Content:
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3

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CHAPTER FOUR

As Mike made it through the fence, he began sneaking towards his house. It was a good 20-minute walk, and it was in his intentions to make it an early night in.

His thoughts were busy trying to grasp all the events that have taken place in the forest. It didn’t leave his head that Molly could agree to such an affair so easily.

His thinking was interrupted by the sound of the horn.

Mike froze like a statue; he felt a shiver run down his spine. Last time he heard that sound was no less than 10 years ago. He was still a young child back then, but he remembered it very well. Everyone in the village remembered that day.

That day the radioactive storm took away many lives. Everyone realised that the community is too weak to go outside the protected areas. It was the only day when he saw his own mother cry, amongst the many other women of the village. Every one of those women lost someone, a husband, a brother, a son - it didn’t matter. It changed their life forever…

“Come on Mike, hurry up, something happened in the governor’s house…” Mikes memories were interrupted by a familiar voice of one of his school friends. His legs begun to move and he started to run towards the house of the governor, with his friend.

Running along the streets he noticed that the whole village was running too… Everyone seemed to hurry up; they all knew the horn couldn’t bring anything good.

Finally, Mike saw the governor’s house in front of him. It never occurred to Mike before now, but he just realised how much larger was this house than those surrounded him. The massive wooden gate to the territory with the terrible angels carving was open and lots of people were gathered around the house.

One of the women was crying on the steps of the porch. Laurence, the chief of police was standing next to her, holding her by the arm. He was clearly whispering something to calm her down.

At a closer look at her, Mike recognised that it was the governor’s daughter.

He finally made it closer to the front door of the house, pushing through the crowd that was getting bigger and bigger by the second.

People were whispering and pushing each other aside to get a closer look.

“What’s going on?” Someone shouted from the crowd “Why was the horn sounded?” The crowd began to speak louder, people kept on shouting over each other.

Finally, Laurence turned towards the crowd. At this moment Mike caught the look upon the face of Preselda, the governor’s daughter. She seemed to be in shock. Her eyes were stone cold, her lips shaking and as Laurence turned away from her, she had to get a hold of the nearby post of the house, in order not to fall down. She kept on crying.

Laurence made a step towards the crowd, he was a big man. Taller by at least a head than everybody else who stood in the crowd. His grey shirt tucked into his trousers, amongst with the shining silver badge by the top pocket of the shirt, always has been something kids were shown by mothers as an example of order.

Clearly, today it was not the case. His shirt was hanging loose and it was clear even at this late hour that his trousers and his badge were stained with a red colour of some sort.

Laurence looked upon the crowd and the people seemed to quiet down a little.

He coughed slightly “An event took place… we had no choice but to sound the horn…” “I don’t think anyone is in clear danger, but I would like everyone to stay here right now until I and my assistants can question everyone who we managed to gather”.

“What on earth is happening?” shouted one of the women in the crowd.

“Guys, look… we are not sure yet how it happened but it seems as if… well, I don’t know how to put it down…”

“What’s wrong with you people?” “He is dead, can’t you get it?” all of a sudden Preselda jumped towards were Laurence stood, she pushed him aside. Her stone cold eyes seemed to be filled with madness.

“Which one of you bastards did this?” “It was you, Tom, wasn’t it?” She pointed her finger towards Tom, Molly's father; Mike turned his head and realised that he was in the crowd amongst others.

“Where is his head you sick bastard?” “You took it away with you!”

Laurence took her with both arms and dragged her away back towards the porch of the house. “Calm down I said, we don’t know what happened! Calm down, you hear me!”

Preselda was crying and screaming, she kept on looking viciously towards Molly’s father.

Everyone in the crowd turned their heads towards Tom. “What have you done Tom?” “What head is she talking about?”

Tom started to mutter “She is crazy; everybody in the village knows that”. As people kept asking questions and shouting over one another, Laurence seemed to have calmed down Preselda and was now back before the crowd.

A moment of silence and an exchange of looks had occurred between the people amongst the crowd and the chief of police.

“Laurence where is the governor?” finally asked Mike.

“The governor is dead” he answered, he sounded sure in himself this time. “We are not sure what happened yet… Hence I need all of you to stay around here” “There seems to be a problem, we have his body, it is upstairs… but his head has been cut off...”

The crowd exploded. There have been no murders in the village for as long as Mike remembered himself. The crowd was going wild, and they kept throwing questions nonstop at Laurence now. Some were screaming, others were whispering to each other with words of disbelief. A murder and a cutoff head in the village? That was something that was unable to settle in the minds of the crowd.

