The Body

Sylvia Wineguard walked into the deep part of her woods. The townspeople had rumours, stories about this part of town, even long before Sylvia had moved in. Stories like that were bound to induce a few rebellious teenagers to wander far back into these woods. Sylvia was one such girl. She walked, and came to the famed clearing. Everyone talked about this part of town - the part of town where the murders happened. The clearing was relatively circle, with lines dug into the ground crossing paths every once and a while - seemingly at random. But if Sylvia could rise above her post the ground and look down at the scene below, the crisscrossing lines would form a star, with arcane symbols filling the spaces. Even all these factors were not what caught Sylvia’s attention. Her attention was grabbed by a lump in the center of the circle. Sylvia’s curiosity was piqued. Had she done a good enough job? In answer, she jogged up to the mound for a closer look. Upon her close inspection, it was a girl. A girl wearing all black, with inky markings on her arm - the same symbols scrawled around the circle. Her long white-blonde hair shone and fluttered across her face. She had been placed strategically in the dead center of the circle, lining into the center of the star. Her bare, marked arms stretched wide, with her hands brushing the corners of the pentagram. This was mirrored by the other arm, and both legs. The markings were smudged a bit, but they would have to do. The short sleeve shirt she wore was loose, black, and low, revealing the bottom edge of her bra - way below school dress code requirements. She wore black leggings - ripped, of course, and black combat boots. What Sylvia - and the others investigating similar deaths - interesting about this girl, however, was that even under Sylvia’s scrutiny, there were no external wounds. Sylvia was proud of her handiwork. She had done her job well with this one - Satan would be pleased. And another name would be added to the list of strange, unsolved murders, the murders that were reported as suicides motivated by some strange cult, the list that began its collection 3 years ago, when Sylvia had first moved in and began her project.