When the man came to see the skull...
The background of this story said to be happened before WWII and told to me by an old British sailor, Neil in a pub. The sailor said that what he was about to tell me really happened to his distance relative.
According to Neil, his cousin Mary was about to get married soon but she went missing and she did not appear in her wedding ceremony on that important day. Her fiance was heartbroken but after people in the village searched everywhere, Mary still nowhere to be found. The heartbroken fiance later left the sad place to be a sailor so that he could forget about the lost of Mary.
Then about 10 years later, Mary's old house was sold and the new landlord started to clear the land for agricultural purposes. The new owner chopped down an old oak tree beside Mary's old house and in the hollow section of the tree, he found the remains of Mary with her familiar clothing.
Mary's remains were later sent to her sister's place. Mary's sister, Alice decided to display the skull of Mary with her long hair still intact in her shop and tell the already lifeless skull to seek revenge on her killer wherever he or she might by.
Mary's eerie skull display did attracted some attentions in the community and Alice's business boomed due to that reason too. Though the visitors were many, but the killer was still at large...
Three years later, a stout young man came to Alice's shop to see the skull... As soon as the man came face to face with Mary's skull, the lifeless skull suddenly jumped up from the display cabinet and shrieked: "Killer! Killer! Killer!..."
The young man's face turned pale and he collapsed onto the ground. A crowd hastily rushed to prop him up and someone in the crowd shouted: "Hey! This gentleman is Michael, Mary's former lover..."
The commotion also drew the local constable to the scene and still paralyzing Michael was sent to police station to be interrogated. Perhaps Michael was too tired to disguise himself after these years in fugitive, he confessed that he was Mary's killer.
According to Michael, the day before Marry was to be married, he visited Mary in the hope to persuade Mary to cancel her wedding and escape with him to other county. But Mary refused and a heated argument broke out and in a gust of fury, Michael strangled Mary to death.
After Michael has committed the crime, he tugged the lifeless body of Mary inside a hole of a large oak tree and fled the crime scene. He later traveled to the Far East and became a successful merchant only to return to Britain a few week ago. It was not his plan to come to Alice's shop but some mysterious force drew him in claimed Michael.
Since Michael has became a murder suspect, he had to be locked up until trail. However, Michael had hung himself in the cell with his belt perhaps to redeem his long outstanding guilt.
Mary's skull was later laid to rest with the rest of her remains.
I was curious of what had become of Mary's fiance. So I asked Neil: "I don't supposed you were Mary's fiance Neil?"
He just raised his mug and said to me: "Bottom's up mate!"
I thought I already got the answer.
