Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (dark books to read TXT) 📗

"Me too, Janice," Sarah said. "It's just how I deal with it and try to move on. I left school and everything fell apart after the accident."

"Accident?" Janice shot back. "You still have the nerve to call it that?"

"Listen," Sarah said. "You have every right to be angry and say what you want, but it was an accident."

"Whatever," Janice said.

After a few moments of watching Sarah pace around and David mope, Janice finally rose to her feet and walked over to the cage.

"What do you think happened here?" Sarah asked. Janice didn't say a word to her as she elegantly slid her fingers across the bent metal bars.

David strolled closer, sticking to the other side of Sarah. "Looks like King Kong versus Godzilla happened here," he said.

"I think it started over there." Sarah pointed as she stepped further.

"It opens up over that way to the field," Janice said, leaning against the wrecked metal cage as Sarah and David walked further.

"Wait," David suddenly said as he grabbed Sarah's shoulder and she swung around with surprise in her eyes. "Maybe we shouldn't. Vance had a bunch of bear traps."

"I didn't think of that," Sarah said as they looked around. Broken bark and branches sprinkled the ground all around them spattered in blood. "Do you think that's..." Sarah paused as she lifted her hand over her lips. "Vance?"

"It's hard to say," David said with a struggle in his voice as he swept his hand through his hair. "With all this damage, I doubt the monster escaped unscathed." Janice found it ironic that they referred to it as a monster.

Sarah bent down and broke a piece of poison ivy, lifting a large leaf covered in thick, reddish brown blood.

"You know..." When Sarah's eyes lit with an idea, it was as obvious as a lightbulb flashing over her head. "I bet if we could compare the DNA from this blood to all of our suspects, it would match the killer."

Janice looked over at David as he sighed and lifted his hand. "Sure. Let me just get out my trusty DNA lab and get started on that." Sarah rolled her eyes at him as she tossed the plant onto the ground with a shake of her head.

Sarah turned to Janice. "Listen, David and I thought about us all leaving town for a while, but-"

David interrupted Sarah's speech. "It's a no go."

"What? Why?" Sarah asked, turning her head back at David.

"Terry says the mayor has the cops listing everyone going in or out of town."

"The mayor?" Sarah asked.

"And that's not all," David said. "The Big Bucks are mobilizing to get it too. They're pretty pissed about Willy."

Janice joined in the conversation. "Do you think they know about it? The werewolf, I mean?"

Sarah and David looked at one another for a couple seconds before David finally answered. "I'm sure they know it's something."

"That doesn't really help us," Sarah said.

"Terry should be on his way," David said as Janice turned her back to them and began to pace back toward the broken metal bars.

"He didn't tell me he gave you directions here," he said, looking curiously in Janice's direction.

"He didn't have to," Janice said. “I just read the message and came down here."

Sarah and David looked at each other. "How did you find the exact place though?" Sarah asked. "The message just said the woods behind the chicken houses."

Janice didn't immediately answer, because she knew exactly what Sarah was getting at. She grasped onto the cold steel bars that hung horizontally from their broken frame as she stared out into the cracked canopy. Beams of morning light shined through every tiny gap.

"I had a hell of a time figuring it out, myself," David said hesitantly with a light gesture of his hand while they looked at her with questions in their eyes.

"I was with him for almost a year, remember?" Janice said. She lowered her eyes. "This was where we had our first major fight."

Janice released her grip as she turned to reclaim her seat on the damp stump while David and Sarah stood, looking on. "You're all wasting your time, you know?" she said as she swept one side of her hair back behind her ear. "We're all going to die before this curse does."

David swiped his hand in her direction. "There you go with this curse stuff again. This isn't some punishment and none of this is your fault, Janice."

She noticed the momentary look that Sarah shot David as if to tell him to shut up.

"You don't understand," she said as she blew a long breath out into the air. "It is my fault."

"No, it's not!" David shouted, stepping firmly forward, closer to where she sat. Janice noticed Sarah stepping slowly away, her eyes getting wider by the second.

"David..." Sarah's voice sounded with caution.

Janice rolled her eyes as she shook her head with a sigh. She slapped her hands onto her knees where she sat on her decaying wooden throne. "It was me, okay."

She saw Sarah's jaw plummet as David took a step back.

"What do you mean, Jan?" David asked quietly.

"I mean it's me,” Janice said. “I'm the one who killed those people."

Chapter 20

#David#

David stood frozen in the small wooded clearing, looking over Janice in shock as her words replayed over and over in his head. It's me. I'm the one who killed those people. He looked over his right shoulder where Sarah backed up further before he turned back to Janice, still sitting on her stump with lips that pouted down to match her pressed eyebrows. She just sat there, looking past both of them as David studied her smooth, light brown hair, mildly complected, soft skin and shining green eyes. Her plump lips glistened in the morning sunlight. He wondered if the moonlight could really transform such an elegant creature into a monster of darkness.

The sunlight flickered in through the green shelter of maple and oak leaves above. Dark wooden branches snaked their way across, forming a vein like skeleton that held the canopy in place. Below, they stood among