Out In The Woods

By Divya Kaila

Stopping by the woods on a wintering morning Amelia realized the forest was unusually quiet. Not that she wasn’t used to this silence. Living in a small town ‘Thirskot’ with a small no. of people she was almost nurtured to it. She was walking with her golden retriever ‘Leo’. The usual chirping of birds, the slight wind of trees, her footsteps crunching on dried leaves, and Leo sniffing here and there were the only sounds. She heard the chime of bells at a distance and realized the clock struck 6 am. She was out in the woods at a time when the serial killer was on the loose. If her best friend Ava had not called her on the phone this early in the morning sounding all too shaken up, she would have never in a million years thought of being in this place at this time. They together were doing research for the killer who was psychopathic and was on a killing spree for people in power and authority in the town. The two of them wanted to get into New York University and the only way they came up with was to write a paper solving the mass murders and finding the criminal mastermind. NYU definitely wouldn’t reject an application of college students who have solved the famous Murder Mystery of Thirskot.

She was shaken from her thoughts by another wave of the cold breeze hitting her face, being sure by now her cheeks would be rosy pink in color.

With each step she took to go further to their spot “the hut” they had decided to meet in, the crunching noise at her feet of the leaves scared her and made her want to stop. Amelia kept on replaying her best friend's voice in her mind to remind herself of the reason she was here and why she had to continue moving forward. As she started seeing the tip of the hut she thought to just make a run. This way she could at least get to know the reason early. On reaching the hut, as she saw Ava’s face her heart almost stopped beating. Ava’s smile was something she loved from the bottom of her heart, and seeing her face now lightened up almost made her forget all her worries. Now suddenly angry at Ava for waking her up so early, Amelia stomps towards her. Leo though is faster than the both of them and jumps towards Ava, wagging his tail and licking her face all over. A bubbling personality like Ava’s who would never let anyone speak before her does the same again. After getting Leo off her, Amelia is all excited and begins her rant on how she is 99% sure who the criminal is.

Ava tells Amelia in detail about how the moment she saw someone leave the rusty house near the border, she tiptoed her way inside. Inside the house, there was a refrigerator. She was shocked to see it. It was full of blood and cut limbs resulting in her throwing up. The pitch of her voice and dread in her eyes recalling it makes Amelia think she’s the one witnessing. She further tells how she ran from that place and called her immediately. So it was final whoever was living in the old shackles thinking no one would even check if there was the criminal mastermind who had killed several hotshots of the town. Although happy, Amelia was angry at Ava for putting herself through so much alone and taking such a big risk.

In the end, a crime that couldn’t have been solved by the local police was solved by two girls, brimming with passion and determination to do something in their lives. Their first road to journalism now being just a few feet away.

By Divya Kaila