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  "Anna Mae?" Carol said when she sat down in front of her. Her hair hadn't been washed in a long time and her bangs needed to be cut. They were falling down in front of her eyes. "How are you?"

  Anna Mae glowered at her from behind the curtain of hair. The baby was rolled in and placed next to her, sleeping heavily in the crib. Anna Mae didn't seem to care and turned her face away.

  Carol's eyes lit up, and she couldn't take them away from the sleeping child. "Can I see her? Can I hold her for just a second?"

  Anna Mae shrugged. "I don't care."

  Carol rose to her feet. She reached inside the bassinet and grabbed the tiny creature, then lifted her up in the air. Anna Mae didn't even look at the baby as Carol held her while smiling.

  "Oh, dear Lord, she's gorgeous. What a beautiful little baby."

  Carol held the girl in her arms and rocked her from side to side while staring at the small infant's face. The baby seemed to be smiling in her sleep, and the sight made Carol laugh.

  "Oh, my, Anna Mae. She's the cutest thing. I can't believe how adorable she is. She looks just like you when you were that age."

  Carol stared at Anna Mae, who refused to even look at the child. She had given birth to her less than three months ago at the hospital, and they had called Carol from the prison and told her about it. It had taken Carol this long to find the courage to come and see her.

  "You can have her if you like her so much," Anna Mae grumbled. "Take her."

  Carol's eyes grew wide. Had she heard right? "But…but Anna Mae? Certainly, she needs to be with her mother. You might be young, but you are the only parent she has."

  "I don't want her," she said. "They're going to take her away anyway, so I might as well give her to you."

  "But…but…I…" Carol stared at her niece. Anna Mae's eyes met hers, and she knew to stop arguing. Anna Mae rose to her feet and signaled to the guard that she wanted to go back. "Just make sure that I never see her again, or you for that matter."

  73

  Adeline sure knew how to drive. She raced down Market Boulevard and turned right, skidding sideways in the intersection where I had seen the red truck turn. Adeline stared, focused on the road ahead, her eyes completely fixated on the asphalt, then floored the accelerator once again as soon as the truck was back on the road.

  "I see it; I can see her!" I yelled.

  The truck took a left turn down a smaller road, and we followed, Adeline soon catching up to it. No one in the truck had realized we were following it yet, and it was just slowly driving down the road. I could still see two heads poking up inside of it through the back window.

  "Get even closer," I yelled at Adeline. "As close as you can. We have to get all the way up to it, till you almost touch it."

  She did the best she could, and I stared at the back of Carol's truck, taking a few seconds to breathe, and finding my courage.

  "Now what?" Adeline asked. "What do we do?"

  I rolled the window down, and the warm wind hit my face. "Now, we stop them."

  "How?" Adeline asked, but by then I had already pulled half of my torso out of the window, and I couldn't hear her anymore. While the truck moved forward, I crawled onto its roof, and then slid down the hood, almost going too far, shrieking, then managing to stop myself at the front. Then, as soon as Adeline came close enough, I leaped onto the back of Carol's truck. Unfortunately, she sped up right in that instant, and the back was suddenly farther away than what I had calculated. I managed to grab onto the edge of it and hang there, slamming my face against the tailgate, clinging on by only the tips of my fingers. Adeline then drove her own truck really close, and I managed to step onto the grille, and using it as my stepping stone, using all the strength I had in my poor arms, I pulled myself over and landed in the back of Carol’s truck.

  74

  Carol felt the cold knife scraping the skin on her throat. Sweat was springing to her upper lip, and her hands were getting clammy, even though they were driving with all the windows down since the AC didn't work.

  "Turn left here," the voice behind her said.

  "Please," Carol said. "It doesn’t have to end like this."

  "Except it does," the voice said. "And you know it. You ruined my mother's life, and now I am going to take yours. It's as simple as that."

  "But…but…"

  "Take the left here now," she growled and pressed the knife closer to Carol's skin.

