When I first saw this prompt, I had multiple memories pop up in my head. I had many sentimental ones involving different members of my family and friends I’ve known throughout the years and then there was this one that I had completely forgot about until I saw this prompt. Then I couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous the idea one of my best friends in middle school had, which inevitably led to that being the memory that got written (names have been changed, of course).

“You really think the clerk is going to just let us buy one egg?” Laila inquired, lips twitching in amusement.

“Sure, I see no reason why they wouldn’t. We have to try,” Mia shrugged, placing the brownie box on the counter. “We wouldn’t even be in this predicament if you had more than one egg left in your house.”

“Of course you’d somehow make this my fault,” she countered. “You’re asking, by the way, considering it was your genius idea.”

“You’re just mad you didn’t think of it first,” Mia quipped back, a small smile breaking out across her lips.

“You caught me,” she muttered, unable to hide the amusement in her voice.

One egg, I can’t believe she honestly thinks we’re going to get away with buying just one. Shaking her head at the thought, Laila opened the front door for them to leave her house before closing it and locking it behind them.

“I can already taste the brownies,” Mia said as they made their way down the sidewalk. “Can’t you?”

“I honestly don’t see this working,” the blonde retorted.

“But what if it does?” Her friend challenged, arching a brow as they rounded the corner.

“Then I guess you’re a genius,” she rolled her eyes, playfully nudging her friend’s shoulder with her own.

“I already am one.” The brunette stated confidently, tossing her hair over her shoulder playfully as they reached the front door of the store.

“Sure you are,” Laila said with a small grin as she pulled open the convenience store’s door. “After you, Miss Genius.”

Mia stuck her tongue out as she stepped past her friend. Her emerald gaze shifted towards the counter for the briefest of moments before sucking in a small breath and continuing towards the refrigerator section. After a moment of hesitation, she opened the door where the eggs were and pulled out a single egg from one of the cartons.

“I can’t believe you’re actually doing this,” Laila stated as she came up behind her, eyeing the egg her friend had in hand.

She shrugged, closing the refrigerator door and turning to face the blonde behind her. “Here goes nothing,” she mumbled, making her way to the counter.

The cashier eyed the young brunette as she made her way to the front. Gingerly, Mia placed the one egg on the counter along with some change before lifting her gaze to meet that of the woman on the other side of the counter.

“Would this be enough for one egg?” She inquired with the barest of smiles gracing her lips.

“No, go put it back!” The woman behind the counter stated, pointing her finger in the direction where the egg cartons were.

Mia sheepishly grabbed the egg off the counter, a blush rising across her cheeks. “Sorry,” she mumbled, ducking her head and turning away from the woman. “I thought we’d be able to just buy the one.”

“No, no,” the woman repeated as Mia quickly walked away from her and towards her giggling friend.

“So much for that genius plan of yours,” Laila said between giggles.

“Shut up.”

#prosechallenge

“The Queen is dead.”

Loki stared blankly through the glass barrier that sat between him and the guard that had been deemed the bearer of bad news. It took a moment for the words to sink in and though it broke him inside, he kept a composed mask upon his features. Rather than allowing the emotions that were trying to claw their way to the surface show in the presence of another, he simply nodded in acknowledgement to what had been spoken. The guard took the nod as his cue to leave, departing as quickly as he had come.

Emerald hues turned away from the retreating guard and towards the interior of his cell instead. The book he held in his hands was placed down on the table beside him and summoning his strength, he stood from the chair that he sat upon. Feet carried him towards the center of the room, back turned entirely upon the glass that kept him isolated from the outside world.

“Frigga is the only reason you are still alive and you will never see her again.”

His hands balled into tight fists at his sides and with a jerky outwards motion of his arms, a surge of magic sent the items around him flying into the surrounding walls. The emotions he’d done so well containing around the guard finally burbled forth. Tears prickled at the brim of his eyes, knuckles turning white from how tightly curled his fists were and though his nails dug into his palm, he hardly noticed.

