FOLLOW THE LEADER

A new girl, Leader, appears in G.H. and other girls start dying in mysterious ways

         

         SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2025

         The three sisters, Sheree, Toni, and Maggie Mayfield were walking through the forest a couple of kilometres outside Daley in the Victorian countryside, a little after 1:00 PM.
         “Smell that sweet lemon aroma,” enthused Sheree, a tall, leggy blonde. At fifteen, Sheree was the oldest, if not necessarily the wisest of the three sisters.
         “I didn’t know there were lemon trees outside Daley?” said Maggie. At thirteen, Maggie was the youngest of the girls, a strawberry blonde like her mother.
         “No, Dingleberry,” taunted Toni, at fourteen, short and raven-haired like her father, “they’re from lemon-scented gum trees.”
         “Don’t call me Dingleberry,” said Maggie, pouting.
         “Well, you are!”
         “Lemon-scented gum trees are prolific between BeauLarkin and Willamby,” said Sheree, trying to protect her youngest sister from Toni’s teasing.
         Breathing in deeply, Maggie said, “Well, they’re sure nice smelling.”
         “You can keep them, country girl,” teased Toni, “when I’m sixteen, I’m gonna leave school and go to Melbourne; get away from the damned smelly countryside.”
         “Yeah, like Mum and Dad are gonna let you leave school at sixteen,” pointed out Sheree.
         “I won’t tell them till it’s a done deal.”
         “I’ll tell them,” said Maggie, regretting it immediately.
         “You dob on me, squirt, and you won’t live to reach sixteen.”
         As Toni started toward the youngest girl, Sheree stepped between her two sisters, to stop Toni bullying Maggie.
         “Leave her alone, she won’t dob on you.”
         “No, I won’t dob on you,” agreed Maggie disingenuously, since she intended to tell their parents as soon as they got home again.
         “Better not, squirt.”
         “Am not a squirt,” protested Maggie, but too quietly for Toni to hear.
         The argument might have raged on longer, if not for the tall, white-blonde girl striding through the forest towards them.
         “Hi, I’m Leader,” said the girl, who looked eighteen, but may have been only fourteen or fifteen.
         She held out her hand, and the three sisters shook hands with her, introducing themselves as they did so.
         “Leader, that’s a strange name,” said Maggie.
         “Not as strange as you, squirt,” teased Toni.
         “Sisters shouldn’t argue,” insisted Leader.
         “If you had to live with her, you’d feel like arguing too,” insisted Toni as, without even realising it, the three sisters started following Leader through the dense forestland.
         After a few minutes Toni asked, “So where are we going?”
         “Following Leader,” teased Maggie.
         “Quiet, squirt!”
         “Don’t call me squirt!”
         “Sisters shouldn’t argue,”repeated Leader, without looking back.
         “She’s right,” seconded Sheree, then to Leader: “So where are you leading us.”
         “Hopefully not into temptation,” teased Maggie, closer to the truth than she realised.
         “Quiet, squirt!”
         “I’m taking you to a wonderful new world, a wonderful new experience,” explained Leader.
         “A new world?” puzzled Maggie: “Unless you’re Doctor Who, that isn’t possible.”
         “Quiet, squirt!” protested Toni, then to Leader: “Ignore her, she’s just a silly child.”
         “And what are you, a silly adult,” taunted Maggie, backing away quickly, as Toni started toward her.
         “Now, now, girls,” said Sheree, stepping between them.
         
         1) Go to Terri and co.
         
         
         
         
         2) Maggie refuses and runs away. Sheree and Toni agree and take her hands in theirs. She starts walking up into the sky, as though climbing invisible stairs.
         3) Leader flies the two girls to the rocky tor 250 metres up the side of Mount Hargreaves where they rest for a few minutes, talking, before they start climbing into the sky again..
         At a kilometre height, she says, “Isn’t the view wonderful?”
         Before the two girls can answer, she releases their hands and they plummet to their deaths.
         
         
         
         
         Later leader leads a brother and sister and takes them to a great boulder in the forest. To their amazement/horoor, she leades them right into the boulder, as though it is not solid. After a minute their faces appear from the rock, AND then Leader walks out, leaving the bro & sis dead, now part of the boulder, with just their faces protruding.
         4) First two girls are found dead in forest.
         Third girl comes forward and tells about girl named Leader.
         “Surely she can’t have anything to do with their deaths?” asks Terri.
         “Not unless she has a pilot’s licence, or can fly,” said Tilly, “they’ve clearly fallen from at least one kilometres.”
         They all look up. There are no trees that high around, and no mountains close enough.
         “Maybe she could fly?” said Sheila, thinking aloud.
         5) They go to see Magnolia McCready who tells them the legend of Leader, an evil spirit shaped like a twelve-year-old girl, from whom the expression, ‘Lead into temptation,” comes from.
         

         THE END

         © Copyright 2026 Philip Roberts

                   Melbourne, Victoria, Australia