PROLOGUE
[] Alexandra []
I stood there, unmoving. My chest was heavy. My arms which hung like rubber at my sides, were frozen. I felt the shallow breaths leave and enter my mouth. What was happening?
The cold tiles of the bathroom floor was sticky with blood. Her blood. It was everywhere. I swallowed, my own saliva feeling thick and vile as it pushed its way down my throat.
I raised a shaking hand to my face. My fingertips were slick with red, as if they had been bleeding. I could hear my heart beating in my ears, that unsteady rhythm under the thin fabric of my nightgown.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
What had he done to her?
The man knelt by the bathtub, his eyes wild as he panted like an animal. He was soaked in blood too. His large hand which had been gripping the pocket knife flexed, and the knife clattered to the floor where it lay there in the pool of crimson.
Run, Alex! Run!
He sank to the ground, where he curled up like a child. He was shaking. His eyes flickered back at the bathtub.
It was filled to the brim with even more blood. Red streaks splashed up the walls and ran from the edge to the floor. A woman lay submerged in its depths, only her head and wrist visible above the dark liquid.
Don't watch, Alex! Run!
He slowly turned his head toward me. He looked so lost, so desperate. "I-" He stopped and swallowed, his adam's apple moving as he did. "What have I done?" He asked, his voice filling the silent little bathroom with startling clarity.
Mommy loves you, Alex...
Hot tears fell from the corners of my eyes and dripped from my chin.
"You killed her." I said, my voice as cold as the linoleum under my bare feet.
"You killed my mother."