She was gone. His mother was gone and neither Odin nor Thor had the decency to tell him themselves. Nay, they sent a mere guard to inform him of the Queen’s death. By blood they may have shared no relation, but a mother was what she had always been to him and Loki hadn’t even been able to attend her funeral. In a fit of rage, another surge of magic sent the items flying once more. This time, the force of the impact caused splinters of wood to break off the table he’d set his book upon. The leg of his chair snapped but remained attached by the tiniest sliver of wood. Books, the very ones Frigga had given him to occupy his time, were strewn about the floor.

“The books I sent, do they not interest you? I've done everything in my power to make you comfortable.”

“Have you? Does Odin share in your concern?”

Loki finally willed his feet to move once more, but it was only to cause more destruction. The books were picked off the floor one by one. They had certainly served their purpose. They had kept him entertained. They had passed the time. But now? Now he simply had no more desire to read them. Nimble fingers tore the pages from the spine, littering them across the floor before forcefully chucking what remained against a nearby wall.

She had always done everything in her power to make him comfortable, to make him feel loved, even though she had known of his true origins from the start. Not once had she ever made him feel like an outsider, not even after all the destruction he had caused upon the mortal’s realm. Even then, she still continued to do the little things a mother would for their child, whereas Odin had always done the opposite. Where there should have been warmth and compassion, there was coldness and indifference, which simply became even more prominent when he’d been brought back to Asgard.

Frigga had not wanted him executed for his actions upon Midgard, whereas Odin seemed he would’ve found it justified.

“Then am I not your mother?”

“You’re not.”

Unable to be upon his feet any longer, Loki fell back against the wall behind him and slid to the floor. His gaze was unfocused upon the floor in front of him as he relived their final conversation. She’d been so calm, even after he’d lost his temper about Odin. Perhaps because it was something he did quite often. It was the look she’d given him in that last moment that tore at him inside though. How he wished those had not been his parting words with her, that their final conversation had been on a better subject. Most of all, he wished it had actually been her that he had been conversing with, not an illusion.

“You might want to take the stairs to the left.”

Though there was much he wished for in their final conversation, the thing he desired most was to go back in time and take back what he’d said to that monster. There was not a doubt in the raven-haired male’s mind that he had played a hand in her death with those simple directions.

His lips parted, allowing an anguished scream to pass through them. The scream told of the rage he felt over the way he’d been informed that she had passed. It told of the pain that ripped him apart inside over losing the person that had meant the most to him, leaving him truly alone. Most of all, it told of the regret he felt over the hand he’d played in her death and of the way they had left things before her demise.

At long last, the scream died and his cell became quiet once more, though the messy state it now sat in spoke of the countless emotions that had been stirred inside him.

Olivia stared at her reflection in the mirror, dwelling on the conversation she had with her friend, Eli, earlier that day. Lifting a hand, she rested her palm against the glass and kept her emerald optics glued on the reflection staring back at her.

“I have a proposition.”

“Okay…I’m all ears.”

He took a deep breath. “We aren’t the only realm that exists on this planet. Think of this other one like a two-way mirror, Olive. From our side we just see our reflection, but on the other side of the glass is where the other beings lie. They look human, but they’re not. Not entirely, anyway.”

“Oh, yeah? So, you’re telling me there’s some half-human creature things hiding in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror in my bathroom? Or in the bookcase that’s behind the mirror in my room?”

“No, no, no.” He exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m just saying that it’s a similar concept to a two-way mirror. They can see us, all the time, but we would never even know they existed. Not unless they wanted us to. Have you ever been looking in a mirror and thought you saw something move behind you in the reflection, but when you turned there was nothing there?”

“Yeah… Oh no. Don’t you dare say what I think you’re going to say.”

“It wasn’t something behind you.”

“Jesus, Eli.” She pushed out of her chair, shaking her head slightly and pivoting on her heel away from him.

“I’m not kidding, Olive!” He stood, wrapping a hand around her wrist. “That was something internal. A flash of their realm. It only happens every once in a while. A way to show us that they’re there, to prove to us that we’re not the only ones to exist, but all too often we just write it off as our eyes playing a trick on us.”

“Eli, just stop.”

“Olive, just hear me out. This other realm has been co-existing with ours for thousands of years inside the mirrors. It’s not our eyes playing tricks on us. It’s their realm trying to get our attention.”

