Hayel is sitting on the floor of his bedroom for some time now. His mind is blank, but sometimes the image of the head keeps returning making him feel like he will throw up again.
He doesn't dare to look at the head on his table again, so his head is turned and he is staring at the floor.
The scarecrows head is on the opposite side of where he is looking, he doesn't dare look at it either.
Confusion and fear fill him. Did that thing seriously kill the girl? Will it kill him too?
He doesn't know how to fight, but even if he knew, could he fight that being? It's not a normal monster, Hayel is sure of that. The fact that it can do things and not be detected even by his ability is dreadful.
He should go out and tell someone, but who? Hayel is too scared to walk at night now all the way to the city, he could however tell one of the guards in the village, but he doesn't know where they are. There is not many of them, maybe three, and most of the time they just patrol around it. They don't have a station in the village, when they are done with their shift they go to the city and from the city come the same number of them during the day.
And frankly speaking, while the village is very small compared to the city, there are still many houses scattered around the main area of the village, so it does cover quite an amount of territory.
The guards could be anywhere really, finding them is a hard task.The village is dark too, not making it any better than walking all the way to the city.
The Order will also probably accuse him of killing the girl, after all he doesn't have an aliby, his reputation is not good and hiding fighting and stealth skills is not impossible, not to mention the head is inside his house.
But does he really want to wait here for his potential death? The answer is no, and he needs to choose what he will do fast. After all, that being could kill him at any moment.
Hayel gets up, feeling lightheaded he supports himself with his hand on the wall. Finally feeling a bit better, he starts walking to the room where the head is while staring in the opposite direction of the head.
There is a big chance he will be executed if he goes to The Order, their rules are ruthless, and if they don't have any potential leads towards the actual murderer, he will become the murderer.
Hayel takes a deep breath, his hands shaking.
He turns towards the table with closed eyes, standing like that for a few minutes, he tries ti calm himself down. The creature hasn't done anything to him yet, but it could. The Order might have clues towards someone else, but they might not.
Both of those options hang heavily inside his head, and the worst outcome from both is death.
He doesn't like The Order very much, while they do send maybe three guards to patrol, that's too little to protect the village, so there are casualties that could have been prevented by them if they just sent more people.
The Order doesn't care about villagers, painting a picture for the city people that the villagers are dumb. That's why even if someone from the village does get an education from the city, which is very unlikely, they will still be stuck with lower pay even if they do the same job as someone from the city.
The Lord and the The Order both control the city, one kind the other merciless.
So Hayel chooses the creature.
He abruptly opens his eyes, the head again appearing in his view.
No eyes, dried blood with bald bloody spots on the scalp.
Hayel is sure something or someone ripped out her hair now, there are a few spots where the hair is short too, probably a failed attempt at ripping it out.
His heart starts beating madly againts his chest again and he takes a deep breath.
Slowly walking towards the cabinet, he takes the oldest cloth that's not ripped.
He turns towards the head and walks over, mentally preparing himself to go bury the head.
With shaky hands, he wraps the head in the cloth and ties it up at the top. He is not planning to walk with the head without covering it somehow, that would be even more disturbing.
He looks at his hands, and a bit of dried blood is there, he quickly goes to wash it fearing he might break down if he stares at them too long.
He returns to his bedroom and takes the only pair of black clothes.
After changing his clothes, he comes back towards the head and grabs the cloth where it's tied.
He stands there, and the almost breaking into a run, he leaves the house.
He is walking down the street paranoid, his eyes looking around fast. Most people should be asleep now, but with his luck be might even run into a guard right now.
With a heart beating madly, anxiety whashing over him, now from the people and not from the dark, he walks fast down the street towards the forest.
Now the dark forest makes him remember that dreadful night, but he chooses not to think about it.
Not now.
He digs a hole with his bare hands, it takes a long time to do it and his nails and fingers hurt, but he reminds himself that that's fine, better than other outcomes.
He puts the head into the hole and quickly buries it. Before he gets up, he turns around to look at his surroundings. It's awfully quite again, with nothing in sight.
He gets up, and quickly rushes back towards his house.
He gets inside, and the first thing he does is wash away his hands from the dirt, as if washing away his sins.
Something wet rolls down his face, and he wipes it with his forearms.
Once his hands are clean, his legs give out. He sits on the floor, his hands covering his face.
And he sits like that, not moving for a long time.
Slowly removing his hands from his face, he takes a deep breath. He slowly gets up, and absent mindendly starts walking towards his bedroom.
He walks inside, the scarecrows head still there. He remembers that there is probably dry blood on the table, so he turns around and walks to the table.
His sight is still not the best, and the dark wood is not helping him either to see the blood. He however, still takes a cloth and wets it.
He starts cleaning it, rubbing the table hard with the cloth, the more he cleans the table the more red the cloth is.
Desperately he cleans it, finally stopping after at least 15 minutes.
He throws the cloth on the floor, he doesn't now what to do with it, neither does he have the energy to do anything.
He walks towards the bedroom once again, he takes the scarecrows head and throws it towards the table.
He closes the door of his bedroom, while he might not sleep, he feels more comfortable inside his small room.
But something catches his eyes.
Something unnaturally dark at the window, and something unnaturally light during the night.
He slowly turns towards the window and his heart nearly stops.
There on his window, a huge dark head with white pupiless eyes stares at him.
Unmoving, it stares at him unmoving.
His mind tells him to run, to look away, but his body doesn't listen.
It's here, that thing from the forest is here, waiting for him outside his house.