camera strap back on. “Let’s go Sahar.”

Sahar waved to Ava and kind of skipped after Zara who stormed away.

He hoped nothing bad had happened when she went to the woods, like she’d hit her head too hard….. or something.

Even so, he had still felt a terrible chill around that detective that couldn’t be anything BUT supernatural, so maybe Zara’s theory wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounded…..

Ayra Rafiq :)