Was it possible? Could there really be another realm within the mirrors? One that has been co-existing with theirs for thousands of years without anyone in this realm knowing it was there?

“No, no. It’s not possible. Stop buying into his crazy talk, Olivia,” she muttered beneath her breath, dropping her hand back by her side.

Turning her attention from the mirror, she picked up her toothbrush and squirted some toothpaste onto its bristles before lifting it to her mouth. Even after telling herself that it was just crazy talk on his behalf, she couldn’t help but dwell on the possibility of it all.

“Or maybe…it’s just a mistake, Eli. Maybe they’re not trying to get our attention, but sometimes mistakes are made. That’s why it’s not consistent and only happens every so--“

“It’s not a mistake,” he blinked, keeping his gaze on the back of her head. “They intend to be seen. They want to be noticed to, like I said, prove that this isn’t the only realm in existence.”

“Alright, Eli, that’s enough.” She turned around to face him finally. “There isn’t another realm within the mirrors, but I think you could certainly use that idea for another one of your science-fiction books.”

His face fell and he dropped the grip he had on her wrist. Stepping back from her, he turned towards the front door. “It’s not for a book, Olive. What I’m saying is true, even if you don’t believe me.”

“Eli,” she reached out, placing a hand on his forearm, but he was quick to rip his arm from her grip.

“Just remember that when you begin to notice them, they start to pay more attention to you, too.”

She hadn’t even been able to ask what he had meant by that. He’d walked right out the front door before she could get a single word out, leaving her confused as hell. The last part hadn’t gone along with anything he had said prior. According to him, they would have been watching already, so noticing them wouldn’t draw attention if they had already been watching. Right?

Her gaze flickered to the mirror briefly and the reflection mirrored the action. When her hand lowered to the sink to rinse her toothbrush off, the reflection did the same. When she placed it back in the holder, once more the reflection copied her. Nothing unusual. Everything was normal. Wasn’t it?

His last warning whispered through her mind once more. Digging her teeth into her lower lip, she took a step closer to the mirror, leaning her face closer to the glass. She examined her features. From the freckles that speckled her fair skin to the curly blonde locks that framed her face. From the sharpness of her features to her soft pink lips that were parted slightly as she exhaled. Everything looked alright. Not a strand out of place, not a feature that didn’t belong to her. So why did everything feel so wrong?

It was in the moment that she was staring intently at the mirror that there was a flash of movement in the mirror behind her. She didn’t turn. She didn’t look behind her, something compelled her to instead look closer at what was right in front of her. Lifting her hand, she placed it against the glass.

That’s when everything changed.

Although what she was looking at still had similar features as her bathroom, everything just seemed wrong. There was something darker about it, but what struck her the most was her own reflection. Her blonde hair was a tinge darker and rather than being curly, it was straight. Her skin tone was off too, giving her an unearthly appearance. Pink lips were a deep scarlet instead, and the freckles that typically dotted her face were missing. Her eyes. Her emerald hues were locked on the cerulean blue ones of the thing that stared back at her. She couldn’t tear her gaze away and her hand felt rooted in place. It was only when the thing began to smile at her—an action that Olivia wasn’t doing herself—that fear really took hold of her. Pearly white fangs were revealed in the reflection and it was then that she finally yanked her hand off the glass and stumbled back.

“What the fuck?!” She pressed back into the wall, keeping her attention on the glass, where the thing still resided, staring at her with a malevolent grin.

Before she had a chance to scream or make sense of the situation, her vision darkened around the edges. Olivia attempted to fight off whatever it was taking hold of her. In the end, however, she had no choice but to succumb to the darkness that blackened her vision and thus rendered her unconscious.

When she finally awoke from her unconscious state, she found herself in an unknown area. The walls were painted entirely black and were it not for a few overhanging lights, she wouldn’t have even realized that she wasn’t alone. There were other cots surrounding the one that she was on. Some of them were occupied, whereas others were unruffled as if someone hadn’t yet claimed it. Sitting up, she scanned the spacious room and found that some of the people milling around nearby were actually classmates she recognized.

