A Circle of Crows

by Kelsey Kingsley

  Just as I expected, Alec was at the house when we returned, waiting on the couch with a glass of whisky in hand. I considered making a joke to break the ice, about him needing booze to face me again, but thought better of it when he slowly dragged his eyes over my body before greeting my face.

  “I thought we should go as the sun sets,” he said, speaking as though we hadn't spent the better part of a half hour making out last night.

  I nodded. “Okay, sounds good.”

  “Ye wanna dress in somethin' dark,” he commented, gesturing toward my lavender t-shirt and light blue jeans. “We wanna blend in with the night, not stand out.”

  Noting that he had already changed out of his work clothes and into a fitted black sweater and dark jeans, I soundlessly nodded. Then, as I went to find a more suitable outfit, I cursed him under my breath for looking even better in casual attire than he did in a wrinkled shirt and tie.

  ***

  The drive to Coille Feannag was slow and nerve-wracking. Every nightmare I had suffered over the past few nights came rushing back, flashing through my head like a ghoulish photo album of not so distant memories. Every streetlamp light became Gracie's pale, unblinking face, every shadow became the horrors in the night, and I cowered in my seat, desperate for an escape from my horrible mind.

  “Ye all right?”

  Startled by his voice, I turned to look at Alec, immediately grateful for the chance at conversation, and shook my head.

  “No, I'm definitely not all right,” I replied, laughing without humor.

  “Ye didnae have to come.”

  “I have to,” I insisted, although I was unsure about why at this point.

  Shrugging and shaking his head, he said, “I understand, but if ye're that uncomfortable, ye couldae just trusted me to go.”

  “I told you, I need to see it,” I replied, pushing the point with too much desperation in my voice. “That doesn't mean I can't also be terrified. I've had nightmares about that place since I got here.”

  “I've been havin' nightmares about it my whole damn life,” he grunted, as if by saying so, he was winning a contest I wasn't aware I was taking part in.

  Still, his response surprised me, and I asked, “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  I knew I shouldn't have asked; I didn't feel I had any right. But for the sake of making conversation, I did.

  “About what?”

  His jaw tightened and his fists clenched around the wheel. I listened as he took a deep breath and worried I had crossed an invisible line. I hated that the streetlamps had now disappeared altogether as we drove further toward the woods, and I wished I could see him better in the dark car. I braced myself to spend the rest of the ride in uncomfortable silence.

  But, to my surprise, he spoke.

  “I have a stutter,” Alec said in a low voice, like he was afraid to be overheard.

  “I never noticed,” I replied, just as quietly.

  “I know how to keep it under control now, but when I'm in any type of distress, it becomes harder to keep myself together,” he told me. “That wasnae the case when I was a laddie. It was a constant thing, it never stopped, and that made me a perfect target for the arseholes at school.”

  My stomach flooded with an uncertain type of dread, scared of where this story was going, and I said, “That's horrible.”

  “One day, a few kids asked if I wanted to play after class, and bein' desperate for friendship, I was thrilled to be invited by someone other than Rick.” He turned, and even though I could barely see his eyes in the dark, I could feel them on me. “Rick was always my only friend.”

  “He's a good one.”

  “Aye, he is,” he agreed. “He told me not to go that day, too. He tried to talk me out of it, sayin' those fuckin' bastards wanted nothin' to do with me, but I was a pathetic wee shite, and I went with them.”

  Alec took another deep breath, and as he spoke, he sounded winded. Like telling the story was a chore, and I wished he'd stop. But I didn't say anything. I just listened and wished I could hug that little boy he once was.

  “They told me they had a treehouse in the woods they wanted to show me, so off to Coille Feannag we went. We walked for … Christ, I dinnae ken how long, but I kept askin' where this fuckin' treehouse was 'cause I was gettin' tired, and I knew my dad would be worryin' about me. This was well before mobile phones and he wouldnae ken where I was. But they just kept sayin' we were gettin' close, and I believed them.

