horror_npc (horror_npc) wrote in horror_story, @ 2013-09-03 15:59:00 |
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Eli's first pass across the camp had resulted in the loss of a tent, but other than that minor trespass the area was undisturbed. The site had been undisturbed for weeks, so the presence of some wayward castaways on the opposite side of the island was hardly a bother. Several weeks prior, the head above the sand had been of great interest to local wildlife. It had enjoyed immense popularity with gulls, flies, and other carrion feeders for some time, but it had since been picked clean and was now handsomely sun-bleached, if solitary. Without tendons to hold everything in place, the jaw had fallen askew and the head had canted to one side, making the skull look as though it were gaping merrily off into the distance. It almost seemed as though the thing would laugh when approached, or perhaps break out into song.
Someone could easily make the argument that the skull was screaming, as well, given the lack of flesh to add to its expression, but the glittering blue water and bright, sunny skies made that something of a hard sell. There simply wasn't anything for the skull to be screaming about. Unless, of course, one counted the cave tucked away among vine-covered rocks, about twenty paces in front of the buried corpse and well within view of anyone standing adjacent, over, or behind it.
The skull belonged to an adult male. That much could be told by anyone with a passing familiarity with forensic anthropology. The sloping forehead above the orbital sockets and rounded vault didn't lie, and even with the jaw in an unnatural position, the skull was wider than a female's would have been. It was really a rather attractive skull, all told. No blunt trauma damage to indicate cause of death (or any lumps from odd growth patterns, plates or cracks from prior accidents). The wisdom teeth had been removed, probably in the man's twenties, putting a decent guess to his age at over twenty-five. Anything else would have to be discovered from a thorough brushing away of sand, and some vigorous digging. The angle of the visible spinal chord suggested that the man was upright, but whether he was sitting or standing, nude or clothed... all of that was impossible to tell without excavation.
As it happened, the handle of a small shovel was visible, protruding from the sand just a couple of feet from the skull. If he'd wanted to reach for it, himself, he could have... of course, being dead made that task monumentally difficult.