Grief

Standing there motionlessly, they all held their breaths and watched the killer cleave off her head.

They didn't even notice the change in the weather as they only felt a sudden cold seconds later after their clothes and faces once again got dyed in more red.

After the cowboy finished the ritual, he took the head, and in an instant, appeared on the skull path where he carefully placed it before turning to mist and disappearing..

Soon, after everything transpired, the entire place was engulfed in silence and only breathing and occasional whimpers could be heard.

Everyone who'd previously stood, sat on the rather uncomfortable path, some staring at the severed head.

Occasional cold winds brushed sending shivers to everyone. But nothing could've been more colder than watching someone you've known almost all your life, someone you've exchanged smiles with not too long ago, be killed in cold blood Infront of you and not be able to help.

As time went on seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours, in the cold silence.

After about 4 hours, far into the horizon, yellow lays could be seen illuminating the red forest, and after about thirty minutes the rays had finally reached the group.

The crimson moons that'd previously illuminated the sky were no more as they'd disappeared, almost as if they never existed in the first place, replaced by the giant ball of yellow flames, that seemed closer to land than ever before.

~Grooowl~

The dead silence that had engulfed the place, for over five hours, was broken by a growl from an empty stomach.

When Mrs Taiyo heard this, her vecant eyes seemed to have come back to life "when did the sun rise?"

"It's been over an hour already." Billie who had his hands tightly wrapped around his stomach that was making unnecessary sounds, said with a somewhat embarrassed tone.

Mrs Taiyo stood up from her previously seated position ".." And was about to speak when she glimpsed at her left and saw the head of one of her students.

Her eyes become teary, she didn't know how to comfort them anymore. Being so young and experiencing a murder and worse of it being that of one of their close companion and friend, she doubted anyone could.

"What are we gonna do now?" her voice breaking a little, Ciru asked, standing up while still trying to wipe her glasses.

"Isn't it simple? we're all gonna wait for death, you saw how strong it is, we have no chance. None of us could even move when it tore Lucy apart" Margret still seated on a pile of skulls she'd previously compiled together voiced, her tone calm and collective.

"Don't say that" Her cracking voice barely audible, Mercy, her Bantu knots dyed in red, said.

"Yeah, that's stepping way too low, even for you" Tony added.

"But she's right, even if I don't like how she phrased it, we still can't do anything, we'll either starve to death or get killed by that monster" Dan who was seated beside his friend said, his rocks somehow still maintaining their colour.

"How so? There's a deer over their and it's still fresh, and also that animal had to have come from somewhere in the forest, meaning there's probably more animals in it." Alpha who'd been busy brushing the blood off his short black hair, while listening in on the conversation, said.

Witnessing her death, his desire to survive and leave this place in whatever means, only burned brighter.

"I don't know about eating that thing, but one thing I'm sure of is that I'll do everything I can to survive and I don't think that person is gonna kills us when we're on this path. You saw it yourself when..., Billie who had gotten over his embarrassment earlier hesitated a bit, before adding "when he was on the path he could've killed us, but didn't, instead he just turned to mist and disappeared "

"What makes you think he isn't some kind of a sadist, maybe he just wants us to think he can't do it, and then pick us off one by one like a twisted game " Ciru who now had her glasses back on asked. She had relentlessly held on to the string of hope that she was either having a nightmare or that everything would be over if Mr Leonard killed the faceless cowboy.

But after the events that'd just transpired, she quickly got a hold of reality and it was much more worse than any nightmare she'd ever had, atleast in a nightmare one had the luxury of waking up, not this time though. And so she'd decided to cast any kind of hope she had in her heart and go with reality.

"What's wrong? Lost all hope? Weren't you the one who said that Mr Leonard was gonna defeat it? Finally our princess stepped out of her own dreamworld. I'm genuinely happy for you" Margret with a mocking tone and a sarcastic smile on her face said.

Ciru didn't really say anything, she just shrugged her off and looked at Billie.

Tony looked at Alpha with a raised eyebrow "What do you mean there's a deer over their and it's still fresh?"

Alpha answered with a flat tone

"Well you don't wanna sterve now, Do you?"

"We'll no, but.."

"There you have it"

Mrs Taiyo who'd been watching the little exchange couldn't help but smile, and athough her face couldn't show it, her heart did.

Even after witnessing their classmate get murdered, some of them seemed to have been trying to draw their attention elsewhere and not focus on everything that'd transpired.

