Children frolic in Harrow Lodge Park, you can hear them running and playing, hollering in joy at their games. It is now the end of summer heralding the coming of autumn and the trees are starting to lose their leaves, which have turned beautiful yellows, reds and coppers. The sun is beginning it's decent under the homes of east London, it was like gold melting onto the 1930's style houses. Two children were sat by the stream in the park, one a small blonde boy of nine and a girl, around the same height but she was eight. The stream was not deep they had their tiny feet in the cool water, resting on the stone under the gently flowing water. They were expected home before dark and the sun dipping low in the sky told them they should get going, but they procrastinated for a little while longer. The two children sat close together with a rabbit nestled in their laps, it lay more in the boy's than the girl's as he pet it gently, his fingers running through it's soft brown fur. It was unfortunate that they had to leave the small animal but they knew they had to go home, the blonde picked up the rabbit and placed it down on the stone embankment. The boy stood up and then offering his hand to the girl, she looked at it for a second and then took it letting him pull her up. "Thank you Arthur." He smiled at her, "You're welcome." Even as a young boy the blonde had been taught in etiquette, his father always told him about the importance of chivalry and manners, so it was all well drummed into his head.
They both started to shake their feet of excess water and rolled their trouser legs down, however they didn't put their shoes on and just carried them. The brunette girl was the first to walk away and the boy followed a second after her, he quickly caught up and was walking at her side, "What are you doing tonight Elizabeta?" He knew her family had been insistent that she didn't stay out late so he asked out of curiosity. "My parents are taking me to the theatre" Arthur nodded, "What are you seeing?" and they carried on walking "We are going to see Wicked" She replied smiling, even though she was only eight she enjoyed the theatre. The blonde smiled and nodded "I'm jealous." his words were not barbed with malicious intent at all, they both adored the theatre and were going to see 'Dick Whittington' at Christmas, together with their parents. They were looking forward to it and Arthur had been told he could go and see 'Wicked' at Halloween instead of trick or treating, which his parents didn't agree with, as they saw it as a form of begging. To Arthur the theatre was much better than knocking on doors asking for sweets anyway. Elizabeta snorted in amusement she also knew he was going to see that play, just he would be a few days after. Hey walked along the embankment and along the path leading out to Abbs Cross Lane, but then the girl had spotted something.
"Look! Arthur look over there!" Elizabeta pointed out to a little bundle of fluff lying in the grass, a red stain evident on the brown fur. The two children approached it carefully, the small boy knelt down next to the dead rabbit, it looked like a dog had caught it and treated it like one of it play things, completely tearing the poor animal apart. It lay in a heap like it had just been carelessly thrown there, light the dog had just discarded it. Arthur ran his finger tips over a slightly cleaner patch of the rabbits fur, like he were confirming that the creature were dead. Elizabeta looked at the small rabbit, the puddle of what appeared to be stale blood, it wasn't completely dry but in the half solid, jelly like stage, it absolutely reeked and it was a wonder that they hadn't smelt it on their way to the stream. The animal's stomach was ripped open and it's intestines were spilt on the grass, insects already crawling about the abdominal cavity of the rabbit. It was a horrid and grotesque sight for any child to see.
The young girl looked up from the dead woodland animal and leading into a copse of trees was another, this rabbit was slightly larger than the first and also a little more fresh, the pool of jellied blood slightly runnier and a shade brighter than the puddle around the first rabbit. Arthur followed her line of sight and also spotted the second animal, even though it was morbid and repellant it also attracted them, it wasn't often that you would see dead animals in the local park. They couldn't help their childish curiosity and approached the larger rabbit, the blonde didn't bother to see if it was alive, it was in such a similar state to the first that there was just no way it could be alive, the flies and putrid smell were a sure indicator. The two children just stood over it Elizabeta pegged her nose with her fingers and Arthur tried fanning the smell away but it was useless, the brunette could taste the smell of decomposition and the boy couldn't seem to find any clean air.
