What Happened To Dear Miss. Bonnie Benedict?

Monday, 1st November

Happy, happy New Month!!!! What a wonderful thrilling feeling to witness yet the arrival of a new month, NOVEMBER. How very auspicious! I'm very much excited to see what this month has in store for me as I'm sure you guys are excited for yourselves too. I hope for better days ahead for each and every one of us.

Without further ado, I would like to kick off this new month telling a riveting tale of "What Happened To Miss. Benedict." So fasten your seatbelt and give me your undivided attention as I take you on the enigmatic journey discovering What Happened to Miss. Benedict (please pay no mind to me, I'm just being dramatic... or am I?)

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What Happened To Miss. Benedict?

Late one night Miss. Benedict was returning to her school on the outskirts of the Hay Station of Simla. She was a teacher and had been teaching in this school for many years. A bachelorette, she usually strolled into town in the evening, returning at dusk when she would take a short cut through a pine forest. Whenever there was strong wind, the pine trees made moaning, eerie sounds, very ominously that kept most people to the main road. But Miss. Benedict was not a nervous nor imaginative woman. She was unafraid.

She carried a torch on this particular night and its pale gleam -the batteries were running down- moved fitfully over the narrow forest path. When it's flickering light fell on the figure of a boy who was sitting alone on a rock. Miss. Benedict stopped. Boys were not supposed to be out after 7pm, and it was now well past nine.

"What happened to you? What are you doing out here, boy?" asked Miss. Benedict sharply, moving closer so that she could recognize the miscreant. But as she approached the boy, she sensed something was wrong. The boy appeared to be crying. His head hung down, he held his face in his hand and his body shook convulsively. It was a strange soundless weeping, and Miss. Benedict felt quite uneasy.

"Well, what's the matter?" She asked, her anger giving way to concern. "Why are you crying, child?" The boy wouldn't answer or look up. His body continued to be rocked with silent sobbing. "Come on, boy, you shouldn't be out here at this hour. Tell me what has you troubled. Look up." She said ever so dearly. The boy then looked up. He took his hands from his face and looked up at his teacher. The light from Miss. Benedict's torch fell on the boy's face, if it could be called a face.

He had no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. It was just staring into the abyss, the darkness -with a school cap on top of it, and that's where the story should have ended, as indeed it has for several people who have had similar experiences and dropped dead of unexplainable heart attack. But for Miss. Benedict, it did not end here. (Hmmm... Shall we continue?)

The torch fell from her trembling hand. She turned and scrambled down the path, running blindly through the trees and calling for help. She was still running towards the school building when she saw a lantern swinging in the middle of the path. Miss. Benedict had never been so pleased to see the night watchman. She stumbled up to watchman, gasping for breath and speaking incoherently. "What is it, Bonnie?" asked the watchman. "Has there been an accident? Why are you running?"

"I saw something -something horrible- a boy weeping in the forest, and he had no face!"

"No face, Bonnie?"

"No eyes, nose, mouth, nothing! It was utter darkness"

"Do you mean it was like this, Bonnie?" asked the watchman and raised the lamp to his own face.

The watchman had no eyes, no ears, no nose, no features at all, not even an eyebrow. The wind blew the light out, and Miss. Benedict... was never to be seen again.

LIGHT FADES OUT... THE END!

A/N: Now, that's what happened to dear Miss. Bonnie Benedict. So, when asked, don't say you were never told.