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The doctors found nothing wrong with Zach. As for me, I had to have a minor surgery to remove part of a thorn that had lodged itself in my leg. I ended up limping on my third day in town. If I had a choice in the matter, I would have left the town immediately. But first, I needed to figure out what was going on. I wanted to leave but not without answers. There was something mysterious about the town and I knew that if I left without finding out, I would always wonder what it was.

We settled in well at home. Hannah liked what we had done with the little space provided to us. We had managed to find a place for everything we had carried with us and made sure to organize them neatly. I knew that sooner or later, the organization would crumble and everything would go back to being a mess. When my siblings started looking around for their stuff, they would put everything in disarray.

On the third day of arrival, a letter arrived. It was addressed the Colman children. At any other time, I would have been tempted to open and read it before anyone else. But, things had changed. We could no longer act on our own since any action could affect all of us and we now had a leader. I had started to respect Hannah and I decided it would be best for her to open the letter, read it and tell us about the contents. In a way, I was scared. If I read the letter and it contained something triggering, I would be a mess. At least Hannah would try to shield us from unpleasant truths if they were in the letter.

Emmett had gone off with his friends again, taking Zach with him so I was all alone when Rafael decided to pay a visit. There was something about Rafael that I couldn’t put my finger on. His face seemed normal enough but quite pale, not that there was anything wrong with being pale. A lot of people have normally pale skin but his seemed just weird. Paired with his intense eyes, it was quite a sight, a good looking one.

“Hannah is at the resort,” I informed him. “If you want to reminisce about your past which I have no idea about, now you know where to find her.”

Rafael chuckled. “I know that but I did not come here for your sister. I came to see you.”

I raised my brows, still not letting him in. “why would you come to see me? We don’t even know each other.”

“We can get to know each other.”

“I don’t trust you so I cannot let you in,” I said. “I need to pick up some groceries. Why don’t you wait out here while I change and join you in a minute?”

“Cool,” he said and I closed the door. Locking it, I headed to Hannah and I’s bedroom. In two minutes, I was out heading to the grocery store with a man I knew nothing about. We were two blocks to the store when suddenly a car came screeching down the street and knocked down a man riding a bike. i watched in terror as the poor man was squished under the tyres.

I don’t remember what happened immediately afterwards but the next I knew I was walking away from Raphael towards the grocery store alone. The ambulance was driving away. It was mildly confusing but for some reason I never paid attention to it. 

Hannah returned earlier that day, and we both prepared dinner. She was finally going to give us more information about the town and our family.

“So, what is the story?” Zach asked when we had just started eating. He still hadn’t forgotten about the bones we had seen at the old building.

“I’m not sure you need to know all about this,” Hannah told Zach. “But you ask a lot of questions so it’s better for you to know.”

“Okay,” he said.

“The resort has been in the family since forever,” Hannah began. “For years everything was okay. It was actually doing very well and attracting a lot of people in town. However, not every person who came in was good. The locals complained about the loud parties, the influx of strangers, some of whom decided to settle in the town. For the most part, they left the resort alone, at least in the beginning.”

“Interesting,” I commented.

“Then at some point, people started getting killed by animals. They tried to hunt them down but failed to get rid of them. The story is pretty sketchy but that’s all I’ve got. Because of the animal attacks, tourists reduced but some people still continued to visit the town and some got killed. People started complaining because they were tired of corpses and all the negative attention the events brought to the town. There were so many theories flying around at the time. Because of the state of the corpses, most of which had animal bite marks, some people thought the murderer was a serial killer with a dog or some other animal kept as a pet killing machine. Some of the tourists had no suspicious wounds and seemed to have been strangled.”

“That might explain the bones we found,” Zach said. “You see? I told you all that they were humans. I used to play with bones like that at Uncle Ian’s.”

“Okay but never say that in public,” Emmett, who had been quiet the whole time chipped in. “People may not be sure what to think of a child who has played with human bones.”

“What happened next?” I asked Hannah, annoyed by the interruption. I liked to listen to a story as a whole and ask questions or make comments when it was done.

“The family refused to close the resort despite mounting pressure from the locals who had forgotten how much revenue it was bringing to the town,” Hannah continued. She put a hand around Zach’s shoulder but he moved himself away from her. “Great grandpa didn’t want to shut it down. Apparently, he was very fond of young women from the city, something the locals were not big fans of. 

Unable to take it anymore, some people set the main building ablaze. It was then renovated but the locals looted it forcing great grandpa to finally abandon it. By that time, he was tired of fighting. Ever since then, the resort has been out of work. Most of the cabins were destroyed.”

“Wow, that’s some history. No wonder the locals don’t want it reopened.” 

“But it has been a long time and the current locals are different from their great grandparents who existed back then,” Hannah said.

“Have there been any animal attacks in recent years?” I inquired.

“No, that’s why I think it shouldn’t be a problem.” 

“Unless there is another reason why they don’t want the resort opened.”

“What other reason could there be?”

“The noise, distractions etc. I think the locals want the town to be quiet and peaceful.” 

“Yeah, sounds reasonable but I will promise them that we won’t make it rowdy. It will not be a club or something like that. I just want a place where tourists and locals can relax conveniently and safely.”

“Rafael said they don’t like tourists,” I said, glancing at my phone which had lit up because of a notification. Considering that I was not expecting any important news, I ignored it.

“They don’t want them to get murdered,” Hannah said before gulping the rest of her orange juice.

“Does removing the resort remove the problem that there is a crazy psycho in town?” I wondered out loud. “It seems like these people don’t want to sort out the real problems of this town. Instead they chose to blame the victims.”

“What do you all think?” Hannah asked. “Should we continue with the plan? Despite all this, I don’t feel like moving anywhere. I still want to make daddy happy even though he is not here to see it.”

“Ana told me that mummy and daddy are watching over us from heaven,” Zach said. 

“That’s true,” I told him, remembering Ana, Zach’s babysitter who was one of the few people who stood by us until the last moment.

“By the way, I received a letter today, addressed to all of us.”

“Where is it?” Hannah asked, suddenly agitated. “Why are you just telling us now?”

“I forgot about it.”

I rushed to my bedroom and opened the top most drawer before removing the envelope. When it was in my hands, I returned to the kitchen. Everyone looked on eagerly as Hannah tore open the envelope. Tossing it aside, she scanned through the contents of the letter.

Her face turned pale.