Blood Will Tell

* * *

He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red;
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead,
The poor dead woman whom he loved,
And murdered in her bed.

* * *

There is a buzz of wire in my dead ear.

And in our final story today, the only known survivor of the Church Hill massacre was found dead today at the Special Care Unit in London. Poppy ---- (whose surname we can’t reveal) lost both her parents, sister and fiancé in the vicious attack four years ago, and was assigned to the unit with severe trauma and self-induced schizophrenia. Her body was found early this morning by a medical orderly. Last to see her was a respected doctor, whose identity we cannot reveal, though he did give this comment; “Poppy was a delightful girl, often clear thinking and lucid, though of course she often had moments of panic which can only be expected from such a traumatic past. Her loss is a dreadful tragedy.” Foul play is not suspected but the police have not ruled out suicide…

The buzz dies.