  Carol turned the wheel, and the truck skidded sideways.

  "W-where are we going?" she asked.

  "You'll see."

  Carol cried. The salty tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on her lips. "I’m sorry," she said. "You have no idea how sorry I am and have been for all of my life."

  "It's a little late for that, don't you think?" the voice said.

  A loud thud made them both gasp.

  "What was that?" the voice said and turned her head to look behind her.

  Carol looked in the mirrors and thought she spotted someone in the side view mirror. She was certain she saw hair blowing in the wind and maybe the top of a head.

  What the heck is going on?

  Her kidnapper was still staring behind her, looking out through the window, but didn't seem to be able to see anything, so Carol pretended like she hadn't either.

  "We ran over a bump back there," Carol said. "Suspension isn't the best on this old truck."

  The woman with the knife turned her head back toward Carol. "Go faster. I think that green truck back there is following us."

  Carol looked in the mirror again and spotted Adeline's old truck. Her heart raced in her chest. What was she up to? Did she somehow know what was going on?"

  The woman recognized the truck too now and became upset. "What the heck…Adeline? Why is Adeline following us, huh? Did you somehow tell her?" the woman said and pressed the knife against Carol's throat, so it felt like it cut into her skin.

  Carol swallowed and did her best not to freak out. She had to keep her cool now and figure out what to do.

  "Take a right down here and then lose Adeline. This truck is way faster than her old one."

  Carol nodded, took the turn, and sped up as instructed, not daring to do otherwise. She was getting worried about Adeline and that she might get caught up in all this.

  "It would be easier if you'd just tell me where we're going," Carol said.

  "We're going to the old lot, the one where Benjamin Black was found. There's a well out there where I can dispose of your body. I thought there was a nice irony to it."

  "They'll come for you, and they'll lock you up," Carol said. "Do you want that?"

  "Do you think I care about my life, huh? I was doomed from the beginning. Born in prison to a woman who never wanted me. For years, I hated her because I believed she had simply abandoned me, but now that I know her true story, I realize that she was the victim here. She was the victim of your betrayal and of this entire town's betrayal. You didn't just destroy her life when you did what you did; you destroyed mine as well. I grew up thinking I was incapable of love, that no one would ever love me, not even my own mother. I knew I had been cheated of what I was supposed to have, a life of luxury, but instead, I had to live with the fact that I was the daughter of a murderer. Do you know how many nights I have lain awake wondering if I would become like her? Wondering if I had it in me to kill someone? And then now…finding out that it was all a lie? That she was innocent?"

  Carol looked at her in the rearview mirror, when she thought she saw movement in the side view mirror again but pretended like she didn't.

  A second later, she saw more movement, this time an entire body slinging itself in through the open window. Carol's eyes left the road as she looked in the mirror and saw legs swinging through the cabin and knocking into the face of the woman in her back seat. The woman screamed, and the knife was quickly removed from her throat, slicing the skin off as it slid back, cutting just deep enough to open her neck for a bloodbath.

  Blood gushed
out, and Carol screamed, then grasped her throat. In the back, the two were fighting, while Carol felt the Earth start to spin around her. Soon, she could no longer keep her eyes on the road or her hands on the wheel.

  75

  "Carol!"

  Carol went quiet and slumped down in her seat. I was on top of the woman, who was fighting me while holding a bloody knife in her hand when the truck suddenly started to turn sideways. I held the woman down, holding her arms, and that was when I finally saw who it was. The realization blew out all the air from my lungs.

  "Regina?"

  I held her down, staring surprised at her face while the shock took root; I tried to force the knife out of her hand. Regina somehow managed to get enough room to knee me in the stomach, and I yelped. Meanwhile, the truck was driving off the road now and bumping down the grass toward a swampy area. I saw trees approaching in the distance, while Regina got her hand free and pushed me down, the knife in her hand getting scarily close to my throat. I grabbed her wrist and tried to fight the hand with the knife in it, trying to hold it back, my hand shaking as she groaned and pressed down on it.

