LEADER

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

         

         SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2025

         The three sisters, Sheree, Toni, and Maggie Mayfield were walking through the forest 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 fourteen or fifteen.
         She held out her hand, and the three sisters shook hands with her, introducing themselves as they do 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.
         
         
         She offers to lead them to a wonderful new place. One girl refuses and runs away. The other two agree and take her hands in theirs. She starts walking up into the sky, as though climbing invisible stairs.
         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.
         1) Go to Terri and co.
         2) 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.
         3) 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.
         4) 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

toria, Australia