Adele 2022

 It was the monthly meet-up at the ancient Hawaiian site, where volunteers from the community came armed with weed whackers, sheers, and various other gardening tools.

It was a fun meet-up for everyone, and it kept the site nice and neat, preventing any overgrowth from invasive plant species. After losing her husband Albert to cancer, Mrs. Adele Mederois was recently widowed at thirty-six years old. She needed to keep busy and came across the monthly clean-up group online. When she arrived at the site, she discovered that people were already working. Immediately, she felt horrible for being so late. She said nothing and set herself to pull weeds and pick up trash discarded by hikers and clueless tourists. Adele found it strange that no one seemed to be having conversations with one another. Instead, everyone kept to themselves and said nothing. No eye contact was made either; it made her feel uneasy. She was clearing away weeds from the outer walls when she looked at her phone and saw it was ten in the morning. She arrived at seven; the last two hours passed so quickly, she had no idea. At precisely ten, everyone lay their tools down and stood upright. They were motionless and stoic. Adele assumed that everyone would pray, so she bowed her head and put her hands together, but no invocation was given. She looked up to see everyone standing perfectly still and stoic. She began to say something when suddenly, everyone's heads fell off their shoulders and hit the grass with a soft, dull thud. It didn't register right away, but when it did, Adele's screams pierced the silence of the ancient forest. She broke into a dead run as she found her way back down the trail. She kept running until she emerged out to the main road. Adele unknowingly startled a group of people sitting on the other side of the road, having their lunch break. They approached her to find out what was wrong. When Adele told the group about her experience, they looked gravely concerned. It turned out that the people she was speaking with were the actual group who cleaned up the old ancient site but that Adele had taken the wrong trail, which led her up to an ancient temple of human sacrifice, where they lopped off the heads of thieves and lawbreakers. "No one ever goes there," they told her. The ghosts of those poor victims haunt that place and always appear to the living as ordinary people until they let their heads fall off their shoulders. They love to terrify people that way."