  “All of a sudden, we stopped walkin' and this one fat fuck named Charlie pointed upward to the sky, and said, 'Ye see it, Alec? It's right up there,' and I looked, but of course, I didnae see anythin'. And then, they were puttin’ a blindfold around my eyes and tyin' me up. And I was such a weak little fuck, I couldnae do anythin' about it. They prodded me with sticks, taunting me, and all I could do was scream and cry for help, but we were too deep in the woods for anyone to hear me.”

  “Holy shit, Alec,” I gasped, clutching a hand to my chest, to try and reach my pained heart.

  “They left me tied to a tree, and I couldnae tell ye how long I was out there. Felt like forever.”

  “Who found you?”

  “My dad called the police after I didnae come home. They got one of the arseholes to talk.”

  “God,” I whispered into the car. “You could have died.”

  “I reckon that was their intent,” he murmured gruffly.

  “I'm so sorry, Alec. That's fucking awful.”

  “Hm.”

  “It is,” I pressed, raising my voice. “Nobody deserves anything like that to happen to them.”

  “No,” he grunted, as we turned into a dirt clearing, adjacent to the wooded dark. “And nobody deserves to be killed and left for the crows.”

  ***

  The wind carried with it an ominous chill as we stepped through the archway of bowed branches and into the forest. Alec led the way, carrying a flashlight, as I kept my hand firmly gripped to his arm. With the cover of the trees overhead, the clear night had become the darkest shade of pitch black, and I was completely unable to see anything on either side of us. All that was visible was whatever the flashlight illuminated in its glow, and I had never been more afraid in my life.

  We left the entrance further behind, and walked as quietly as we could over crunching, dry leaves and snapping, brittle twigs. I winced with every step, terrified of the ghosts that might be sleeping behind every tree. I would hate to be the one to wake them, horrified of what they might do.

  “Are ye all right?” Alec whispered, pausing for a moment to take a quick look at me.

  “Oh, wonderful,” I whispered back. “It’s always been my dream to trek through a creepy Scottish forest at night with nothing but a flashlight to guide my way.”

  “Dinnae blame me for ye bein’ here,” he replied, his voice lilting with amusement.

  “Just keep moving. The quicker we can get out of here the better.”

  We pressed on, until our beam of light illuminated an abrupt break in the trees, and then, there it was. The rock Gracie’s body had been laid on, gleaming like moonstone in the glow from the flashlight. A chill clawed its way down my spine, and every hair on my arms stood upright. I wondered if she would be there, lurking behind the rock, waiting to pop out as we made our approach.

  I braced myself, staying behind Alec as we stepped into the clearing, when quickly he turned to shine his light in another direction.

  “What’s wr—”

  “Shh,” he shushed me quietly, grabbing my arm and pulling me down to crouch with him. “Did ye hear that?”

  My heart hammered wildly in my chest, as I stared ahead at the gnarled trees. “What?”

  He turned the light off, leaving us to sit defenseless in the dark. His hand remained firm on my shoulder, powerful in his grip, but his trembling arm gave away his fear.

  We sat there for a minute, before he turned the light back on. He helped me back up and apologized, explaining that he thought
he had heard something. I told him it was fine, while appreciating the comfort of having him there. Especially when I knew that he was just as afraid as me. If not more.

  Our eyes were set on the rock and it’s smooth, marble-like surface. A glint of reflected light caught my eye as we got closer, and I began to wonder if it had been in my head, when Alec muttered, “What’s that?”

  I could hear my blood, pounding through my head and rushing through my veins, as we came closer and saw what it was shimmering in the light.

  “Oh, my God,” I groaned, not caring to be quiet, as my hand reached out to hover over Gracie’s ring. “Oh, God. What the—what the fuck …”

  “This is her ring?”

  I nodded, unable to bring myself to touch it with my fingers and to feel the solid gold. Too afraid to know that it was real. “Y-yes,” I said. “Oh, my God … I don’t, I don’t understand. Did-didn’t you say it wasn’t here? Didn’t you say you were just here yesterday?”

