Despite the small prick of pain, I wouldn't have even noticed I'd been cut had the three men not stood frozen for a minute in shock.

"It's just a cut guys...no need to be so shocked, fjollet." My dutch slipped through as I tried to bring some normalcy back to the group.

Gilbert shook his head nervously, "Tut mir leid, I should've been more careful."

"I'm not made of glass, I'll be fine, no need to be so concerned. These aren't poisonous thorns, after all, I've studied a bit of botany since I camp often, so no need to look so shocked."

It's like they hadn't realized they were shocked but the fact that Antonio and Francis noticed from their position a few yards away made me think perhaps they were reacting to something else so as their shoulders softened again and they walked at a steady pace again.

"You've studied a bit of everything haven't you, erudito?" Antonio teased sweetly.

"I don't know a lot about each thing but I know a little about everything I can, it's always good to have information no matter how random it might seem."

"So you know dutch too then?" Gilbert asked.

"Nice, you picked up on it, do you know dutch as well?"

"A bit yes, Belgian chicks are hot- ow" Gilbert started but was cut off when Francis hit the top of his head.

"Do you know any other languages?"

"I know whatever parts of them I need to know, I was in Holland recently so it's still on the tip of my tongue."

"Hey Gilbert-" Antonio interrupted.

Gilbert turned to him inquisitively.

"Ja?"

"What is all this."

We paused in a circular clearing. The trees were coated with dried red blood.

My eyes widened in shock.

Gilbert attempted to step in front of me to block my view but I rushed past him to investigate.

"Are you crazy, don't just rush into this kind of place." Gilbert hissed.

"I've seen worse, besides we should know what this is in case we need to report it." I hummed as I looked to frayed rope hidden beneath the leaves.

It wasn't well concealed, there weren't many leaves above it, but there were many below it, it must've been recent. I couldn't sense the bloody tang in the air so it couldn't have been less than a day or so.

Antonio walked to me quickly where I was crouched down over the rope, careful not to touch it. He pulled me up by my arm and dragged me away from the scene to the others.

"Ve've seen this shit before, it's the mark of a murder who's been in the area before, for all ve know vhere are cameras watching, you can't be here anymore," Gilbert growled anxiously.

"You've seen this before personally?"

"We come to these woods a lot, the same thing happened a year ago. It could be an annual thing. Espero que no." Antonia fretted, exchanging a knowing glance with Francis.

Was everyone in this town as peculiar as them?

"___ 'ou should return home. It's best 'ou leave town- and 'ait what do you mean 'ou've seen worse?"

"Delayed reaction, much? I've been to countries on the brink of war, villages on the brink of extinction, towns populated with people on the brink of death. Not all countries are so safe and secure, the third world and even the second don't have that kind of privilege. Even home in the states, there are cities well known for homicide. I got in a knife fight once in Mexico, I've had a gun pointed at me in Norfolk, I got stuck in a bank robbery in Portland, I seem to have a habit of going places where I'm not welcome." I muttered. It was true. Traveling as much as I did, you learn to be cautious, you learn to stomach unpleasant things, you learn to expect things you never would've imagined as a child.

Seeing the world had its downsides, because not all of the world is pleasant to see, but it's a sad reality and inescapable.

They snapped me out of my distant gaze as my thoughts wandered to the worst situations I'd been in.

"Where's Norfolk, I don't think I've heard of that one?" Gilbert asked.

"That's what you take from what she just said." Antonio arched an eyebrow and Gilbert shrugged.

"Most normal question I could ask." He replied.

"It's a city in Virginia. Used to be a lot worse off but it's gotten a lot better, it's even the largest naval base in the world now. Pretty cool to see all the ships but don't get caught up in the hood or the alleyway." I explained.

"I think that applies everywhere," Antonio advised.

"Yeah, should probably start taking my own advice." I sighed. I wasn't nearly cautious enough, I took risks because I didn't seem to care about the possible outcome, not until I needed to fight to survive did I actually begin to realize I was in danger.

I scratched my side as I did when I recalled the knife fight, feeling the indent of the scar on my waist where I was struck.

Francis patted my back when they noticed my somewhat somber look and turned me around.

"'ell we should get away from 'ere. You don't need any more bad memories, such a beautiful mademoiselle shouldn't have the 'aunted look in 'er eyes that you do." He said a little sadly.

Antonio and Gilbert stayed behind as Francis put his hand in the small of my back, urging me along the path from which we came.

It seemed as if we'd walked much further than before, without Gilbert's war stories to pass the time.

"You have any stories?" I asked Francis when the silence of the forest started to unnerve me.

"About the forest? Not really, zhe three of us come to 'ere to talk or relax, sometimes we eat out 'ere in the clearing beyond zhe tree line at zhe forest's end." He said, his accent thicker than usual, was it a nerve thing?

I didn't mind that he hadn't moved his hand away from my back. It was a little comforting, even though my travels, as well as anime, had desensitized me from bloody scenes, fresh or old, it was still a little troubling, to say the least.