“Olive,” a familiar voice greeted her ears. A voice that normally would have brought her relief, but instead only caused a knot in her stomach. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Get the hell away from me, Eli,” she was out of her cot instantly, which brought on a wave of vertigo. Eli steadied her, wrapping an arm around her waist. She pushed it off of her the moment she regained her balance.

“Olive, it’s me,” he went to place a hand on her arm, but she slapped it away and stepped back from him.

“No. No.” She struggled for words, to phrase all her racing thoughts. “Why the fuck---where---how did you even know about this world, Eli?!” 

She threw her hands up, exasperated, and desperate for answers. Tears began to pool at the brim of her eyes out of sheer anger and confusion at the current situation.

“I didn’t. Not until my psych professor told my class about it a couple days ago.” He sat down on the edge of her bed, but she still remained where she was, attempting to regain her composure as he pressed on. “Or, at least, what I thought was my psych professor. He dared us all to go home and just try it. To look into the mirror with the idea of there being another realm inside of it. To just entertain the possibility of it. So, I did, despite any confusion I had about the relevance of that to personality disorders—“

“A couple days ago…?” Her voice hitched slightly. “You’ve been stuck here for a couple days?!” He nodded, finally realization flickering in his gaze.

“Oh my god.” He was on his feet; this time when he put his arms around her, she didn’t move out of the embrace.

“How could I not see that it wasn’t you?! He looked exactly—it was you. He was you.”

“My psych professor looked like himself, too. The mannerisms, the way he talked, everything was him.” Eli breathed out, stepping back slightly to meet her gaze. “Ever seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers?” She nodded. “The concept seems similar to it, except these things have emotion. Our emotion. Our thoughts. Our memories. Everything is us, except the thing in control. It’s only once you’ve seen them or if you’re one of them, that you see their true form. Their arms are longer than what they should be and their hands have sharp, black talons at the end of each tip. Their legs are longer than normal and, without shoes on, their feet look a lot like their hands. You’ve seen their head, it’s like that of a human. It’s like you, but warped. Everyone in our old realm has a shadow self in this one, but usually they remain hidden. They need to be acknowledged by their shadow self in our realm in order to reveal their true identity.”

Olivia blinked in confusion at him. “How do you know all this?”

“Because once you’ve met your shadow self and been transported here, the secrets begin to fill your mind. As if you’re getting all the memories and thoughts that thing had. It took a day for the shift to occur, which is why you didn’t meet that thing until today.”

Slowly she nodded, wishing it was all a bad dream she could wake up from, but knowing that it wasn’t. This was her new reality. There were no mirrors in this room, no way to try and get back to the realm she called home, but she’d be damned before she gave up that easily.

“It doesn’t seem like they’ve made that big of an impact in our realm yet,” she glanced around the room at the throngs of people scattered through it.

It seemed like a hefty amount of people, but in retrospect, it didn’t even come close to how many people actually lived in the other realm.

“Oh, I thought the same thing.” He said, his voice suddenly growing softer. “Until I realized these were only people the same age as me. That’s how they categorize here—by age. They’ve been planning this infiltration for a while. Once you get the memories of that thing, you’ll learn that at least one-fourth of the people in our realm are merely shadow selves of this realm and still growing.”

“Oh.” It was the only thing she could think to say, feeling a lot less hopeful than she had a moment before, but she was still determined to find a way back home if it was the last thing she did.

“You spotted her the moment she walked in, didn’t you, Elliot?”

His emerald hues shifted on to his father, who wore an all-knowing smirk across his lips. It was evident he had been referring to the brunette that had just come waltzing through the door of the rest stop by herself. His dad was right. Elliot had noticed her the moment she came in from the pouring rain outside, closing her umbrella as the door swung shut behind her.

There was just something about her that caught his attention almost instantly.

“Funny. Here I thought you only paid attention to blondes,” he quipped in response.

“Just because I prefer them,” he nodded towards a group of young blondes that were seated a few tables down from them, “doesn’t mean I don’t notice them,” his gaze went towards where the girl was waiting in line for food.

“Could’ve fooled me,” he muttered under his breath.

