The little village of Floraville had always been a quiet , small village filled with nice people. Floraville was one of those places where, when someone passed you in the street they always said hello. That all changed in the summer of 1899. It all started when my neighbor friend disappeared on her way home from school. The town was in chaos as they searched for the little girl all through the night. The next day they found her abandoned body in the forest. It was only a day later that a villager found the body of another girl, Elizabeth Watson, in the well. Everyone in town hoped these tragedies were only accidental . Soon enough people realized that these were no accidents as Johnny Moresett, the local priest’s son, was found hanging in the church. Then everybody started pointing fingers. Billy McLincoln was the main suspect as he was always so fond of every child in the village. But Billy had always been a generally kind person and I couldn’t picture him doing any harm to anyone. Some parents had opposite thoughts as Billy was soon isolated from the village and being closely watched by the townsmen.
Billy McLincoln and his twin brother Bobby McLincoln had a tough life growing up as their father had murdered their mother when they were only 10 and was sent to life in prison. Billy and Bobby grew up alone from then on and as Billy made the best of it, unfortunately Bobby didn’t. Bobby had always been a quiet and awkward kid and he grew up that way. Some say he turned crazy and moved into the forest all by himself and no one had heard from him since.
The village council was pushing for Billy to be arrested as the fear of any other murders grew. But no one could find any evidence to prove that Billy was committing these murders. Mama and Papa wouldn’t even let me or Liza, my sister , out of the house. As the days went by, my class slowly decreased in size either because parents were taking their children out of school to protect them or that more children were being killed. I didn’t know as Papa and Mama wouldn’t tell me or Liza anything, so not to scare us. The mood in the house was hushed as was outside.
Liza had always been one of Billy’s favorite children in town and that scared Mama so she was more protective of her than of me. I was surprised when Pa let Liza buy milk one stormy day, I assumed he was being lazy and didn’t want to take the struggle of going to the market himself. Liza could see that I was worried as she headed out the door and promised me she’d only be a minute. The time passed by more than a couple of minutes and as Ma came home, seeing that Liza still hadn’t arrived home yet, she called the police. Once again the village was on a mad hunt as we all searched for Liza through the night. I was heartbroken as Ma told me the next morning that the police had found Liza’s body washed ashore by the lake in the woods.
The weeks drew on as one by one the children in town vanished. I started to make assumptions about the murders and noticed that most of the victims bodies were being found in the forest. Which just happened to be where the strange Bobby McLincoln was known to live. Then a couple days later as Ma and I were at the market Ms.Stonley came running into town from the forest screaming that her son had been kidnapped. She claimed that while berry picking in the forest with her son she was attacked from behind and as she fought free ,she saw that her attacker had ran away with her son. The police searched all through the forest eager to find the boy as it could also lead to the culprit. Through the search they found a abandoned cabin known to belong to Bobby McLincoln which held numerous superstitious items that could have been evidence. When Bobby was taken into trial he admitted to only one murder, the murder of Liza. He was soon to be hung as everyone assumed that he had committed all the other murders too. Billy McLincoln was set free and Floraville returned to its normal place.
A year later Jenny Levy’s body was found slaughtered and hung on a tree in the forest, same as all the other murders that had taken place the year earlier. Which made everyone wonder if they had caught the right man. Was it really Bobby McLincoln or was it just someone in close relation to him?