Concealer

Chapter 1 Autumn woods (Down) It was a cold autumn morning, much too cold for October in Michigan. Light frost covered the colored leaves lying on the ground. The trees in the woods were as bare as an old man’s scalp, but the air was fresh, so fresh even depression could surrender itself. She knew as she stared into the cold river, if there was ever a right time, it was now. She stood there naked, stiff as a board, with one foot halfway in the river. She was not bothered by the bitter cold, or even the fact she was badly beaten from head to toe. Dried blood stuck to her thighs and bruises occupied her entire body. Any normal person would have seen the horror in her appearance, but oddly enough she was content. It seemed now in this young woman’s life she was worry free. Whatever guilt she once felt, none of it mattered now. Even the blood could not disguise her beauty. She was better than all the rest. That is why she was there, in the malicious place she was in. Only someone as beautiful as her could drive another person into madness. She was the one, the one that could never get away – dead or alive. The waterfront was a haunting place with her presence. Her eyes were cold. It was something about her could make someone wonder, did she deserve this? Could she have wanted this all along? There was no sign of movement from her, even with the sound of footsteps slowly approaching. The woman’s gaze was unaffected as the person came closer, but suddenly she began to raise her head. The footsteps had stopped and the person was standing right behind her. The silence she shared with the water was now broken. A hand touches her shoulder in a soft welcoming manner, but her reaction showed different, similar to a knife piercing her wounded flesh. Tears build up in her blackened eyes, she turns her head cautiously. A gunshot goes off and the sun rises over a rundown house. Was love lost, or has hate destroyed him? Maybe he has not yet found true love, the kind of love someone would kill to have. Those could have been some of the questions he was asking himself before laying face down in a pool of his own blood. How could he have been so foolish? All this time, she was just like the rest, cold and manipulative. Patiently waiting for the right time to strike! He should have never turned his back. The trust he formed was fake and unimaginable. It was all just too soon. Nothing he offered could pass what she already has. An open road with no barriers awaits her. What could she possibly have wanted from someone so pathetic and poor. Loneliness always turned him in, put him down, far from reason. The sun shines bright through the window of the old house where the man lays dead. A woman picks up a gun from the bloody floor and kneels down next him. She is shacking uncontrollably. Never in her young life did she picture this to be the outcome. She’s frail and innocent, nowhere near being a killer. She looks down at the man and back at the gun, crying profusely. The woman raises the gun to her temple and closes her eyes.