Murder

1 (prologue)

July 13th — 03:16 am

I know that one should start telling stories with a catching phrase, but I just cannot get myself to do this. Whoever you may be, you should put this down and find a happy story to read. There's plenty of good love stories out there, so you don't have to do this to yourself, because this is not a fairytale where they live happily ever after, this is reality, and reality is a nightmare. This story is one full of angst, sadness and death. It's not too late to go back and live life without any knowledge of this terrifying story.

It all started a few weeks after the what I thought best moment of my life where I got coffee spilled all over me by a blond guy in a black hoodie, his green eyes widened behind the glasses as he saw what had happened.

I'm going to warn you one last time if you're really still reading. You can go back, pretend you never read this. Pretend that I met the guy I later married, and that we lived happily ever after. This would be best for you. I'm just finally writing this down to get my head free of my hunting past. You don't have to read it.

For everyone who decides to keep reading, for whatever reason - I don't know what you can learn from this story, but I hope you do learn something.

So, I had been at a café and just when I was about to go up to the counter to order, the already mentioned guy ran into me and spilled his coffee on me.
"I am so, so sorry", was the first thing he said to me while he got a pack of tissues out of his bagpack in a clumsy movement.

"Don't worry, I survived it. It was one of my favourite shirts though", I joked and grabbed the pack with a little smile.

His eyes wandered down to the white band tee with the imprint of the logo of my favourite band, the pride edition. A big grin forms on his face. "You're into Canadian History? I love them." Then he seemed to remember the coffee spilled all over my shirt. "Now I'm even more sorry for spilling my coffee. Life would be so much better if I wasn't that clumsy", he sighed and pushed his glasses back up. "I'll buy you a new one. I'm pretty sure you won't be able to get them when the new collection drops."

"Oh, no. You don't have to, really. I also have the black one, I'll be fine." I give him a smile.

"But I ruined it! It doesn't matter if you have another. Please let me do this for you."

"It's okay. You don't have to get me a new one. I'll go to the bathroom now to clean up." I gave back the rest of the tissues and sent him a smile before walking into the direction of this cafés toilets.

The guy followed me. "No, no. I'll buy a new one for you. Give me your number and I'll text you when I have it so I can give it to you."

I opened up the door to the bathroom and looked in the mirror first to see how big the stain is. Then I turned to the guy. "You just want my number", I joked.

He laughed but I could see his face turn red as the blood rushed into it. "I'll really buy you the shirt. Getting your number is just a plus." He watched me as I let water run on my shirt.

I looked at him through the mirror. "At least let me buy you a new coffee then."

"I spill my coffee on you and you buy me a new one? I don't think that's how it goes", he gave back while stepping back to lean against the wall.

"If you buy me a new shirt then yes. I basically ruined your coffee, so...", I shrugged and turned off the water. It wasn't helping anyway.

"Wait!", he said. "Do you want my hoodie until you can change? Your shirt's all wet, and it's still stained." He already pulled it over his head, revealing a simple t-shirt he's wearing under it. "Take it", he ordered.

I sighed. "You won't accept a no, thank you?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Come on."

I gathered the last bit of confidence to pull my wet shirt over my head. I don't feel all that comfortable in my body. I grabbed the hoodie. "Maybe you'll overthink getting my number now", I joked while putting it on. It was a little big, the size was one bigger than what I usually bought for me. The guy was a little taller than me, so no miracle.

"Hmm, no. I have to buy the shirt anyway. And now I'm definitely going to text you for other reasons than the shirt", he grinned.

I blushed at his words and walked over to the door to leave the toilets. He followed me. Some people sitting at the tables shot us a look as the door closed behind us. I walked to the closest free table and sat down.

He chose the opposite side of the table. "Well, now, your name and number?"

"George", I said as I got out my phone. "I don't know my number, let me look."

He watched me with a little smile. His glasses had to be pushed up again, but he didn't seem to notice. I started to tell him my number and he typed it into his phone.

A moment later I received a text from an unknown number.
I'm Reece :)

I laughed. "Nice to meet you, Reece. Now let me buy you a new coffee."

He pulled a face but eventually agreed with a little nod. We left the table to go over to the counter where he ordered what he wanted. I got myself a coffee too and then paid for us.

"Thank you", he mumbled and drank a sip from his coffee. "I have to go now, I have an appointment. I'll text you."

I smiled and watched him walk away until he walked around a corner. I sighed contently as I thought that it might have been a fateful encounter. It was, somehow, but at the same time I wish now that I had never let him buy me the new shirt. But back then, I was just happy I had met a cute guy who decided to shoot his shot with me after spilling his coffee on me. I didn't know what this meant for my future.
I also could've decided to only meet him once to give him back his hoodie and get my new shirt, and not agree to meet up again.

Instead I smiled when he asked me out, and then said yes. It didn't seem like a bad idea, and because we had time we decided we could just spend time now, after I had received my new shirt.

We just decided on a simple thing, so we walked to a close park and sat down. We had a vivid conversation on already, and I couldn't believe how much I clicked with this guy I was just meeting for the second time. I had the best time this afternoon so I agreed to a proper date just the next day. We met up in the city, neither of us owning a car. We were both young, and didn't have much money. We just spent a fun evening eating in a not too fancy restaurant and going on a walk after. We were just strolling through the city, hand in hand sometimes when one of us pulled the other to a shop window. Most of it was making fun of stupid advertising, and we found tons of it, laughing at them like mad. We laughed a lot in general. Whenever we were together, we laughed a lot. At least in the beginning. For the first few weeks, before it all started. After that, I spent a lot of time getting hugged by Reece, crying against his shoulder. I didn't know why my life suddenly went downhill. It would take Reece and me another few weeks to figure it out. But so far, we didn't have to figure out anything. We were just two guys who fell in love like two teenagers who didn't know how to take things slowly. But for us, it didn't matter. We kissed on our first date, which was only the third time of us meeting. And it worked for us.

We spent as much time as possible then, usually having to wait a few days where we were constantly texting. I missed him as soon as we said goodbye, even though I always knew we had already agreed on the next time to meet. We had a relationship with everything you could wish for, and for us it didn't matter that it had been a few weeks only. I introduced him to my parents after he had told me that his family didn't accept 'his lifestyle' and therefore he didn't have much contact to them anymore. He said it was fine. My parents loved him immediately. I also introduced him to some of my best friends. He admitted he had been feeling really lonely before meeting me but now he always seemed happy. It made me happy.

Seven weeks of happiness.

It's your last chance to return now. You don't have to find out what followed after those amazing seven weeks of me and Reece being the happiest couple on earth. You don't have to read about the day after he told me he was in love with me.