“If Tom was here, then so should be Molly”, thought Mike; he backed away from the crowd, once again pushing through. He searched amongst the crowd for her father, but there were just too many people surrounding him now.

A small crowd gathered around Tom and didn’t let him make a step. Everyone in the village knew how much he hated the governor. Everyone knew that the governor had a sick thing for Molly… only she and Mike knew how sick that son of a bitch really was.

He decided that he had to get out of there to find Molly. He started to look for a way out of the territory of the house towards the small streets that would lead him back into the centre of the town.

The next thing he felt was the landing of a heavy hand upon his shoulder “You going to have to come to the station Mike”, he turned around and saw one of the sheriff's assistants.

“Why do you want me there?” he seemed to have been caught just as he was about to find his way out of here.
“I know that you and Molly had a relationship” “Surely you don’t want to discuss it here Mike” the assistant voice had an aggressive tone.

Mike didn’t want to attract any attention, he was unsure how could he know about their relationship. Surely Molly didn’t tell anyone...

For a second he hesitated, but then something clicked in his head… The man in the forest said that the governor already lost his head… their secret relationship with Molly; the murder of the governor; the strange assistant that knew that.

He wasn’t ready to go to the station now.

Mike twisted his body to the left, the opposite side of the shoulder the hand of the assistant was resting upon.
In a flash, he was already behind the man and pushed him forward towards the crowd. He turned away and started to run.

He couldn’t spend the night in the station. He still had to find his mother and Molly. They had to get ready for tomorrow; the man would be waiting for them he said.

As he rushed around the corner of the nearest street he jumped onto the wooden barrel and onto the roof of one of the houses. He lay down and lifted his head just enough to see the street from which he came.

The policeman was there, he walked right past the corner and right up ahead the street. Mike was lying and breathing heavily, he was still unsure of what was going on.

“Was I am to be blamed now for the murder now?” he thought. Sure, if he had the chance he would have killed the governor himself, but to cut his head off…

How could the police know of their relationship with Molly, there were always so careful…

After about 5 minutes he had carefully jumped back down onto the street, it was really dark by now and the streets seemed empty. It wasn’t a problem to make it quietly to his mother's house now.

As he neared his house he saw the light in all of the windows.

“Of course, I am such an idiot. This is the first place they would search for me”.

He crawled away from the street lamp behind the back wall of the house, the window was open and he managed to get a look into the house.

His mother was seating on a stool and Laurence and one of the other policemen were searching the house.
“Look, Natasha, if he is back you must notify us”, “What is he guilty of?” his mother seemed calm.

“We just want to ask him a few questions, he behaved very oddly today… did you know he has a relationship with Molly?”

“As if you didn’t have any relationships in his age…”

“Times were different back then, you know that it was before the storm” Laurence and his guy seemed to have been on their way out already.

Leaning against the wall, Mike made it towards the front side of the house where he could see the policemen leaving.

“You stay here and watch for that youngster, he will be back here, I know that” Laurence ordered the other guy and disappeared in the alley.

The second policeman made a few steps away from the nearest streetlamp towards the arch between the two houses opposite of his mother’s house. Mike knew well enough that from there the policemen was able to see both sides of the alley but it was difficult to spot him, especially so late at night.

He made it back towards the backyard and climbed in trough the window of the kitchen.

He threw a glance around the room. It was a typical village kitchen with a fire stove and carefully laid out wooden bricks. In the corner, there was a rope, on which some clothes were hanging to dry after the wash.

Some onions were scattered amongst the dishware on the tiny table in the room and as he stepped towards the living room he must have touched the table with his body. One of the onions rolled over and fell down onto the floor.

Surely the noise was heard around the house… As he walked into the living room his mother was already up from the stool and was packing his rucksack, she was stuffing all sorts of tins and clothing in there.

She turned around to him, walked over and handed Mike the bag in his hands.

As he was about to open his mouth, she hugged him and he heard something he hasn’t heard since he was a little boy. Natasha was quietly singing:

“Hush little baby… hush they say”
“Storm is now over… the sky is grey”
“Hush little darling… hear our pray”

Mike felt a warm drop run down his cheek. He didn’t want to cry. Natasha took her hands off his neck and pushed the rucksack into his body once again, “Go, Mike, you have to go outside of the fence” “Stay there for as long as you need, until it calms down”.

“I am not guilty of anything Mother”; “No one will ask you, you know how it works around here… You have to leave now”.

Mike jumped out of the window and started to head towards Molly’s house, avoiding the streetlamps in the streets.

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