Genesis

Capsized

     Inside the cooking tent an hour later, Lucius spoke the one word that made me want to commit the second murder of the day.

     "No."

     Anger bubbled inside of me.

     "Why not?!" I exclaimed, "I expressed my case perfectly! Colt couldn't have committed this murder."

     "You're too close to this," Lucius told me, "The fact is, Quinn, that despite everything you tried to make sense of, Colt is still the killer! You don't want to realize that Dorian is dead, so you're finding every which way to try to defend his murderer."

     "Are you accusing me of lying?!" I yelled.

     "No," Lucius replied, "I don't think you're lying. At least not intentionally. What you don't realize is that you're twisting the facts around in your own head."

     "No," I said, a hint of cynical laughter erupting from my throat, "I'm not insane, and I know what I saw."

     "Quinn," Lucius looked at me worriedly, "I'm not saying you're schizo or anything like that. The only thing I'm saying is, Quinn, take a minute to process your grief! It isn't healthy for you to just keep running about like this. When you saw Dorian's dead body, you barely even flinched!"

     "BULLSHIT !" I screamed at him, although I didn't remember meaning to, "You know how much he means to me. Of course, I'm grieving him, but that doesn't mean that I can't put aside my feelings to prevent another meaningless death!"

     "Quinn," I heard another voice say behind me. I turned to see Mayanna standing there, Xander at her side. The expression on their faces said it all. They didn't believe me.

     "Quinn," Xander said softly, "Lucius is right. You just need a minute to process everything that's happened."

     Before I knew that I was walking towards him, I had reached my arms out and shoved Xander away.

     "Bullshit!" I screamed again, pushing my finger into Xander's chest. I pulled my arm free of Mayanna's sudden grasp as an idea popped into my head quite suddenly.

     "You're wrong," I said, more calmly now, "And I can prove it."

     I stormed out of the tent, rounding a corner before pushing Jackson out of my way and barging into the butcher's tent. Colt looked shocked when he saw me, and even more shocked at what I said next.

     "I need your shoe," I told him, grabbing hold of one of his feet and beginning to undo the laces. He pulled his foot away from me, shooting me a confused glance.

     The second time I grabbed hold of his shoe, I made sure not to let him yank it away again. Soon, he stopped struggling against me, instead settling on watching me in confusion as I yanked off his boot and stormed out of the tent.

     That's when I heard the sound of rumbling thunder. I looked up to the sky, wondering when those grey clouds had formed as I bumped into Lucius, Xander, and Mayanna outside.

     "If you've ever had any love for Dorian, please trust me," I stated.

     Xander and Maya took a moment to glance at each other before nodding hesitantly, while Lucius simply crossed his arms over his chest.

     "Follow me!" I shouted, beginning to run back to the scene of the crime. The three of them decided to run after me.

     I zipped past the tree line at lightning pace, hearing thunder again when I reached the graves.

     "Hurry!" I shouted, praying to whatever God was listening to hold back the rain until I had the chance to prove my case.

     That was the moment that I felt the first drop of water fall on my nose.

     Shit.

     I ran as fast as my legs would take me back to that mustard yellow picnic blanket, the rain pacing to a steady drizzle as I kicked the leaves aside and found one of the killer's footprints, comparing the sole of Colt's boot to the print in the dirt.

     I knew it.

     I panicked as I watched the prints begin to fade a little as rain fell onto the Earth in bucket-fulls.

     "Hurry!" I shouted again as I saw Mayanna and Xander appear from the treeline, Lucius appearing not too far behind. They stopped right beside me, their lungs heaving, as I began to explain.

     "Look!" I said, holding the boot upside-down next to the ground, "The print on the ground, it's different to the sole of the boot! I knew when I saw the killer's footprints, they were too light. He must have been wearing sneakers, but everyone knows that Colt wears hiking boots!"

     "Quinn," I heard Mayanna say gently, "There's no footprint."

     "What do you mean? Of course, there's a--."

     The words caught in my throat as my eyes scanned the muddy ground. Any sign of the print I'd seen before was now gone, washed away by the rain.

     You're too late.

     "No..." I murmured, falling to my knees and brushing leaves about, searching the earth for any sign of the footprints I'd seen only an hour before. No matter how many leaves I pushed aside, my present reality was obvious.

     The truth sunk in as quickly as the rain sank into the earth.

     I was too late.