  Alec reached out to take the ring and held it between his fingers. “Yes,” he replied. “Ye’re sure it’s hers?”

  “Yes!” I hissed loudly, watching with horrified wonderment as he turned the gold diamond ring in the light.

  He lowered his hand and swept his gaze over the clearing, before turning his eyes back on the stone. With an inquisitive cock of his head, he held the flashlight higher and peered closer at the rock’s surface, before reeling back.

  “We need to go.”

  “What?”

  I looked closer, and although the light was dim, I could now see the scrawled handwriting marring the pristine surface.

  Stop l-l-looking, Alec.

  Just as he had, I reeled backward, taking two steps to stand beside him. I opened my mouth to speak, when the distinctive sound of snapping twigs resounded through the hollow night, echoing out among the trees.

  I gasped and whipped my head to look in the direction from where the noise came from. “What—”

  Leaves crunched; twigs snapped. The sounds came closer with every passing millisecond. I was frozen on the spot, like a stunned animal. Gawking and waiting for the noisy ghoul to show its ugly face, until Alec grabbed my hand and ran, pulling me toward the entrance of the woods. We were chased by the phantom sounds, as we tripped over roots and stones, scratching our faces against the outstretched fingers of gangly trees. Once we emerged from the forest, Alec shouted at me to get into the car.

  But without his hand to drag me along, I was frozen again, staring at the gaping entrance, and half-expecting to see my sister dragging her footless leg along the ground behind her.

  “D-d-da-dammit, Rosie! Get i-i-in!” Alec shouted, nearly pushing me into the open door of the car.

  Then, with both of us inside, he peeled away from the woods, and I looked back. Waiting to see if it was her causing all the racket, until the woods faded from my sight.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  ALEC

  The roads of Fort Crow zipped by at a speed far above the limit, as Rosie and I drove back to the house. Incoherent stutters left my lips while her terrified shock quickly escalated toward hysterics. The professional in me knew I should pull myself together, while the goodness in me wanted to stop the car, console her, and tell her we were safe and fine. But logic said that we never would be, not really. Not until her sister’s murderer was caught.

  I killed the lights before turning onto Rick’s road. It didn’t appear that anyone was following us but for caution’s sake, I didn’t want it to be obvious where we were headed. Then, driving slowly, I pulled up to the house and turned the car off.

  We both ran inside, slamming the door and locking it behind us, and then, my eyes fell on her. On the rapid rise and fall of her chest. The rosiness of her cheeks. The fearful glint in her dark eyes and the fluttering of the pulse in her neck, all reminding me of how alive we both still were. My brain shielded itself from overthinking and fright as I rushed toward her, hands outstretched and grappling, and took her face in my palms. Lips violently met lips, instantly bruising upon impact. Tongues intertwined and hearts clattered against battered chests, as I pushed her against the wall beside the door. Needy whimpers erupted inside her mouth, and I answered, undoing my pants as she undid hers and shoved them to the floor, not once breaking the feverish kiss. As if we had practiced the act countless times before, Rosie wrapped her leg around my waist with the fluidity of a dancer, and in perfect alignment, I slid inside, groaning from somewhere deep in my soul. It had been nearly a year since I’d known the touch of a woman, and if I never knew it again after this moment, I knew I would’ve died a happy man.

  We fucked like there wasn’t a tomorrow. Hell, maybe there wasn’t, not for us. And with every heavy breath, grunt, and groan beside the door, I convinced myself that I was perfectly fine with that. Because right now, I had this gorgeous woman in my arms, moaning my name into my ear, and not a damn thing mattered but that.

  “Oh, shite,” Rick gasped from behind me, scaring us away from the moment, and just like that, the spell was broken.

  “Sorry,” he added, while I pulled away from her, shielding her body with mine as she pulled her pants back on and I tucked myself away.

  “Oh, God,” Rosie groaned, and not in a pleasurable sort of way, while she quickly hurried to straighten her shirt.