For as long as he could remember, his father preferred the easy ones. The ones that could be lured away with just a few sweet words…along with the fact that their hair color be a shade of blonde. He couldn’t remember a time that his father had picked a brunette out of a crowd and taken her as his victim. It has always been a blonde.

Elliot, on the other hand, could care less about what the hair color was. In the last town they left, he'd taken the life of a redhead and in the town before that, it just so happened to be a blonde.

The only thing Elliot cared about was the thrill of the chase. It had been different in the beginning of all this, he was all for taking the easy route, but it grew boring. Now he preferred to stalk his prey, get to know them, gain their trust, before bringing about their demise.

His father preferred to just go in for the kill and be done with it.

Though he was the one that raised Elliot into this lifestyle, they had differing opinions on how they went about it.

“Are you going over there or are you just going to sit around gawking?”

He was pulled out of his reverie from the sound of his dad’s voice. Elliot's jaw clenched at his words. Sending a scowl in his father's direction, he snatched up his cup, which actually wasn’t even empty yet, and pushed to his feet to make his way over to the soda fountain where she now stood, contemplating her options.

His breath caught at their close proximity. Her back was turned to him and if he were to simply stretch his arm forward, his fingers would be able to touch her silky, mahogany locks. Inhaling deeply, her scent washed over him. Despite it being a downpour outside, Elliot was reminded of a warm, spring day, and reflexively he took a single step closer.

That's when she turned around.

They collided. Both of their cups were uncovered and the contents of both were crushed between their bodies. The liquids within each spilled down the fronts of their shirts, though she somehow managed to get more on her.

She jumped back reflexively, back pressing into the metal counter behind her, and a startled look flashing across her face. Elliot, in turn, stepped back with a dumbfounded expression etched across his features.

“I’m so sorry," he quickly responded, stepping to the side of her to grab some napkins from the dispenser.

“I didn’t even see you there!” She replied, angling her body towards his.

Their gazes met. Her hues were a chocolate brown, but they were the most beautiful shade of which he had ever seen. Elliot knew right then that he'd made the right decision.

She was going to be his next victim.

He couldn’t help the slight twitch of his lips at the thought. At the same moment, her lips lifted into an amused smile, which surprised him in the slightest.

“It was my fault honestly,” he said smoothly, handing the napkins off to her, which she graciously accepted. “You don’t have eyes on the back of your head. You can’t be blamed for not seeing me there.”

“This is sort of the norm for me, really.” She turned her gaze away from him and down towards her wet shirt, which she began to dab at with the napkins. “Klutz is practically my middle name.”

A light chuckle trickled through his lips as he took up a couple napkins of his own and began to dry up his own shirt. Not that he really cared about it being wet. Presently he was more fixated upon the female before him,

“I’m sure your middle name is much prettier than that.”

Crimson rose in her cheeks immediately and her hands began to slow in their movements. A moment later, her head lifted and their gazes met once more. She crushed the napkins into one of her hands and stuck her other one out towards him. A warm smile lifted the corners of her lips heavenwards and the raven-haired male stuck his free hand into hers.

“I’m Andrea.”

“Elliot,” he responded with a dazzling smile, giving her hand a light shake before letting it go entirely, as much as he desired to hold it longer.

“You know, I’m beginning to think this whole thing was just a ploy to meet me,” she teased lightheartedly, evoking another chuckle from him.

“You caught me,” he held his hands out in front of him. “I planned all of this just to talk to you rather than simply going up to you like a normal person would.”

Normal—a term that would never be used to describe him.

A light laugh trickled through her lips, “Who’s to say I would have talked to you under normal meeting circumstances?”

“Ouch,” he feigned hurt, placing a hand over his heart. “Would’ve been your loss.”

“Someone’s awfully confident,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes playfully; Elliot smirked. 

“Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting you. I’m just going to try to get this stain out a bit in the bathroom.”

“Well, maybe we can continue this conversation afterwards. I’m sitting at a table back there with my dad…or we could even get a table of our own.”

“I’ll think about it,” she responded before stepping past him and crossing to the corner where the bathrooms were.