She new they were all facades, though weirdly and abnormally fast even for fronts, she couldn't pay mind to the details for the moment as she felt overly impressed by them. While she was here trying to comfort them, they were busy trying to figure out how they were gonna survive.

This was reality, and they somehow had to survive it after all.

"Alpha's right." Mrs Taiyo said her voice calm.

Dashing in the forest, dragging the spring buck back on the path, skinning then roasting it, wasn't that big of a deal as she'd already done it multiple times_well not the sprinting part.

"..." The kids just looked at her with blank expressions.

Alpha was also stunned as he didn't really think his teacher, of all people, would agree.

"I'm sorry for not being reliable enough, you're kids, you shouldn't have to go through this. But even I couldn't have known that this trip would bring some of your worst fears to life." Mrs Taiyo began "I'm sorry you had to experience this" her voice cracked a little as her eyes become blurry. "I'm really sorry I couldn't save her, from now on I'll do better, I'll make sure to get all of you back home" using a white napkin she had on her pocket she blew her nose "I promise you no one else will die"

As soon as she finished speaking, and they saw her state, some of the kids, as if they hadn't yet come to terms with Lucy's death, started whimpering.

Alpha stood there, his heart aching, he too couldn't bear her death, he was still a kid that never really had to grieve someone close to him.

His mother, even though she was never in his life, from what he'd heard from his older sister, she was still alive.

Most of the kids here were the same, even if most of them tried to put on brave faces, deep down he new they were grieving, same as he was.

"Are we gonna bury her" Mercy asked, her voice low as ever.

"Are you insane? Who do you think is gonna step off the path and risk the same fate?" Margret, her voice calm, asked, her words blunt as usual.

"Well, we can't leave her body like that" taking off his green jacket, Alpha said.

"I don't think the cowboy is gonna come back " Dan added.

Tony staring straight into his friends eyes asked.

"What's makes you think thatl?"

"It's a hunch."

"Great, just great " with a sarcastic smile Margret said.

"We won't bury her. I promised to keep you safe and that's what I'm going to do, I won't risk anyone getting off this path" Mrs Taiyo added, with conviction displayed on her face.

"So we're just going to leave her body here?" Alpha asked, with a frown.

Mrs Taiyo couldn't find any other alternative or an explanation, she just decided to go with the answer that came to mind first, but before she could Ciru came to her rescue

"Give her a break, she's trying her best, Do you think she wants to leave her like this? Why don't we just try and understand her situation, the best we can do now is listen to her."

Alpha didn't really have an answer, even though he wasn't an adult he kinda knew the burden.

He was once assigned the role of a prefect back in fourth grade, he knew how bothersome the kids were, he couldn't even begin to think of how his teacher managed it each and every day. And now being stuck in this place anyone else would've already lost their mind.

But even so, Lucy was there classmate a close friend, she was almost like family, leaving her body out to be ripped apart by some kind of wild animal, Alpha couldn't do it.

They had watched her get torn apart without being able to do anything , burying her was well in her rights, and so Alpha did what he felt was right.

It's not like he believed in hunches, but hearing someone say that the faceless cowboy won't come back, only solidified his beliefs.

He bent down, took a skull part that had been broken off into a shape of a big spoon, and walked off the path towards the body.

"Get back here." Mrs Taiyo, her voice laced with fear and anger, shouted.

"What are you doing?" Ciru asked, her voice cracking almost to the verge of crying.

"Well let's see, if it'll show up." Margret, who now gazed curiously at Alpha without even brinking, said.

"Do you even have sympathy?" Tony asked with a bit of anger in his tone.

"Aren't you curious?"

"What does he think he's doing?"

"I don't wanna watch that again?"

"He's gonna get himself killed"

Questions and cautions filled his ears to which he just shrugged off.

Arriving at the spot where her split body parts laid, Alpha, took a few steps to his right, knelt before grabbing the skull part with both hands and began digging.

He dug for about thirty seconds before being approached by footsteps. Raising his head he observed three kids standing before him while holding onto a part of a skull each.

One had shoulder length black locks and an athletic build. Standing in the middle was one, an inch taller than the rest, with a brown top fade. The last one looked like she had a fever as she was slightly shaking, but the conviction in her eyes seemed to put the other two to shame. She had her black hair tied up in Bantu knots.

"Need a hand?"