The day I knew would come came today. Every minute of it felt never-ending. Though it was only partly cloudy, the sky looked pitch black to me. The snow wasn't close to melting, as it was end January but memories of last summer were the only things that filled my brain.
I remember every expression that was on Ethan's face. However, I never wanted to think of mine.
Ethan's car had stopped in front of our house. He got out of it, holding case files in his hands. I was waiting for him in the foyer. At the time, I didn't know what today would bring.
His smile was the widest I had ever seen, relief painting his face. You could tell his job tired him out. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin had a sickly pallor to it.
Before he could get his keys or even knock, I opened the door for him.
"How are you?" I asked as he took off his boots and coat and proceeded in the living room."Ecstatic." I became nervous, because if he was happy after work that meant there had been a development in the case. His happiness was not to my benefit.
"Why?" I quickly said, feeling the same way a kid does when their parents ask to talk.
"We've found our murderer." I gasped. I was going to faint. But clearly he wasn't suspicious of me yet, perhaps they had the wrong person?
"I know, exiting right? We had a witness who came to the station today, claiming she had seen someone with the girl on the day of the murder. I didn't read it yet because I wanted a place to sit down. But I'm about to." I wasn't ready. These were my last moments where Ethan would ever trust me, or even love me. "Okay, if you see this person around town, tell me so we can put 'em behind bars." Why did this day have to come now? Why did I have to love him? More questions than I had ever had before drowned my brain. Ripping me from the inside. Torturing me, killing me. "So she was a woman. About 5'0 or 5'1. She was wearing red shoes. She had green eyes. And auburn ha-"
Silence. Ethan didn't even have to finish his sentence. He slowly looked up from the file, his mouth slightly opening. He dropped the folder. His eyes became more watery. Not with sadness, but with rage. He breathed heavily. His teeth were chattering.
"Y-y-you?" His voice started to raise. "A death in the family?! That's why you went to Canada, why you fled?! She was eight! Eight!"I stood there, stoic. As if someone were stabbing me in the stomach countless times over but I was paralyzed in place and could do nothing but feel the pain.
Ethan collected himself a bit and looked for his handcuffs. Once he found them, he put my hands behind my back.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you cannot afford..."His voice faded away with my freedom and my life. He called the station and a cop car showed up in no time. They stuffed me in the backseat.
As if to torment me, the car drove all around the town. Once it passed in front of the park I was flooded with memories. How my cousin and I used to patiently wait for the swings to be put up in the spring and how I met Laura Phillips, the little girl, who was less than a decade old, who changed my life.
Some might protest that I didn't kill her, which I did not. But, in the moment, in the ocean of confusion, I hid her body in ways unimaginable.
The police car stopped in front of the building it had come from. That 'tour' made me realize how much I loved my town of Sleepy Hollow, but this time it seemed to have gotten the best of me.