  The truck hit a bump and Regina flew against the ceiling. As she did, I managed to get out from underneath her, and as soon as she landed again, I punched her in the face, hard, knocking her out. Then I took the knife and turned to look out the windshield, where I spotted the row of trees right in front of us.

  I sprang to the front seat, grabbed the wheel, then turned the truck sideways forcefully. It skidded, then slammed into the trees on the side and I was knocked unconscious in the process, the knife flying out of my hand and landing on the floor.

  When I woke up, I saw Adeline in the open door. She was pulling Carol out, her face torn in fear. Carol landed in the grass and Adeline tried to stop the bleeding using her shirt that she had ripped.

  I blinked my eyes, and as soon as I could see straight, I rushed out to them.

  "She's lost a lot of blood," I said and looked at the front seat of the truck that was completely soaked in her blood.

  "I called for help," Adeline said. "I just hope they'll make it in time. I saw…through the window…I saw who it was."

  I nodded, sensing the deep despair in Adeline's voice.

  "Keep applying pressure," I said. "She'll make it."

  "She's the one who gave me Regina, did you know that?" Adeline said, sobbing. "She was Anna Mae's child, but she gave her to Carol, who realized she couldn't keep her. She wanted Regina to grow up in a home where the mother didn't look at her and think she might grow up to become a murderer. After having Anna Mae in her house, she didn't dare to have Regina. She wanted her to grow up out of her mother's shadow. So, she gave her to me, and I loved her like she was my own. I can't believe what she has done. Why would she try and kill her?"

  "Anna Mae is…" I mumbled to myself. "That's what the sheriff said right before he died. He wasn't trying to say Anna Mae is innocent like I believed he was. It wasn't three words. What he was trying to say was Anna Mae's…daughter. He was trying to tell me who had killed him."

  Adeline looked at me, her eyes stricken with sadness and fear. "I tried my best to raise her right; where did I go wrong? How could I…"

  Adeline paused mid-sentence, then stopped. I hadn't seen it happen until it was too late, and I barely had a chance to react before I saw Regina standing behind her, and the knife had already been plunged into Adeline's back. Adeline gasped, then bent forward, the knife still in her. Regina was still holding onto the handle, then she applied pressure to it, pushing it in further.

  "You couldn't, dear Mother," she said. "There was nothing you could have done. I was the daughter of a murderer, remember? I knew I would grow up to be one too. It was inevitable. It was just a matter of time."

  I stared at Adeline, barely able to breathe properly, paralyzed by shock. Regina pulled the knife out of her mother's back, and Adeline's lifeless body fell forward on top of Carol. I shrieked and pulled back, while Regina stared at the bloody knife.

  "He had my life, you know? Alexander Cunningham did. That was why I killed him. I wanted to know what it felt like to be like my mother, and he was the perfect toy to try it on. All my life, I had fought my desire to try it, but as I saw him that day sitting in his car all alone, I stopped fighting it and just gave in. I knocked on the window, and he opened the door for me. I told him to come with me, told him I had seen something exciting inside the old house, and I wanted to show him. He didn't dare to, he didn't want to go with me, but I told him it would make him tough in the other kids' eyes, that they would be very impressed that he dared to go inside of the old house, and he fell for it. He took my hand and walked inside with me, and in there, as soon as the door had closed behind us, I told him to stand still and let me look at his throat. I asked him if it was sore, and if he wanted me to massage it. He nodded, and I did. I placed my fingers on his throat and pressed. I strangled him with my bare hands. It doesn’t take much pressure to a small boy's throat to kill him like that. I almost didn't put enough pressure on it to block his airways, and he didn't even fight me. His eyes just rolled back in his head, and he died right there in my arms. I returned a few days later to paint my message on the wall like my mother had done at the nursery. I wanted them to think she was back. I wanted to scare them."

  I stared at Regina and the knife in her hands, not knowing what to do. I felt completely destroyed by what she had done to Adeline.

