Page 111 of Three for a Girl

Chad struggled forward, taking Romeo with him. The space was empty, not a piece of furniture or a fallen leaf inside, but the smell of bleach burned his eyes and nose.

He could taste it coating the back of his throat, poisoning him with the fumes. He shone his phone inside the building, looking at the walls. The windows had been plastered over, the room was blinding white, stinking of cleanliness.

He held his breath, took a few photos on his phone, and slammed the door shut.

“Come on.”

Chad turned his back on the building, puffing in the clean air. Romeo spluttered and wheezed before giving Chad a reassuring smile.

“Where to now?”

Chad pointed towards the trees. “In there.”

Once the bleach had cleared from nose and throat, he could smell again. He twitched his nostrils, drawing in another damning scent. Smoke, not the smoke from a cigarette, but a fire—burned paper and wood. He followed it like a blood hound, tripping over trees and cracks in the earth. Romeo was beside him, steadying him as they stumbled into the gloom.

Chad carried on through the trees until he found a pile of ash. He shone the phone around the area, hoping something had been missed, but there was nothing.

Chad passed his phone to Romeo who held it over the ash as he found a stick. He poked, and shifted, but there was nothing but ash.

Romeo snapped a photograph, before looking to Chad.

“Is that okay?”

He nodded, taking the phone back from Romeo.

“Ash from a fire, and an empty building scrubbed clean.”

Chad slumped against the nearest tree. “Not much to go by.”

“It’s suspicious.”

“Is it? Or is my paranoia playing up?”

“What does your gut say?”

A twig snapped behind them. Romeo positioned Chad behind him and stared into the darkness. Chad shone his phone in the direction, and two eyes reflected back at them. They shone green in the light, two eyes just above the ground, not that of a person, but an animal.

Chad stepped towards the creature, the two eyes stayed on them, watching until Chad was close enough to make out the shape of the animal, its triangular shaped ears, and its small black nose that twitched as he neared.

The fox turned and dashed away into the trees.

A new smell wafted towards Chad, sour and rotten. He frowned, sniffing the air, tracking the putrid smell. He stood where the fox had been crouching, and when he shone his phone at the ground, he jumped back, knocking into a tree.

Romeo hurried over, checking the back of Chad’s head before finding the reason he’d jolted away.

“That’s a finger, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

A finger with little flesh left, but the nail was still intact, black nail polish. He lifted his torch and gaped at the clearing in the trees.

The dips and molds in the ground.

At least ten that Chad could see with a quick scan of his phone. It shook in his grip, casting a trembling glow over the clearing. His quickening pulse made it hard to speak, juddering in his throat, but Romeo spoke for him.

“Graves.”

The heat had dried up the earth, cracked it in places, and Chad could see where the fox had dug, where it had widened a crack so it could slip inside and snack on a corpse. The smell of death poisoned the air, and Chad approached, drawn to the rotten fumes. He covered his mouth with his hand as he took a photograph before retreating away.

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