Prologue
I knew from the beginning that I should not have gone with him. I knew from the look in his pale blue eyes that something, or maybe everything, was about to change. I remember the wind blowing softly against my cheek as I followed behind him. The smell of day-old rain-stained leaves. The sound of twigs and rocks crunching under my boots. It was very foggy that night. It was as if Mother Nature knew what was going to happen and perfectly set the scene for us. I could hear little animals running in and out of bushes and thickets. I remember what he said to me the moment we walked into what I thought was the center of the woods. I looked down at the neatly dug hole in the ground. The shovel that was propped up against a thick brown tree. My fingers trembling and my breaths shallow. He was staring at me, grinning. It was like a game to him. An adrenaline rush. That was when I knew. He liked what we did. He liked that I was now intertwined in his web of crime and lies. There was no escape for me. I was now a murderer. Just like him. I picked up the shovel, still in disbelief of what I had witnessed and swiftly became a part of. It was wet and warm. My hands could not get a tight enough grip and I thought it was my sweat. I looked at him in fear of what he may say or do if I didn’t do it right.
“Is this...” I paused, praying that he did not confirm what I was already thinking. “...blood?” He looked down at my hands which were sliding down the shovel and the grin reappeared.
“Don’t worry, love. It isn’t mine.” He let out a soft laugh as if my fear amused him. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. He said ‘it isn’t mine’ as if that should reassure me or make me feel some kind of relief. I stood in shock, still holding the shovel. Once he noticed that I had been idle for a while he took the shovel from me and began throwing dirt over her lifeless body. That is when everything went dark.