I leaned into him a little, he didn't take it the wrong way, considering what was supposed to be a refreshing walk turned into the discovery of a possible murder scene.

I didn't want to think about it but I did.

Why had the blood splattered, what cameras and where, what was the purpose of this murder, no one had gone missing in town supposedly, at least there hadn't been any commotion about it when I'd been at the fair.

Francis noticed my inquisitive expression and sighed.

"You're still thinking about it aren't you?"

I nodded.

"Anything I can, or we can do, to help take your mind off of it?"

He said this without any smirk or hint of something else entirely, so I wasn't on guard.

"Tell me about the last time this happened."

"Zhat's the opposite of what I just asked."

"Please."

"Fine." He furrowed his brow and sighed.

"Last time, last year, around this time now, a clearing 'ad been made in the trees and buckets of blood were found. The victims were found buried deep underground, so deep you wouldn't think to look there, they were near a site blocked off for an exhibition for paleontologists, it's like the murderer wanted them to be found. Their necks were slit open and their ankles had rope marks, like they'd been strung upside down and drained of blood. But why? Zhe buckets of blood were just left there, police couldn't figure it out and zhey never found the murdered either. The town and towns nearby were panicked for a long time. The victims weren't even from town, they weren't tourists either, they'd all been missing a very long time from different parts of the world. It's like the killer was sending a message, trying to attract attention." He was deep in thought now. He looked very troubled.

When he stopped speaking the silence of the forest seemed almost unnatural, I hadn't noticed how eerie it was until then. Gilbert had spoken on the way there and the shock of what we'd seen had distracted me until now. The birds weren't even chirping, I didn't even see any birds, or other creatures for that matter. The wind wasn't blowing, the whole forest was still.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I quickened my pace.

"Did I Trouble you?" He asked worriedly.

"We need to leave now. The forest is too quiet, that always spells trouble." I urged him and he nodded.

The abandoned gas station we'd exited to get into the forest was in sight but I didn't run, I didn't want to quicken my heartbeat or seem too afraid. Sometimes running just provoked the threat.

But what was threatening me?

When we got into the car Francis pulled his phone out and spoke urgently to Antonio and Gilbert who I could just barely hear on the other side.

He glanced at me before exiting the car to avoid me listening in, my multilingualism was a disadvantage for people trying to have a bit of privacy.

I cracked the window down just a bit, so little he wouldn't notice, not with his back turned to the car anyways.

"A cheapann tú go bhfuil Arthur ag bácáil arís?" I heard him speak so quickly I could barely make out he was using Irish now.

How many languages did they speak, it was a little suspicious. Perhaps it was because of their co-op partners being from around the world, but if he wanted to be discreetly walking away from the car would've been enough, not needing to speak in Irish, a language not even used often anymore.

"Ní hé seo a stíl, ní ó chogadh na huafó-Shacsanaí."

Was I supposed to know what any of this meant? Did he just mention the Anglo Saxon Wars, and who was this Arthur he kept mentioning with such destain.

I rolled the window back up and read his lips, he had switched back to German by the looks of it, could he tell I had been listening earlier?

I knew a bit of Irish but from their conversation, I was starting to doubt how good I was at it, unless the bits I'd heard just didn't make sense out of context but I had heard it correctly.

At least two minutes later he hung up the phone and Antonio and Gilbert emerged from the tree line and they walked back to the car.

"Perdón por hoy, no se suponía que fuera así. Obviously." Antonio apologized.

Gilbert arched a brow. "Please choose one language per conversation, Schwachkopf." Gilbert said sternly though he was obviously just teasing.

"Oh-Mein Fehler-mi error-ack! My bad I mean. Sorry Chika, my mind is a bit scrambled right now, parece." He sighed.

"Dude no worries, multilingualism screws up our brains sometimes, haha." I laughed reassuring him I didn't mind him switching back and forth. It was good practice anyway, if two tongues tied multilingual could keep up with each other it was a win in my book.

"Do we head home now, or go to the police station?" I asked, turning around to face Antonio and Gilbert in the back seat.

"We already spoke to them," Gilbert said firmly.

"And they don't want you to show them out or file a report?" I asked. I'd had to file a report on being sent an explicit image before, this was much more serious.

"No, it's best to stay far away from there. We'll let the professionals do their job." Antonio explained.

They'd only been speaking with each other, no other calls had been made, not that I saw. I felt like they were lying, but why? Were they connected to this, if so was I in danger with these three, despite the entire town adoring them? They were skilled at making things up on the spot if they really were fibbing. It wasn't hard to make something like that up, it wasn't complicated, but it seemed natural to them, like an immediate answer they'd rehearsed.

These silver-tongued men stayed silent the rest of the short drive to their home.

I had a habit of sticking my nose where it didn't belong but in this situation, I really wanted to. But I knew this wasn't something I'd come out of unscathed, not if I went back to the forest, not if I dug up what was really going on.

Not if I learned the whole truth, about them.