The man dived into the bush, beaking branches apart to reach the tiny girl curled up on the undergrowth. He bent over her, raising her limp body up into his arms, sweeping her hair back from her face as he screamed sobs of her name into the air.
The people of the town started to move toward the sound of the wretched wailing, concern and fear etched lines upon their faces. They looked to each other with searching, questioning eyes. They knew something was seriously wrong.
The first people to arrive at the bush saw the limp, ashen girl and called the emergency services. All they could stutter out from the fear clinging to their throats were choked sobs about a lifeless, bloody child. When the police swung into town with blaring sirens and swinging flashing lights, the townsfolk started to congregate in whispering, huddling crowds.
The arrival of a silent ambulance cut through the town like a knife. Faces huddled together looking ashen as the paramedics walked down the hill, one carrying a small body wrapped in a blanket, the other leading a blood covered man behind them.
The police cordoned off the path around the bush and started trying to disperse the crowd. Gently stating to the questioning faces that they had no information to give.
All the people could do was to head back to their homes, cradling their own much love children close to them. As the news of the death of a small child from their own town broke across the tv and radio many fell to their seats, hands held to their faces as their brains try to process the word murder.
That night many parents tucked their children up and lingered close by or held their childs hands as they fell into slumber. The parents found it difficult to find peace that night, the fears for their own children allowed childhood memories of monsters under the bed to mingle with the reality of monsters living and breathing somewhere close by.
The air over the town hung heavily in the stillness of the night.
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