He watched as she went. It was only after she disappeared past the door that Elliot finally moved back to the table. His father was waiting expectantly as he plopped back down into his chair.

Sitting forward slightly, he made a gesticulation for him to elaborate on what happened. A faint smile spread across Elliot's lips as he folded his arms atop the table and met his gaze.

“I’m more than sure I have my in with her.”

“I’ll think about it,” her response played over in his head. Something about the way she said it gave him the impression that she had already decided.

As he waited to see if his original guess was right, Elliot gave his father the rundown of what happened. It didn’t take long to get through it and the moment he finished, he caught sight of her exiting the bathroom through the corner of his eye. Being discreet, he watched as she crossed back to the food place, got a new cup and filled it with whatever she originally intended to get.

“Well?” His father raised an inquisitive brow.

“I was right.”

The moment she spotted where they were sitting, she began to close the distance separating them.

Their eyes met. A smile spread across her lips. A smirk spread across his. Across from him, his father wore a smirk mirroring the one on his son's face. Everything was falling into place just as Elliot suspected it would.

“Hi,” she waved slightly, standing to the side of their table. “I’m Andrea.”

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Elliot’s father, Roy.” He wore a charming smile, “Please, take a seat. Elliot here was just telling me about the drink incident.”

“Certainly one way to get a girl’s attention,” she remarked, laughing under her breath.

Across the table, he met his father’s gaze and based on his expression, he knew he'd picked well.

Soon, that was the only word that whispered through his mind as the three of them conversed with each other. This was just the beginning of the end for her and she was completely oblivious to it all.

Little did he know that she had a secret of her own, though...she was a serial killer, too.

She'd been here before. Only in dreams, though.

She always died.

This wasn't a dream...

"There's my car!" She exclaimed excitedly. 

"Oh," her face fell when another couple opened the doors, "that's their car."

This time when she hit the button on her keys, she actually spotted it.

"Crap! They're towing me!" She ran towards the truck, shouting for the driver to stop.

He didn't.

What if daylight shrouded monsters?

Made them invisible,

Unable to be seen,

Saving us from seeing their hideous face,

Yet, inevitably, making them harder to stop.

What if the dark revealed them?

Made them visible,

Allowed them to be seen,

As gruesome or terrible as they may appear,

And, therefore, made them easier to stop.

Would the dark still be your greatest fear

and daylight still your salvation?

1. The walking killer always catches the running victim.

Victim could have a twenty minute head start and somehow the killer would still manage to catch them. What’s going on behind the scenes? Has the killer somehow learned to teleport places? Because that’s sure as hell how it seems in some instances.

2. “Be right back” = “Be back never”

These three little words are essentially a death sentence. Once uttered, there’s no turning back. You’re dead. That’s it. Better to just leave without saying anything than to say these three words.

3. “Let’s have sex in this abandoned insane asylum, nothing bad could possibly happen!”

Yeah…sex in a horror movie is basically a death sentence. Going to an abandoned place? DON’T HAVE SEX. Going to a cabin in the woods with friends? DON’T HAVE SEX. You will be the couple that dies. Just keep your hormones in check and wait until you’re NOT in a horror movie-esque predicament.

4. “Hello?” “Hold on, just putting my hockey mask back on, be right there.”

If you go into some random place (abandoned or otherwise) or if you hear what sounds like someone breaking into your home, DON’T YELL ‘HELLO.’ The burglar/killer is, more than likely, NOT going to reply. And if you’re stupid enough to think they will, it’s no wonder you were killed.

5. The girl who can do nothing more than scream while her friend fights off the killer…and ends up dead.

It’s always in the last moment that the girl finally shuts up and does something helpful. By then, IT’S TOO LATE. The friend is dead. Because all the girl could do was scream instead of trying to help. Had she stepped in a moment sooner, perhaps both could’ve survived. In some cases, both do, but the friend is usually pretty badly injured because of how unhelpful the screaming girl was.

6. Gets friends killed by making stupid decisions…Ends up being the one who lives.

Typical. The person who makes the worst decisions is the one who survives to the end. Not in all instances, but there’s a good majority. Why couldn’t the person who’d been sensible throughout survive? Oh, right, because the one who’d been stupid made a decision that got them killed.

