The annoying song of the chainsaw started to echo in the clearing.

It was so loud that I had to protect my ears with my hands; and the doctor did the same. He should be as sensitive as i am to high pitched sounds.

The task of removing the body had started and it was not an easy one to perform. It had to be executed with precision and a lot of care.

Five security guards were attempting to remove the corpse:

To do that, they had to tie it with ropes, passing them over other twigs that were higher than the ones that held the man. One of the guards climbed up the ladder, carrying the chainsaw that i saw before; while his coworker held the ladder firmly in place for him. The chainsaw was very heavy; but, the guy using it. was also very strong. He started to work on the branches crossing the chest of the body. After he finished and the sound stopped, two other men slowly lowered the impaled man. A fifth guard was already waiting with a very big black plastic bag opened to receive the corpse.

Voluptia too much interested in these procedures; or so I thought. Enough for lefting my side and going closer to the men working. She looked mesmerized by the guards dealing with the body.

The men, so focused in their attempt of retrieving the body, almost didn't realized she getting so close to them.

She was smiling, like usual, and her stunning beauty started to arouse them; as it would be expected.

The male holding the ladder released his grip for a while and the ladder danced. His companion above the tree felt it and shouted something not polite. Something that would make mother Ana very angry if she was there:

"You son of a bitch, secure this shit right! Are you trying to cause an accident, you moron?", he said while holding himself to not fall.

The man bellow got out of his trance for a second to apologize; still, he was unable to take his eyes off Voluptia.

She giggled and then I realized that she was not being herself. All of them stopped what they were doing imediately and started to move close to her.

That was getting very dangerous. Her stunning presence was too strong for they to ignore. That sexy woman, started to control them with her movements, like they were puppets.

Her hair started to change color from the died red to grey, growing down her shoulders while her hands developed very sharp claws.

Aware of what was happening I shouted to drive her focus off the men being controlled by her.

"Grotheske", I demanded," stop that right away. I am the one that you are really after!", i said in a very challenging tone. 

She looked to me and recognised what i was to her, I was her favorite and always denied meal. Also her enemy. She hissed in frenzy and jumped in front of me. 

I had to act fast, before she fully transformed.

The men too hypnotized to realize what was happening won´t be of any help to me. They stood in their places like dolls without life. So, i made my move.

I drew my Amulet out of my neck and held in my left hand, pointing it to her. She realized I was reciting the confinement spell, and got her very upset.

"Noooo", she howled furious, "I won't be locked away again. Stop him!!", she said to the doctor by my side.

Because of the amulet, she was denied to use her seductive powers against me, unless I allowed. However, the doctor was an easy prey. He raised his hands in an attempt to choke me.

In a luck movement, I avoided his grip and miving to his side without stopping my spell.

That was too close for my taste...

The enchantment was completed in time, but barely. Her claws were almost touching me, when Grotheske's hair begun to shorten, turning again back to red with the menacing claws disappearing till she transformed back to Voluptia.

On my knees, panting, I slowly recoverd my breath, but I was anything but calm.

"Careless!! Stupid detective", I said to myself. "Voluptia probably entered the summoning circle used to trap the victim so he could be murdered". I was feeling angry with myself. With a sour taste in my mouth. The taste of failure.

Voluptia moved slowly, towards me. She was feeling so weak, so fragile.

"I..m sorry, cupcake...", she said, in an almost inaudible sound, before falling unconscious in my arms. What made my heart ache in a sign of despair.

I put her in the floor, very carefully, and asked the doctor to take care of her.

Dr Rochard and the men were still dizzy. They had no idea about what happened or why Voluptia was laying in the floor. Their  expression was as if they were daydreaming and just got awake.

I had unfinished business with that tree.

As they looked to me I grunted:

"Later!"

Enraged, I erased part of the circle surrounding the tree with my foot. doing a mess with It on purpose. The circle was almost invisible.  I only knew that it was there, because of my special kind of photos.

Moving quick I asked everyone to get out of my way. I was so bossy and angry they didn't dare disobey me.

I retrieved a flare gun from my bag and without thinking twice i shot the damn tree in fire.

The dried wood ignited as soon as the projectile reached the trunk.

That was the end to the spell wich was still active in that place when we arriced. The same spell that interfered with Voluptia. And not thinking about this possibility was my mistake.

My photos showed the circle, but I supposed that it was not active without testing it. I was dead wrong and careless.

I demanded everyone to let the tree burn till the flames extinguished by themselves, and ordered that  we got out of the forest.  

The doctor called an ambulance using his cellphone to take Voluptia to the school's hospital where she would be treated. 

I advised the attendants of the ambulance to not try to sting any kind of needles in her. That would be unwise.

I could not go with Vol to the hospital, but the nuns that come with the ambulance promised me they would take good care of her. I told again about not using needles and not to put her on serum.

I had been so careless. And because of that Voluptia had almost paid the price...

The doctor saw my enraged, and frustrated look and got even more curious. He was expected an answer.

"Roger what happened there? How Voluptia got hurt? I can't remember anything after that corpse was put inside the bag. Can you please tell me what is going on, i am getting mad trying to understand."

I owed him that. So, I told him what I was thinking at that moment.

"What happened here, my dear doctor, is that we were presented to the nature of the beast.", I said in reply with a vivid tone of concern in my voice.

"Let's go to the hospital. I want to see how Vol are. I will explain everything to you on the way there." It would be selfish to keep my fidings to myself. After all we were working in that case together.

"Things got a lot more complicated than they seemed to be. I must tell you that this school has became the stage of a war. I am sure the man on the tree is just a message. A message  only the one it was meant for, would be able to understand."

Of course, that would be the case had I not been called here."

 We continued talking while we walked towards a car that was parked and waiting to take us to the hospital. The doctor listened to every word that I was saying with a puzzled look in his face.