They wondered if the dog that had done this was still around, but then didn't see one instead they spotted a third rabbit lying down in the grass and then a fourth just at the mouth of the copse, they followed the trail of dead woodland animals. They only spared a glance to the rabbits now, they were more interested in where this trail lead, if they looked at them properly they would see that these two were much more fresh, with less flies around them and they didn't smell quiet as bad. The branches of the trees looked dark in the mottled shade of the thinning canopy of leaves, it was nice and cool but the stench of rotting flesh just seemed to be held in by the trees. Both children coughed and spluttered when they caught a particularly bad whiff, resulting in both of them pegging their noses and breathing through their mouths.
The found a fifth rabbit slightly to the left, it's entrails torn out of it's little fluffy body, really the sight wasn't too frightening, Elizabeta's father had often gone hunting in the Hungarian countryside and had often seen her mother skin and prepare them, Arthur had also seen dead rabbits when he'd gone to Elizabeta's house for tea, her father was still a keen hunter even if he lived in a city so sometimes he went out into the English countryside got a few rabbits or sometimes even a deer. So dead animals in themselves weren't unsettling, it was just how they had been savagely torn up and left to rot that had made them curious, and of course the putrid smell was abhorrent. Even after the fifth rabbit the two children could see a sixth and a seventh leading back out of the copse. They followed the same pattern of being a little more fresh than the last, the blood was a little brighter and a little runnier, and the smell became less pungent as the continued along the trail of dead rabbits.
Arthur and Elizabeta emerged from the copse of trees into the fading sunlight that painted their surroundings with a dark gold, their hair shone and their skin glowed in the warm light. It shimmered off the puddles of blood by each rabbit and they could see them clearly, it looked like splats of red on the lush green grass. The trail at first was sparse the dead rabbits being few and far between, but they noticed them leading up to a tall weeping willow, the path disappearing behind the shroud of the willow's long branches. The two children followed the rabbit trail, the dead woodland animals seemed to be becoming more frequent and instead of being five metres apart, as they progressed the gaps between each one began to close up. As they got closer to the weeping willow they noticed how the rabbits closer to it looked like they had only been killed ten minuets ago, and some even looked to only just be alive, but the children were too interested in the willow tree that they were lead to. With every step they passed a rabbit as they were in the final yard between themselves and the tree, Arthur managed to step into one of the larger puddles as he was too transfixed on the willow tree, the blood felt warm on his feet and he jumped back from it with a shriek when he realised what he had stepped in, as he jumped a section of the animal's intestines caught between his toes, he ended up drawing out more of the rabbit's guts out. The blonde kicked his foot violently and the intestine landed with a small and gross sounding squelch on the grass. "Yuck!" Elizabeta just watched him, she hadn't been aware of where she was treading either but at least she didn't step in any puddles of gore like Arthur had.
He brushed his foot on the grass to remove the blood but most of it still stuck to him, it felt rather disgusting to him and he felt like leaving the trail, but then he was repulsed by it in the first place. Stepping into the puddle broke him out of his childish curiosity, but Elizabeta wasn't deterred, though he often felt she was braver than he was. "Come on Arthur! We don't have long before we have to go home." She sounded impatient but when Arthur looked into her bright green eyes, she looked dazed like she wasn't really there, a bit like she was lost. The brunette became impatient with him and grabbed his hand pulling him along, Arthur looked at the weeping willow tree and then to the rabbit trail in front of him, he felt the childish desire to find out why return, and he no longer needed Elizabeta to pull him along, he was walking side of her, his eyes so similar to her's in colour and there misted distraction, only following the path of dead animals. An adult would have felt the strong sense of foreboding and taken them away, but they had no experienced hand to guide them, so they carried on in their single minded innocence.
After they walked past a few more freshly killed animals Arthur and Elizabeta were at the curtain of drooping branches of the willow the rabbit bodies had lead them to, the last one was still bleeding and wheezing, it's eyes still blinking as it's brown fur became stained. The two children were still holding hands as the blonde reached out and swept the branches aside, letting his companion enter first and then he followed her, letting the green and gold curtain of the weeping willow tree fall back in place behind them with a faint swish of it's long leaves.
