Finding our way back [26]

"Three things happened simultaneously. First, Cee screamed frantically before falling on the forest floor but Zach rushed to her and held her. Second, Lucas was instantly in front of me, veiling my view and halting me from moving further with his iron grip on my shoulders. I struggled in his grip, trying to look past him and when I finally got a view, my blood froze. A lifeless corpse of a woman was crucified to a tree. Her throat was slashed and blood was gushing out of it. Third, I noticed Zach and Lucas sharing a lingering look which had me thinking they knew something about it."

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Zach dragged Cee back by her shoulders, away from the tree where the woman was crucified. She was deadly aghast by this. Her face has gone pale and her eyes were still wide with shock. Zach helped her sit on a twisted root of some tree. He held her hands and spoke to her, but I couldn't hear what. I was still electrified to an extent that I was rooted on my spot. Lucas was still with me, his hands were still gripping my shoulders, holding me in place. Unable to hold myself in position, I was leaning on him.

"Katherine!" He muttered. "Are you alright?"

I tried to speak but my voice was stuck somewhere in my throat, nothing came out. I nodded.

"Can you walk?" He asked looking down at me, still not letting go of my shoulders.

I nodded again.

"Good. . ." He let go off my shoulders and I walked over to Cee. She was still sitting, covering her eyes with her hands. Zach was trying to get her talking but she didn't respond.

"We should call the cops." I suggested and dug in my bag to get my cellphone. There were no networks in the forest. "There are no networks." I informed everyone.

"Let's get out of here first." Lucas spoke and put a hand on Zach's shoulder and he turned towards Lucas at the sudden contact.

"She is not responding." Zach spoke and turned his head to me, "Kat"

I crouched down to the ground and put a hand on Cee' back, comforting her gently. "Cee" I begin, "We have to get out of here. . . come on." Her skin was terribly cold, either cause of shock or the temperature that has fallen down several degrees since the sun was almost setting.

She finally looked up to me. Her eyes were red and swollen. "Yeah!" She spoke meekly.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"I'm fine." She tried to get up and I gave her a hand to support her. "Let's get out of here." She spoke wiping a tear off her face.

"Do you remember the way back to the trail? We can continue from there." I asked Cee.

"I do." Lucas answered. " We just need to move towards south." He said, pointing towards the direction.

"Lucas you lead the way, Kat you walk with Cee, I'll be behind you two." Zach instructed and we both nodded.

It took us almost ten minutes of bushwhacking through the ferns again to find our way back to the trail. Once we reached the trail, we rushed back to the opening of the trail. The trail was clear of the shrubs and ferns, and it was a lot easier to walk. The sun had already set and it was all dark now. Fortunately, it didn't took us much long to find the opening and we were finally out of the dark, gloomy forest. It appeared more scary in the dark.

We informed the cops once we got networks on our cellphones, and waited for them to arrive. Zach suggested that I and Cee should drive back home and let him and Lucas handle this but Cee decided against it, so we all waited eagerly for the cops to arrive.

"Are you okay?" I asked Cee once again, just to make sure.

"Don't worry! I'm alright." She stared on the ground.

We were sitting on one of the benches at the opening of the trail while Zach and Lucas were away, leaning on the trunk of their porsche.

"It was a mistake to take a shortcut." Cee said.

"It's not your fault, who knew there would be a dead body." I tried to sympathize with her.

"I'm going to have nightmares tonight." She sighed.

"So am I." But it wasn't something new for me. I was accustomed to the nightmares and weird dreams.

"There must be some sort of connection to all these people who are being murdered." She stood up from the bench and folded her hands across her chest. "And why do all the victims are killed in forest park?" She was pacing back and forth.

"Are we going to do this again?" I said exasperated. I wasn't in the mood to go over this sleuthing again. Cee gave me confused look or maybe an annoyed one, I couldn't tell which one it was. "Daphne and Paul were two strangers who had nothing in common and they lived far away from each other, so there's no chance these two knew each other." 

"Wait . . . did these two attended the same school?" She stopped walking and turned towards me as she spoke.

"Huh. . . I don't know." I shrugged.

"What if Paul and Daphne and whoever this woman was, bullied the murderer in school and he's taking revenge on all of them by imitating the murders from ten years ago, so as to distract the cops."

"And how are you so sure about this?" I raised an eyebrow, challenging her.

"I'm just assuming the possibility. We only have to follow a lead Kat, and who knows we might get one step forward to solving all this." She reeked of self-assurance and courage right now and I was surprised and wondered how did she went from scared to confident this fast.

"Cee, I appreciate your skills but this is not our job to solve cases. Also it has lead us nowhere." I stated, hoping she would understand.

"So what Kat--- let's try again, one more time and let's solve it for real this time." She sat beside me and held my hands.

"Are you even hearing yourself right now? This doesn't make any sense Cee." I was more than annoyed at her childishness.

"Oh come on Kat, just help me with this one, I won't ask for any other favor after this one."

"Stop acting so over dramatic. You know I'm not going to agree to this. Your attempts at persuading me are futile." I teased. The truth was even though I hated the fact of supporting Cee' overconfident self, I had no other choice other than to help her.

"Is that so? And here I thought you were my bestfriend." She pouted. "Guess I'll have to do it on my own then."

"Oof." I sighed. "Thank God I'm free of this."

"You know I was just kidding. You have to help me."

"Fine."

"Anyways this will count as our extracurricular."

"You both look better now. I'm gonna miss the sight of your appalled faces." Lucas teased as he and Zach approached us.

"Dude we just encountered a dead body out of nowhere what else do you expect a normal human to do." Cee snapped.

"Relax Cee I won't tell anyone you cried today. It's a secret among us." He winked at her and continued, "I was expecting a more terrible reaction from Katherine, like she would faint or something but you Cee. . . you surprised me." He laughed.

How can he be so insensitive? I wondered. I balled my fists to hide my anger. I didn't want him thinking that his nonsensical comments had any effect over me.

"Yeah yeah , like I care." Cee rolled her eyes.

"Lucas. . ." Zach put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a serious look. He instantly stopped laughing and his face went back to his unreadable expression. It seemed like he had some sort of hold over Lucas.

"Are you alright now?" Zach asked Cee.

"Yeah." She answered. "I'm much better now."

A second later, we heard police sirens closing in on us and minutes later a patrol car stopped a few meters away from us and three men stepped out of it.