Julia and
her little brother Izan always spent the summer in the country, at their aunt
Ana's house. It didn't matter that she was 17, she would always love to spend
time there. On June 15th of that year, the aunt called the niece.
- Honey,
school's out next week, right? I'll wait here for you, you know, gladly! We're
having a visitor this summer, I wanted you to know in advance…
- Her name
is Elisabeth. I don't know if your father told you anything about it… Elisabeth
is my partner.
The girl
was not surprised, but rather happy for her aunt. She wouldn't be alone in that
big house so far from the city anymore. Julia was devoted to Aunt Anna, she was
fun and loving. She was sure she shared such attributes with Elisabeth.
In the
morning of 25th June, the two brothers loaded their suitcases into
their father's car and set off for the countryside. When they arrived, the two
women were already waiting for them at the gate with a wide smile. As they got
out of the car, everyone greeted each other with hugs and kisses. His father
stayed for lunch and left in the afternoon.
That first week was spent among
board games, movies, popcorn and animals. Aunt Anna raised her own chickens and
rabbits, and the boys helped her. Elizabeth was fantastic and her aunt seemed
enormously happy in her company.
But in the
morning of July 3rd, Julia regretted getting up to get water. From the
corridor, she saw a faint orange light coming through the windows and from the
outside. She peeked out and what she saw left her cold. There was Elisabeth,
alone, sitting on the grass, surrounded by candles, drawing some strange
symbols on different sheets of paper. She was reciting some kind of prayer that
the girl couldn't decipher. In front of her was a small shape on the floor.
When she lifted him up, Julia found that he was one of the rabbits from her
aunt's pen. Elisabeth pulled out a knife and cut off his head without
flinching.
The girl, frightened, ran back to her room, closed the door
and hid under the sheets. She was shaking. What had that woman done with the poor
animal? She heard footsteps in the hallway. Someone was coming. Would Elisabeth
have seen it? He was supposed to tell his aunt. The footsteps went by.
Three days
passed and three more rabbits disappeared. Elisabeth performed that strange
ritual every night. Julia didn't dare tell Aunt Anna. One afternoon she used an
old padlock she found in the shed to lock the gate to the corral. And that
night, Elisabeth didn't sacrifice a rabbit, but a chicken. The next day, the
girl closed the door of the chicken coop with a rope, tying as many knots as
she could. That night, there was no ritual. Julia looked out of her bedroom
window and the outside was deserted and quiet. She breathed a sigh of relief.
If Elisabeth could not open the pens, she would not kill any more animals and
would leave behind her macabre hobby.
Then, Julia made out a silhouette
outside, in the dark. She was walking towards the house slowly. The girl
continued to observe his approach until she recognized Elisabeth. The woman
stopped in front of the porch. Julia's heart was going to come out. Elisabeth
raised her head in his direction and looked her straight in the eyes. Julia had
her heart turned upside down. That woman was Elisabeth but her face had
changed. Her features looked like someone else's, it was as if she had suddenly
aged. From her right hand hung a sickle covered in blood.
And then she
went into the house. Julia woke up her brother and they both ran to her aunt's
room, she had never been so scared, panic invaded every muscle in her body. But
her aunt wasn't there. Where would he have gone? Elisabeth's footsteps on the
ground floor echoed ever closer.
- Aunt Anna! AUNT ANA! - shouted Julia down
the hall. But no one answered.
She had no choice but to go down and run to the
nearest neighbors' house, which was a 15-minute walk away. She didn't think
twice and went downstairs quietly, with his brother on his back. When she looked
down she didn't see Elisabeth, it seemed clear. She wasted no time and ran to the
front door. She went out and what she saw outside left her petrified. A large
group of dark, hooded figures surrounded the porch, raised their faces at the
sight, and their faces were illuminated by the dim light of the candle that
each held in his hands. They stared at the siblings without moving a muscle.
-
Help! Help me! That woman wants to hurt us! - But no one was disturbed, they
seemed not to listen to his pleas.
And Julia
ran off with her brother. She crossed the imaginary circle that those
individuals seemed to form and went out across the field, without looking back.
She ran and ran, squeezing her brother's hand tightly until something made her
stop abruptly.
A few meters away from her, she could make out Aunt Anna. There
she was, motionless, tied to a wooden pole, face down, arms in a cross, as if
she was a macabre scarecrow. The girl came up to her and called,
"Auntie, are you okay?"; there was no response. She couldn't see
her face, it was too dark. She decided to touch her face and a cry of horror
echoed in the middle of the night. She had no eyes, they had been removed and
Julia could feel the wet and bloody hole in its place. She ran, she ran, she ran
without stopping. She wasn't aware of the fatigue until she got to the
neighbors' house. She pounded on the door until the owner came out. And Julia
started crying.
The neighbor invited them to rest on the couch and offered them
a couple of blankets. Julia breathed a sigh of relief and decided to try to
forget the spermy image of her aunt, looking around the room, but suddenly she stopped
looking at a framed image hanging over the fireplace...
What was that? That
symbol was familiar to her... Where has she seen it before?
- Are you okay,
honey? - asked the neighbour, who had just entered the room with a cup of hot
milk.
- Nothing, I'm just scared. Have you called the police?
- Sure, they're
on their way.
Julia drank and as she felt the stupor invade her senses, the
image on the mantelpiece took shape in her memory. It was the strange symbol
that Elisabeth drew endlessly on the night of July 3rd?
The Chapter Hunter