Car Keys

As she searched, her movements were frantic. She knew it must be in her bag, but rummaging through the endless amount of items in the bag she just couldn't find it.what was it about female bags that you could never find a damn thing in them even if your life depended on it. The sense of fear crept on her slowly. She hated standing here in a dark parking lot alone. She felt how panic gradually soaked into her making her heart race madly, breath sharpen and tears roll down her cheeks. She dropped her lipstick and comb and bet down to pick them up. Then she put her bag on the ground and squatted next to it and continued rummaging through the bags content. Suddenly, a lightning of relief struck her as her fingers joggled the metal bundle of keys until they took a firm grasp of it. She stood up, opened her car doors and sat in the drivers seat. Then she breathed out heavily and wiped of the marks of tears. Then she fastened her seat belt, put both arms on the wheel and instinctively looked into the rear view mirror only to find two cold eyes staring back at her from the backseat of her car.

The Well

There was a legend about the well in the garden. It said that if you drink from it at midnight on Midsummer night and then look in the well you can see your future wife or husband. People even tell incredible stories about a poor fellow who had seen the daughter of the nobleman. At first people had laughed at him when he announced that he is going to marry her, because he was just a poor servant. However, time passed and during the war things changed.He became a general due to his persistence and bravery. He also took such a good care of his fiancee's family, who had lost almost everything, that they were happy to give their blessing to this marriage. After their marriage people had no doubt about the well and its magic. Every year during the midsummer festival old and young formed a line to drink the magic water and look into the well. This year I was among them and my turn was approaching fast.

The house

The door was closed, and as I put my hand on the handle, I felt afraid of what we might find. I had been walking past this house for years as a kid but never dared to go inside. Even when Jim threw me a challenge to enter the house one summer day during my 5th grade I still chose to eat 3 very alive worms instead. And here I was 10 years later still terrified to bits. Suddenly, all the local weird legends about this place came back to me. A husband gutted in front of his 3 children by his jealous wife, a mobster using the place for "quiet talks" with the people who where later nowhere to be found, a crazy loner lurking in the shadows of the house luring kids in to the garden. Those where just some of the stories and not even the creepiest. Even adults used to chose paths that didn't lead too close to the house. So what was really in there? I was about to find out.

The plan

He looked at his phone, turned pale, then quickly left the room. She watched him, smiling. She enjoyed every second of it but she kept quiet. She knew exactly who was calling, what message was given and what he felt. Well, she could imagine what he felt because she had been going through all this nightmare for three months now. Now it was his turn. She heard his rapid footsteps on the second floor and could almost see him pacing in the bedroom, his eye bulging, his forehead sweaty and his hand fidgeting and running through his thinning hair. She stopped the urge to go upstairs and observe. She should act like she knew nothing at all. It was really hard because she wanted to laugh at his disgusting, cheating face and tell everything. But then he wouldn't suffer enough; then it would be only a brief moment of humiliation. She wanted him to pay for every single night she spent crying, for every line of gossip that traveled around the town about her, and for every sympathetic look and whisper she noticed when she left the house.

Invisible battle

The urge to interrupt him before he had finished was overwhelming. She fidgeted a little and continued to look at him. This need didn't go away, it was like itching - drove you crazy if you couldn't scratch it. He was blabbing away about his adventures in London for good 5 minutes and she had amazing story to tell about the accident in London's tube. She was afraid that he will change the subject and there will not be a reasonable chance to tell this story. And here it was he had switched his topic to squatters and freegans. The opportunity was lost. She smiled and nodded but her mind was racing, searching for some good stories, adventures or just jokes about the given topic. He continued without any real breaks, like he was afraid that she might say something and take over the conversation.

Family curse

The whole family had been cursed since the middle ages. A spiteful spinster had done all she could to make sure that this family will never have happy marriages and there would always be single mothers struggling to feed every mouth in the house.  All that evil due to one dance with the wrong partner. The great grandmother's loving husband had turned into a mean alcoholic who had terrorized the whole family. The grandmother's husband had died in the war leaving her with five little daughters and none of the five sisters ever got married except her mother. Her own father had disappeared in the sea during the fishing incident. Those were just some cases from her family history she knew. Now she was engaged with Andy and she wanted it to last. She wanted to break the curse. Therefore she was here in this small room of plenty weird odors and an old woman with an uncomfortably piercing gaze. 

Susan

There had been many theories about how she had been murdered, but no one knew for sure. All the gossipers in the town had divided in to three large groups  - the ones who believed that her husband killed her and hid her body in the graveyard when he organized the funeral of old Milly McGvair; the ones who were convinced that it was a migrant from Eastern Europe who killed her and then hid her body, since it was a common knowledge that those migrants knew incredible way of getting rid of the bodies; and finally the ones who were sure it was Amy Sullivan who did it, yet they were not sure what she could have done with the body and whether or not she had had an accomplice. Then there were also minor weird theory believers but none of them had any similar theories. There was one common trait they all shared - they all believed that Susan had been murdered. Now and then one or another group would pay visit to the Police to share their theories or new conclusions thus making a fuss about the case again. However, as the time passed the visits became less frequent. Therefore, the day she purposefully walked along the main street towards the town hall, every one stared at her wide-eyed in disbelief, almost angry that they had been being fooled all this time.