Eventually, Katherine and Lucía reached the exact spot where Jonathan Blackthorn had died. The ground was still soaked, not from the forest's humidity, nor the heavy mist hanging between the shadows, but from all the blood the young man had spilled there. Katherine felt it beneath her feet, as if an invisible trace had seeped into the soil itself. Jonathan had died here. And the forest hadn't forgotten.
Katherine could barely breathe when the air changed texture, as if the temperature dropped to a level that didn't belong to this plane. Lucía, now meticulously inspecting the scene, didn't notice it right away. But Katherine did.
"Something's still here," she murmured, her voice weaker than she intended.
Lucía turned her head, her expression alert, but before she could respond, Katherine felt the echo. A sound that shouldn't be there. A scream, distant, muffled, trapped in time. The moment of his death wasn't confined to the past. It lingered here, suspended, repeating in invisible fragments only she could hear.
"Katherine?" Lucía's voice was close, but Katherine barely registered it.
The forest hadn't just been the scene of the murder; it had been a witness. An altar of violence erected by an unholy creature. It was a wound of cruelty and supernatural darkness carved into the earth itself. The pain hadn't faded. And for a moment, Katherine felt Jonathan still trying to scream.
Lucía watched Katherine, her expression vacant, caught in something she couldn't see. The hunter frowned before stepping closer and gently shaking her shoulder.
"Katherine. Hey."
The touch was enough. Katherine blinked, took a deep breath, and the vision faded, but her soul still felt the weight of the echoes trapped in that place. Lucía held her for a moment, searching her eyes for something that might explain what had just happened. But Katherine didn't know what to say.
"Hey, I'm here. Breathe," Lucía said softly, running her hand through the redhead's curls, giving slow, gentle pats in an effort to calm her.
Katherine's eyes regained their clarity. The physical contact, the voice soft as velvet and warm as a cup of hot chocolate, brought her back. And though part of her felt incredibly shy about the closeness and intimacy of the gesture, another part simply let herself melt into the moment.
"Thank you," Katherine murmured, her voice barely louder than a mosquito's hum.
"Anytime," Lucía replied. Seeing Katherine's cheeks begin to flush rapidly, Lucía withdrew her hand and glanced around distractedly, trying not to make things awkward. "Let's see if there's anything else."
They began to comb through the site with more precision. Signs of struggle, deep footprints, the muddy trail of a body being dragged, but nothing new. Just what they already knew.
Frustration began to settle in as the minutes passed. The place had preserved the memory of the crime, but not its hidden details. Whatever secrets they hoped to uncover remained out of reach. Katherine exhaled, uneasy. Something was still missing.
"Lucía…" Katherine said after hesitating for a few moments.
"Yes?" Lucía stopped examining the drag marks on the ground and looked at the redhead attentively.
"I'm going to check a bit farther ahead," Katherine replied, pointing with a trembling hand in a particular direction.
Lucía watched her for a moment, noticing the discomfort in her posture, as if something were calling her elsewhere. Trusting in the redhead's extrasensory abilities, Lucía agreed, but not without a warning. "Don't go too far."
Katherine nodded, but her attention was already elsewhere. The mist seemed thicker at the edge of the area, and the sound of her own steps on the soaked ground felt distorted, as if she were stepping on shadow instead of earth.
That's when she saw it. Something caught in a dense bush, almost hidden among the damp leaves. Katherine reached out, carefully parted the branches, and her breath caught for a moment. It was a sports jacket. Dark, slightly dirty, with a recognizable embroidery on the fabric. Jonathan.
Her fingers closed around the cloth with a mix of urgency and care. This wasn't just a lost item; it was probably the only intact memory left of the young athlete she had once called a friend. "I found something," was all the redhead could say.
The tone in her voice was enough for the hunter to turn immediately, approaching quickly. Seeing her holding the jacket, Lucía didn't need to ask. The jacket wasn't necessarily a clue, but at least it was something.
Half an hour of searching later, Lucía exhaled sharply, shaking her shoulders slightly, as if the gesture could rid her of the forest's oppressive weight.
"There's nothing else here."
Katherine held Jonathan's jacket a little more firmly before nodding. She didn't want to admit it, but she had hoped to find more. A clue that would make the mystery clearer. Instead, the site had only given her echoes of her own anguish.
"Let's go back."
Lucía began to walk, but Katherine's tone shifted slightly before she had taken even three full steps. "Before that…"
Lucía halted her steps, glancing sideways at the redhead. "Something wrong?"
Katherine adjusted the jacket in her hands, her voice carrying a mix of curiosity and restrained nervousness. "I want to take a detour. Check out the old cemetery."
Lucía blinked once, not responding immediately. She was a little surprised by the initiative Katherine had been showing, especially compared to her usually more passive and submissive demeanor. Still, the cemetery hadn't been part of the original investigation, but for some reason, Katherine considered it important.
"Any particular reason?"
"A friend told me something strange happened there today," Katherine explained, though she kept to herself the fact that said friend was the ghost of a dead teenage girl who'd been haunting her for over a year. She felt that admitting it would make her look pathetic in front of Lucía, and for some reason, that thought bothered her.
Lucía ran her tongue over one of her canines in a distracted gesture, weighing the idea for a moment. It wasn't what she'd come to investigate, but Hertford had too many loose ends that still didn't connect. And she had told Sister Superior Elena she'd help look into some of the incidents when she had the chance, so she might as well take the detour.
But if she were honest with herself, that wasn't the real reason she agreed.
"Alright. Let's go," Lucía said, nodding with a smile full of energy and confidence. Because if Katherine wanted to go, there was no way Lucía was going to say no.
"God help me if I ever end up in a real relationship, I'd be a totally submissive wife."
The thought crossed her mind, and though it felt strange, she didn't entirely dislike the mental image. In fact, following every order and whim of the redhead sounded… oddly exciting.
"Tsk. Better not think about that," Lucía muttered to herself.
ClapClap*
Katherine jumped slightly and let out a surprised squeak as she saw and heard Lucía slapping her own cheeks. Before she could ask what was going on, the other girl explained herself with a slightly shaky smile.
"Nothing like a little shock to clear the mind and shake off the cold. Come on, we need to hurry, I don't want you getting home too late."
Without giving Katherine any chance to voice doubt, Lucía took her hand and led her as quickly as reasonably possible toward the cemetery.