AUTOPSY
Had you walked through Greyhound Forest almost two years ago, you would have seen an odd man limping by the lake. You would have noticed him clenching his thigh with his left arm, as he looked around anxiously. The frost rested on the grass either side of the frozen waterway. The tops of the trees were bare, exposed by the wind that ran through the forest.The whole land was lifeless, so lonely and cold that the spirit had been drained out of it. Ethan waited for the reflection of the blue lights to pass the lake before shuffling towards the tree stump. He slumped down, ripped off a strip of his shirt underneath his coat, and tied it around his thigh. Had you been there that day, you would have seen a man get up and slowly move towards the lake as the sound of glass smashed under his feet. You would have realised that he wasn’t himself, was an almost completely different person. He knelt down beside the lake and cracked the sheet of ice that lay on top of the water. Moving his hand away from his thigh he dabbed it into the ice- cold water. With his wet hand, he brushed his thigh carefully. He repeated this five times before washing his hand for the final time in the cold, red water. Fixing his eyes on a small rock beneath the water’s surface, Ethan fell into a trance as his mind took over. A sound, like a ticking clock, grew louder and louder until a dark-clad figure came into view. The outline sharpened to reveal a slender woman wearing a black tailored coat and black high heels. As Ethan continued to stare he saw that she was being monitored closely by a man clutching the taut collar of his drab winter coat. Pausing only momentarily to remove her gloves, the woman made her way to the end of the road where she opened a gate and entered a house.
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