The River's Edge

Chapter 1- Abduction

                                                                            The River's Edge

Chapter one

    Twenty one days before...

    The night air had a certain chill that screamed of murder. A shadow moved through the night, and into a house. The house on a hill just out of town. The house was old and run down, with the windows long smashed and boarded up. The roof was covered in green mold around the edges, and full of leaks with icicles dripping long and sharp from the rooftop. The weather was an in-between state where it was still bitterly cold in the nights, and warmer during the day. But the frigid nights never bothered the shadow, for it had been through and seen much worse than just a cold night. The house had a driveway that hid cockroaches and spiders. The inside of the house was almost worse. The walls were full of shadows, so many that it crawled with bugs, and you couldn't tell. The walls had peeling white paint, soon stained red. The shadow moved from the driveway and onto the porch. As it moved through the door, it paused to think. Why so silent? Then the scream that filled the air comforted it. Ah, my cue it thought. From the door it moved into the kitchen and down to the basement where another figure shone in a shaft of moonlight, asleep. A look of disdain was on it's pretty face. Poor thing must be having a bad dream, it thought with guilt. I think it might wake to a much worse reality... Bonds were tightened, masks were placed over mouths, and bodies were dragged. The shadow had a grip like everything depended on this. The strength that it produced was more than anyone could have possessed naturally. It dragged the body down the hill, and across a wide meadow. The shadow's feet squished in the mud, except for one patch with fresh, dry dirt. It went past the meadow, and into the woods. Hidden in the shadows, the body would not be seen. Feet ran hurriedly through the woods, but splashed in a puddle. The shadow paused, and then kept on moving the pale figure. The waking body was pulled past the trees and to a flowing rivers edge. A sharp object gleamed ominously in the grip of a hand, another on the ground. Just before a knife-like object sliced open the throat of the pale figure, it had time to let out a blood curdling scream, one that not anybody could forget.

                                                                                                     ***

    Brielle sat on her bed, silent. Her mother would be upset if she got out of bed before nine. She needed her rest, after the accident. It had been only a month since her sister, Olivia, had died. Sadness still hung around the house. With her father now gone for fourteen years (since the day her little sister was born), and her sister dead, it was just her and her mother in the house. The house seemed empty and sad. Brielle crawled out of bed and cracked open her window. A fresh breeze escaped through the crack of her window, and brushed the hair from her face. 8:57 the clock read on her nightstand. She silently got dressed into an aqua tunic with exposed shoulders and jeans. She saw it was now nine, and she opened her bedroom door into the hallway. She crept through the hall and into the kitchen to make breakfast. She cooked eggs for her mother and bacon for herself (because it was her favorite).

    "Mom?" Brielle called into the hall. "Breakfast!"

    Nobody answered.

    "Mom?' she called again, this time calling closer to her mother's room.

    When she came closer, she discovered a note was left on her mother's bedroom door, scribbled quickly. It read:

    I'm going out for a bit to.... attend to an issue.

    See you soon.

    love, mom

    That was odd. Her mother never left the house by herself. Maybe she just needed alone time, and it was a mental struggle. Brielle ate her breakfast alone, but before she got to finish she noticed that day's newspaper laying on the kitchen table. There was an article about a murder. It said that Amanda Woodburn had been taken from her home in the night, been dragged down to the river and killed, her body found in the water. She looked at the picture they had included of the crime scene (the body missing) with caution tape lined around the entire bridge,and noticed it had been in the exact same spot that her sister died. Since no one knew who had committed the crime, it could very well be the same murderer. Brielle's head was filled with questions, them coming faster, and faster: Why Amanda? Why my sister? Who? What could they have possibly done? But most importantly: