The Bleeding File

CHAPTER TWO: WHERE THE FIRE BURNED COLD

The visions brought me here.

Not police work. Not evidence.

The goddamn visions - those relentless flashes of a girl running through trees that had me waking up with the taste of fear in my mouth. So here I was, kneeling in the wet October earth of Blackwoods Hollow, fingers digging into mud that remembered her blood.

Then the ground shifted beneath me.

THE CHASE

—Evelyn's sequined top catches moonlight as she stumbles through the underbrush. Her "Sexy Nurse" costume is torn now, one strap dangling. She's sobering fast.

"Stop! Please! I won't tell—"

Crashing footsteps behind her. Heavy. Certain. A boy's voice, lacrosse-team confident:

"C'mon, Graves. Don't be like that."

She trips over exposed roots. The forest floor scrapes her knees. When she turns, the moonlight catches his varsity jacket first—Lakeview Lions, 2018. Then the knife.

"You wanted this," he says, and his class ring glints as he grabs her hair. "You've always wanted this."

---

I gagged, the vision forcing me to experience every brutal second—her choked screams muffled by his palm, the way he whispered "shhh" like they were lovers, the awful moment when fighting turned to sobbing. The knife only came out after.

I came back to myself on all fours, vomiting into the bushes. My hands were shaking.

Fact: Evelyn Graves didn't just die in these woods.

Fact: She was hunted.

Fact: Her killer enjoyed it.

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THE AFTERMATH

The police report had been clinical:

- Missing persons call at 3 AM

- Blood found near the fire pit

- No body recovered

They never mentioned the torn piece of sequined fabric caught on a branch. Never noted how the drag marks led deeper into the woods.

I touched the bark of a nearby oak. The vision flickered:

—His hands wiping the blade on fallen leaves

—A class ring catching firelight as he adjusts himself

—The casual whistle as he walks back to the party

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THE KILLER'S PROFILE

1) Athlete Varsity jacket, strong enough to overpower her

2) Class of 2018: Would be 23-24 now

3) Psychopath: Returned to the party afterward

4) Local: Knew these woods well

I took a swig from my flask, the bourbon burning away the taste of her fear. The wind carried whispers through the trees—maybe just leaves, maybe something else.

Somewhere in this town, a man was drinking at sports bars. Dating girls. Living.

While Evelyn Graves moldered in some shallow grave.

The firelight burned their faces into my mind—every last one of them, smiling while Evelyn screamed in the woods. They didn’t stop him. Maybe they even expected it. And now… now they’d tell me everything