Deputy Smith regained her composure and approached
workbench. Its surface was caked with dried blood. The steel blade
of the table-saw protruded from beneath the bench, glistening in the
beam of her flashlight. The teeth of the saw looked razor sharp and
the blade was free of any blood or rust. Nearby sat a blue recycling
bin that mostly contained bones, although she also noticed swashes of
peach and red mixed in with the white. She leaned over the plastic
tub. Some of the larger bones had scrapes and missing chunks;
someone had shaved every last scrap of tissue from them.
She straightened up and her eyes once again locked
with the head which rested on the table. She the sharp jawline, blue
eyes, and thick black hair. The features looked familiar. She was
sure she had seen this face recently. It didn't belong to any of the
townsfolk, so where could she have seen it from?
She thought back over the last week and tried to fit
the the pieces together. A spark flashed in the back of her mind.
She removed the wallet from her back pocket and pulled out a piece of
paper. She separated the edges of the paper from one another and
unfolded the poster. She moved the beam of light over the sheet and
examined it. At the top of the page in an uppercase, bold font read
the word “MISSING”. She held the paper near the severed head.
The face looked older than the one in the picture and
the skin was shrunken and pulled tot from drying out, but this was
the man who had gone missing last week from the tourist party. She
and the sheriff had called off their search after a few days of
searching for him. Visitors to the area seemed to have a knack for
getting lost in these woods. She had assumed that had been the case
for this poor soul as well.
The deputy shook her head, “What have you done
Mike...” she whispered.
Deputy Smith scanned the room with her flashlight as
she walked toward the main entrance of the building. Her flashlight
skimmed a shelf which hung from the far wall. A dozen or so skulls
line the shelf.
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