7. “Let’s split up because being by yourself when there’s a lunatic around is definitely better than staying in a group!”

Makes total sense. Because one-on-one is DEFINITELY better than five-on-one, right? Apparently.

8. Victim has opportunity to run outside…instead runs upstairs.

Good choice. Front door is right there, killer hasn’t spotted you yet and you choose to run UPSTAIRS instead of OUTSIDE to safety. You deserve a round of applause.

While not all horror movies have these clichés (and there’s certainly more out there), a good portion of them do and it’s frustrating. I want more horror movies where the characters make all the right decisions and still end up dead.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty…that was the saying. That’s what the criminal justice system abides by. It was up to the prosecutor to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant was guilty of the crime or crimes they were being charged with.

In this case, I was the defendant.

I glanced over at my lawyer. He wasn’t much older than me; maybe he was even the same age that I was. He did well representing me, but I already knew I was going to be convicted despite his best efforts. I knew there was just enough evidence to convince the jury that I was guilty of the crime. How unfortunate for me. Well, really unfortunate for him…there goes his A.

I thought I had been so careful covering my tracks. I thought I had wiped away any bit of evidence that could tie me to the crime scene. I was wrong. The investigators were very thorough, too thorough for my liking, but I knew it was their job. I couldn’t be angry at them. I could only be angry at myself for getting sloppy. For getting too confident in myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I had not been as thorough as I thought. If I had I might have remembered to clean the room a little more thoroughly. They might not have found my hair if I had. A loose strand that clearly would not have belonged to the male. I bit down on my lip, shaking my head at my own stupidity. I would be failing if my part was being graded, lucky me.

It didn’t take long for the twelve jurors to return, which is exactly what I was expecting to have happen. There really wasn’t much to cause doubt. Did I have a motive? Yep. It wasn’t a known motive, though. There was nothing there to indicate I had a motive to do what I did, but in my own mind, I knew my motive. The paper I had picked from the hat provided me with one. Did I have an alibi for the time of the crime? Yes, but being home with my dogs was not enough to cut it. I knew it wouldn’t be the moment the DNA evidence came into play. Way to go, Pamela, that was definitely not on the paper.

My lawyer had tried to argue that it was a set-up, that the ‘evidence’ had been planted to make it seem like I had committed the crime, but to no avail. He probably hates me.

The judge turned her emerald gaze onto the twelve jurors, “Have you reached a verdict?”

One of the girls in front stood, casting her gaze in my direction briefly, almost looking apologetic, before turning her gaze back to our professor, “We have, your Honor.”

“What say you?” My professor inquired, sitting back in her chair at the front of the lecture hall.

My hazel hues shifted on to my classmates as they responded to our professor’s question,

“We, the Jury, find the defendant, Pamela Campbell, guilty of the charge of first-degree murder.”

Waking up in a hospital was the last thing he was expecting. Hell, he couldn’t even remember why he was here. An accident? Was anyone else hurt? Who brought him?

He groaned, sitting himself upright. It was too quiet. There was some equipment in the room indicative of a hospital, but where was the rest? Shouldn't something be hooked up to him? Shouldn't he be injured? Where were the nurses and doctors?

His chocolate hues darted around the room and came to rest upon another person in a bed across from his. He wasn’t alone, that was comforting. Didn’t answer any of his questions though, which was far from comforting.

“Hey you,” another male’s voice spoke up, “how long you been awake?”

“Just woke up, like you,” he steadied his voice, “do you know how you got here?”

Maybe they were in the same accident. He hoped it was that simple. He needed answers.

“No…,” the other male sighed. “I was going to ask you the same question. Guessing you don’t know either.”

He sighed, running his hand through his dark locks in frustration. Neither male knew how they got here and he was beginning to doubt they were in a hospital. It looked like one, but something felt off.

“What’s your name?” He inquired, knowing it was the one question he’d get answered.

“…Don’t know…,” the other male replied shakily. “I…can’t remember my name.”

“How do you--,” he stopped suddenly, eyes growing wide. “Shit…I can’t remember my name, either.”