  "Why? Why do you s-say that he had your life? Wait a minute, was…did…Allan Cunningham was your…?"

  "My father, yes. He was a regular at my grandmother's house, and every now and then, she'd sell my mother to him. She didn't know the girl had developed early and had already had her first period since she had been hiding it from her. The last time it happened, dear Aunt Carol walked in on them and saw it. That was when she took Anna Mae in, but it was too late. She was already pregnant. That was why Allan Cunningham was so eager to get her locked away. She held the power to destroy him in her belly. Me. Carol told me the story when I was a teenager and began asking about my birth parents. To think that she ganged up with him to get my mother put away, him of all people, disgusts me. And then the deputy who was so certain of her guilt that he'd do anything because he loved his godson so much. Guess love can make you do terrible things too, huh? Not just hatred. Now, when I killed the boy, the sheriff, and daddy dearest, I felt nothing but hatred for them. All my life, I had believed my mom was a murderer, and then I find out that she was framed? Forty years later, it is revealed that it was actually someone else who killed those boys and that these three were to blame for what happened to her? I had to get revenge for her because I knew she wouldn't do it herself. And now she's gone. I never even got to know her. She was right there, living right outside of town, less than ten minutes away, and I didn't even know. I can't help but wonder why she never looked for me."

  "Maybe she was afraid of what she might find," I said. In the distance, I could hear sirens blaring. It was the sound of help approaching. All I had to do was to keep her talking, keep her occupied till they arrived. But it was easier said than done. Regina heard the sirens too and lifted her head to look me straight in the eyes. She held up the knife, a range of desperation rushing over her face as she realized they were closing in on her.

  Then she turned around and took off in a run.

  "Oh, no, you don't," I exclaimed, then rose to my feet as fast as I could and lunged at her. I grabbed her by the legs, and she fell face-first flat in the grass. She groaned and kicked me in the face again and again, till I had to let go of her legs. She wiggled herself out of my grip while I moaned in pain. She got up again and took off, but I was faster. I jumped her from the back and took her down again, then landed on top of her. We rolled around and threw punches, then the sirens came closer, and I could hear them stop. Then there were voices yelling while I lay on top of Regina, holding her down with all my weight.

  "Over here!" I yelled. "I’ve got her! HELP!" I
screamed at the top of my lungs. Seconds later, I heard voices approach.

  "Over here. POLICE! STOP!"

  I held her down the best I could while she squirmed underneath me, and I didn't even feel the blade of the knife before it had plunged through my abdomen.

  76

  I heard my children's voices through the fog and tried to run toward the sound, but somehow, I wasn't moving no matter how much I tried.

  "Julie? William? Tobias?" I screamed and looked around, but I couldn't find my way out of the dense fog. I was in a forest of some kind, and I had no idea how I had gotten there.

  "Listen," I heard Julie say. "It's Mom. Mom? Are you there?"

  The fog was closing in on me, and I couldn't see anything in front of me, not even my hand as I held it up. Panic set in. Where was my daughter? I could hear her but not see her; where was she?

  "JULIE?"

  "It is her," I heard her say. "She's awake. Mommy, are you awake?"

  I was. I blinked my eyes a couple of times and the fog disappeared slowly while I returned to the real world.

  "Julie?" I said, staring into the beautiful eyes of my daughter. I laughed, but it hurt, so I stopped. I tried to lift my head, but I couldn't.

  "Don't try to get up," Sune said, coming up behind Julie. His eyes were red-rimmed. "You're hurt. Badly."

  "Mommy?" William poked his head up next to my bed. Never had I seen a dearer sight. Tears ran down my cheeks as I looked at him. "She's awake, Daddy. Now, you don't have to cry anymore."

  I looked up at him, then sent him a cautious smile. He looked away and wiped his eyes.

  "Yeah, well…"

  "Will you be okay?" Tobias asked. He was standing on the other side of the bed, keeping a little bit of distance. I reached out my hand and pulled him closer.