  Zipping my pants and silently cursing my friend, I slowly turned to find him leaving the room, with a new strip of bandage wrapped around his hand.

  “Fuckin’ hell,” I grumbled, wishing I was still inside Rosie and not looking at the side of Rick’s bright red face as he disappeared into the kitchen.

  Rosie shook her head as she covered her face. “Oh, God,” she repeated, then dropping her hands, added, “I’m just going to …” She gestured up the stairs and I nodded, watching as she ran up to her room.

  With a begrudged sigh, I headed into the kitchen. Rick’s face hadn’t muted in color by the time I entered, and he apologized once again. “I heard ye come in,” he explained, “but I didnae expect—”

  “It’s fine.”

  “No, I shouldae—”

  “Rick,” I said, narrowing my eyes and holding out a hand. “Really, it’s fine. I have other things to worry about and this isnae one of them. So, don’t worry about it.”

  It was a lie. I would worry about it. I would worry a lot. About whether Rosie regretted it and if I’d ever know her touch again. But now wasn’t the time, and Rick didn’t need to know any of it.

  “What happened?” he asked, furrowing his brow. “Other than,” he gestured upstairs, “the obvious.”

  I straightened the waistline of my jeans as I quickly moved to the table. Once I was sitting, where my pictures and notes were still laid out, I removed ring from my pocket. Rick came to my side and picked it up, turning it over in his fingers curiously.

  “It was Grace’s,” I explained. “Someone left it at the stone, along with a note.”

  I told him about the message, scrawled onto the stone in permanent marker, and watched as his usually pale complexion blanched to a ghostly white.

  “Ye’re in over yer head, mate,” he uttered, as his shaking hand laid the ring back on the table. “Ye need to stop this. Go to Edinburgh. Tell them what’s happenin’ here. Ye cannae—”

  “It’s Finley,” I said, glowering at the ring. “It has to be. He’s the only one who wouldae known I’d go back there. He’s also the only one I’ve spoken to about any of this. He’s—”

  I was cut short by a photo of Grace, alive and well, and smiling in the bright sunlight. I pictured Finley, my partner and friend, luring her into his grasp. Abducting her. Raping her. Choking the life from her eyes. I imagined him carrying her through the woods and leaving her on the stone to be found by some unsuspecting hiker days later. I doubted he could’ve predicted Angus and his dog’s discovery of her foot, but Finley killed her. She was a careful woman and would’ve trusted him for being a cop, and he took that trust and abused it.

  In a
burst of rage, I picked up the first thing I could find—my mobile—and threw it at the wall.

  “Fuckin’ bastard!” I shouted in hateful fury, before slamming my fists down onto the table.

  “Ye don’t know for sure, man,” Rick insisted. “It might only seem that way. Maybe he—”

  “Oh, do you have another explanation for this?” I asked, turning to sneer at my friend. “He’s the only one, Rick. The only other person who knew any of this shite. And he invited me for a drink today! Why do ye think that is?”

  Rick’s eyes slowly widened with immediate acknowledgment and fear. “Christ, Alec.”

  “Right.”

  He swallowed as he sank into a chair. “What are ye gonna do?”

  Planting my hands on the table, and casting my eyes over the photographs of life and death, I took in a deep breath and said, “I need to come up with a plan, I guess. And then, I need to go catch a bloody killer.”

  ***

  The upstairs hallway was long and carpeted in a monotonous pattern that felt reminiscent of something from a Stephen King novel. I stood at Rosie’s door, unsure of if I should knock or run away to seek refuge in my own room. My fist hovered frozen in mid-knock when she opened the door and yelped at the sight of me.

  “You really shouldn’t creep on people like that,” she said, catching her breath.

  “Sorry. I just wanted to see if ye’re okay,” I replied stupidly, diverting my eyes to anywhere but her lips.

  “No, Alec, I’m not. But thanks for asking,” she retorted sharply, before sidestepping around me and into the hall.