C3 CHAPTER THREE

"It doesn't make any sense, " the sheriff yelled on the phone before placing it back on the call stand in his office located within the police department of Wolfspring.

Moving over to his desk, he banged his fist on it before taking his seat."God damn it!" He exclaimed again in frustration; he had just ended a call with Johnny, the head detective, and apparently, after almost three days of intensive investigation, he had no leads on the murderer, no clues, no trails, nothing.The few people brought in for questioning who appeared to be remotely connected to the crime scene during the hours of the deaths had various pieces of evidence to exonerate themselves.

Bricks sat on his seat and picked up the photographs of the last murder case. He compared them with the two other photos of the dead victims, and he could clearly see a similarity."This is the work of a sick bastard, he said to himself again.

The victims all had their abdomens ripped open and all had their hearts and livers missing when they were discovered."So you are taking trophies right?"Bricks said aloud but paused when his eyes caught the obvious claw marks that appeared on every single victim.The idea that these deaths were caused by the action of a predatory human was negated by these claws, which appeared large enough to belong to a bear. But bears leave trails after a hunt; this was way too clean a job to be done by a beastly animal.It was gory enough to be, but too traceless to be

But just as the Sheriff joggled with these thoughts, his door cranked open as Marcus and another deputy matched into his office.Marcus stood in front of Bricks, looking dazed and confused.Bricks has always thought Marcus was way too lillylivered to handle the law enforcement profession, but this case would shake up anyone, and Bricks knew this, but regardless, he was disgusted by Marcus' constant shivering and fear since the first murder was discovered.

"What's the news?"Bricks replied, lifting up his head, his eyes fixated on the files on Marcus' hand. Marcus gestured by shaking his head slowly in a show of his sadness and fear. He placed the document on the table before replying, "It came out negative; the forensics, they've done their thing; they found out no bears were at the crime scene." Bricks looked on, his eyes widening in shock. "How can that be possible?"Bricks asked as Marcus looked on, more worried than the confused sheriff. He wanted to say something but paused. He eventually gathered the courage to speak his mind."There is something out there, boss, and God help us all."

Bricks made his way home that evening driving on the truck; he looked unhinged and scared to the bones throughout the drive.

On getting home, he took out the time to lock his car looking sideways repeatedly in a bid to make sure he was safe, something he wasn't used to doing all his life.Bricks for 15 years after his wife passed was living him with his two kids, the twins Daniel and Daniella. That evening he wasn't in any mood to talk with his kids; he didn't even notice that Daniel was not in the house, nor did he bother to check up on Daniella, which was quite strange because at this point he was very paranoid about his safety and that of his family.Plus, his job required him to worry about the welfare of the entire wolfspring, and all this was on his mind as he broke into his room and fell on the bed still in his uniform; he was that exhausted.He wasn't only being a Wolfspring Sheriff; Bricks had also been acting as a detective lately; for a while he had been visiting and reaching out to the victim's parents after the three victims, two women and one man were killed tragically.

They were all on different camping expeditions throughout the beautiful woods of WolfSpring.The forest attracted lots of campers because it was famed for being free from harmful and dangerous wildlife. How ironic that the very thing that caught the interest of tourists and campers was actually what led to their deaths in the woods. These thoughts ran through Brick's mind, and as Sheriff he felt responsible.He faced crisis sleep and could swear he was consistently hearing a humming in the house. He tried to brush it off as a symptom of his lack of sleep in the past few days.But as the sound grew deeper and deeper and more consistent, his sleep totally disappeared from his eyes, and soon the Sheriff decided to investigate and find out what was going on. He carefully and slowly followed the sound and finally discovered that the humming was coming from Daniella's room, he forced the door open and saw a weird sight of Daniella with her legs crossed in a Buddhist style while meditating, humming while she sat with her eyes closed shut, surrounded by lots of weird statues and candles, at the very center where she sat facing the biggest wooden statue, which stood about 5 feet high."The hell is going on here."Bricks yelled, "It's nothing, dad, she said while looking disappointed as her dad had probably messed up her weird ritual.

"I was trying to connect to my old self from a previous life."Daniella added"You should learn to knock dad, she finally said before standing up to usher him out.

He couldn't make anything out of the gibberish she was saying, so he proceeded to ask about Daniel."Where is your brother?"She replied, "He's not in the house."

"Where the hell is he?"Bricks asked, looking Surprised as it was already past curfew,

She kept quiet at first, but when she saw how very fearful his eyes were,She replied, "He said he was going to Ivan's place, that was all." She concluded by looking away, showing clearly that she was covering up for him.

"To Ivan's place right?"Bricks yelled, "dumb kid, doesn't he know it's past curfew, My God?".Bricks yelled loudly before turning around again to give a warning look at Daniella before storming out finally from her room.