At the base of it's trunk many children were laying asleep, like it were their own little sanctuary, they looked like a huddle of newborn kittens, curled up as they were. Arthur noticed another blonde but unlike him this other child had long soft hair that had the appearance of spun silk, he looked sound asleep and peaceful, his hair and the branches of the willow draped over him. However the young boy didn't just notice him, he knew the other, his name was Francis and if Arthur remembered correctly he lived in Elm Park. He thought the ten year old had been very ill after all his parents were very upset when he'd called on them to see if Francis had wanted to come with him to the park, they'd cried and told him that his friend wasn't available, so he had assumed that the other blonde was sick. Arthur wasn't the only one to recognise a friend, Elizabeta also noticed two boys curled up together under the willow branches, one with dark hair and glasses the other with white hair, she had been told that her friend Gilbert, the boy with white hair had ran away from home, yet he was here with a whole cluster of children sleeping under the cloak of the willow tree. In fact when she had looked at the local community board for the London Borough of Havering with her parents to see what events were on, she had seen a lot of missing posters. Many of the smiling faces on the posters belonged to the children lying at the base of the tree, the sleeping faces brought names to her mind; Francis, Antonio, Kiku, Lilly, Alfred, Röderich, Gilbert… and many others.
Arthur walked over to Francis and tried to rouse him, similarly Elizabeta walked over to Gilbert. They tried and tried to shake their friends awake, but they seemed to be in such a deep sleep. The two children looked at them closely, they looked pale and both of them noticed how the skin of Francis and Gilbert's hands had become purpled and blackened. As Arthur brushed the other blonde's hair out of his face he noticed the long branch of a willow tree wrapped around his neck, there was dark bruising under it and as the mossy eyed boy touched it, the branch no longer looked loose and relaxed but it began to become taut, and yet this didn't seem to disturb Francis at all. The brunette also noticed how a similar branch around Gilbert's neck also tightened, this happened to the other children in the huddle, the long willow branches pulling them up so that the children began to rise up from their sleeping positions. The smaller children who Elizabeta recognised from the posters to be Kiku and Lilly were hoisted into the air, the brunette had just about missed the little girl's foot with a well timed duck. The two children who had followed the trail of rabbit carcasses to the tree stared at the small dark haired boy and the even smaller girl, her long plats and pink dress catching the wind as it came through the cloak of the weeping willow.
Hearing the shuff of clothes the pair looked back to the pile and they could see the taller children rise, Gilbert and Röderich were lifted into the air closely followed by Alfred, Francis and Antonio. The children hung around them, the branches of the willow tight around their bruised necks and their head's lolling as the breeze caused their bodies to sway in the air. Both of their fascination wore off at that moment, bright green eyes became wide and fearful as it dawned on them that the other children were dead. They clung to each other and crouched on the ground like they were trying to make themselves as small as they could. Arthur and Elizabeta surprisingly didn't cry they just shrieked when two of the branches snaked around their necks and yanked them up into the air as well. Out of reflex the cling to each other and their screeches become chokes, their legs flailed in the cool evening air and they could see their vision begin to blur and develop spots. The nooses of willow were tight and Arthur could feel his neck begin to bruise, while Elizabeta felt more like it was cutting into her neck from how all her weight was on it.
As they were suspended along with the other hung children, they felt like their throats would burst as their legs became numb. Arthur and Elizabeta felt light headed and soon lost consciousness as their eyes closed and were left hanging. Their arms only loosely draped around each other from where they had been clinging to the other in fear. The two children asphyxiated in their breathless rest, just like the other children who were suspended around them had. Soon rigor mortis began to set in and they were locked together as their small bodies began to stiffen. Idle blood began to pool in their legs and feet, along with their elbows as blood couldn't move out of their arms and started to coagulate causing the skin to become livid, their faces paled, closed eyes sank into their skulls and their small hands turning blue.
The old hanging tree of Hornchurch had claimed more innocent children and sucked the life out of them, both curious and despondent souls follow the bloody rabbits to it, but once passing it's lush curtain stop now, let the sleeping children be a warning, do not trespass there!