Chapter 3

"Morning Valerie." Valerie O'Rourke waved from her mini convertible coupe as she drove through the little village of Briar Reef, the sunlight glistening off the tresses of her golden blonde hair.

"Morning Dina!" She tooted her horn and called out to a few more people before coming to a stop in the parking lot behind her art gallery. The day promised to be a good one if the number of people she'd seen out and about in the town square was anything to go by.

Of course the holiday weekend would be coming up in a few days and those were always good for business in the past, but with the economy being what it is, there was no guarantee.

She stepped out of the BMW and fiddled with the Hermes silk scarf she had thrown carelessly around her shoulders before tugging on the hem of her skirt to get it back in place.

There were a few more calls of hello and good morning as she made her way to the shop, and her spirits were lifted. Today is going to be a good day.

***

Sonya Davis picked her way over fallen branches, twigs and mountains of dead leaves as she made her way to her secret rendezvous. Leave it to bloody lover boy to call her out here in this mess of a woods. Then again it won't be the worst place they'd ever done it.

Her heart picked up its pace as she got deeper into the dense foliage coming closer to their meeting place. Horny bastard, didn't we fuck just yesterday?

Not that she was going to complain, she loved the fact that her lover was as sex crazed as she was, and since she had nothing to do with her days but wait for the school bus at three, her mornings were all his.

He on the other hand was playing it close. With a business to run and a whole lot of eyes watching his every movement, they had to be careful. But still, none of that stopped her from running when he called.

She didn't notice the climbing heat or the insects that buzzed around her as she walked. She was too busy paying attention to her every step afraid of stepping on one of the confounded traps the hunters like to leave around the place.

As far she knows they've never trapped any other species but man in one of the damn things and she'd have a lot of explaining to do if she got herself snagged in one of the stupid things.

With her head down she didn't see up ahead and that's why the fright was so palpable when she finally did. It was the suddenness you see, coming face to face with her worst nightmare out here alone in the woods.

The scream got trapped in her lungs as she turned in abject horror and ran. Her eyes wide with fright, she hardly saw what was in front of her, her mind filled with the terror behind, and so she didn't see the obstruction that was in her way.

She went flying through the air with a loud scream just as she heard footsteps coming slowly through the brush in her direction, as if someone was coming to her rescue; but by then it was too late.

She landed in the large puddle of water face first and her screams grew more tormented until they were no more. The air was suddenly filled with the stench of burning flesh and the gurgling sound of someone in the final throes of life.

***

Barney Doss had been on one of his usual morning walks through Briar Reef woods when he heard the faint scream coming through the trees. At first he thought it was the sound of a bird, or some other wild animal, but the closer he listened the second time it came, he knew that the sound was more human.

He hasted his step as much as he could with a cane and a bum knee and came up short when he turned the corner and saw the person laying on the ground. "Hey, you okay?"

He hobbled over to the form that wasn't moving, his heart racing in the way anyone's would in a situation like this; alone, in the woods, with people screaming and now one lying still as death on the ground.

"Hey, you there!" There was still no movement from the person who seemed to have fallen, as Barney got closer. "Hey you!" He poked the fallen body in the shoulder with his cane and still there was not a peep.

He was beginning to think the person who he now believed to be a woman had hit her head in the fall and knocked herself unconscious.

"She'll drown herself in that little bit of water for sure." He couldn't bend down because of his knee so he tried rolling her over with the cane. He pushed at her shoulder until he got her moving and stumbled back in horror at the sight that greeted him when he got her face partially lifted before dropping her again.

He fumbled around in his pocket for the mobile phone his granddaughter had got him just the month before but there was no signal. He looked around for help but knew there was none. No one else came here, only him. It had been that way for years now, having the woods all to himself.

The kids had found a better, more exciting place to carry out their misdeeds and the young couples were too busy making a living to have much time for lazy days spent foraging in the woods. While the elderly, had given up on the steep climb up the hill to reach the place.

It was only he Barney Doss who had never given up his love for the deep dark woods where he'd spent many a childhood day. And even with the pain it caused him, he never missed a day come rain or shine. Now his solitude had been disturbed and he doubted he'd ever feel the same way here again.