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in those leaves.” There's a slightly flirtatious tone to her voice, despite her protestations. “And don't call me that again,” she warns.
    “ It's not my fault you've always got them out,” says Alex with a shrug.
    Ingrid fumes and folds her arms over her chest, perhaps to cover her cleavage which is clearly viewable through her open coat.
    “ He's right though, Ingrid, you do always have them out,” Josh says with a wicked grin. Ingrid grins back at him and shoves him forward.
    Alex turns to look around at Caroline, who's walking just behind him and mouths, “Arseholes.”
    She smiles and nods in agreement, but she seems a little off. There's apprehension and a slight touch of fear to her aura colours. I feel bad for wanting to come into the forest, since it's obviously reminding her of Lauren. I wish I could tell her that her cousin's murderer isn't still out there, that she's serving her punishment now. Somewhere.
    After about another fifteen minutes of trekking through fairly dense woods we reach the swamp. It's not at all like a lake because the water in it is thicker and covered with sludge. I can't imagine it would be a pleasant experience to fall into it.
    “ That's weird, I'm not seeing any dead rabbits. I think you were lying Falco,” says Josh smugly.
    “ Maybe whatever killed them came back to eat the remains,” Alex suggests with a ghoulish laugh.
    “ Why would they come back for stale remains?” asks Caroline, ever inquisitive. “Surely it would be better to eat them when they're freshly dead.”
    “ You've got a point there,” Alex agrees.
    I lean back against a tree to rest my legs after the walk, while Frank goes for a stroll around the swamp, peering at the ground, perhaps looking for evidence of the rabbit bodies.
    It seems as though the temperature has dropped suddenly, so I pull the hood at the back of my grey cardigan up over my head and button it all the way to the neck. I stare at the trees surrounding the swamp and for some reason my eyes latch onto a weird shape in the distance, amid all the brown and green nature colours.
    You know when you think you're seeing something, but your eyes just won't adjust to it properly. Like those optical illusions that look like an old woman to some people and a young woman to others, but for a minute you can't see either as your eyes figure out what they're looking at. Since the light here in the woods is becoming ever more non-existent, the task is even more difficult.
    I stare at the shape, squinting my eyes to see, and for a few brief seconds I know what it is. My heart flips over on itself, because I'm looking at a face that appears to be made of leaves, with deep black eyes peering out behind them. Above the leaves that make up the face are two grey devil horns, like those depicted on mythical creatures in story books. The eyes stare back at me, but the next time I blink the face is gone, camouflaged back into the tree as though it were never there to begin with. My imagination might be getting the better of me.
    “ Come on, I think we should start making our way back to the house,” says Caroline, hovering by the edge of the clearing. Just as she's finished speaking I hear leaves rustling somewhere close by. The others must hear it too, because they all begin looking around to discover the source. The sound gets nearer, and then I hear the gallop of hooves coming our way.
    Moments later a ghostly white horse emerges from out of the trees and takes a flying leap right into the swamp, its incorporeal body disappears seamlessly into the thick, slimy water.
    “ What the...” Caroline whispers as she rushes to my side and wraps her hand tight around my upper arm.
    Ingrid looks like she's about to pass out and she practically jumps into Josh's arms. Both Alex and Frank are scanning the area and then looking at each other in that silent communication way again.
    “ We're going now,” Frank announces suddenly.
    “ What the hell was that? Some