What happened that night?

The night Marie died, the whole town slept.

No one heard her screams. No one saw the shadow that followed her, slipping through the darkness like a ghost. No one noticed the way the wind carried her last breath, how the trees whispered her name long after she was gone.

By morning, the world kept turning. The sun rose, casting soft golden light over the quiet streets, and people woke up, made their coffee, went about their lives. They didn't know that just beyond the town, past the winding roads and the forgotten paths, by the creek where the water ran slow and black Marie's body lay cold.

It wasn't supposed to happen.

She was supposed to go home that night, wake up the next morning, complain about school, text me about her latest obsession, and and laugh at something stupid Aiden said.

But instead, she became a secret buried in the dirt. A name that people would whisper, a mystery waiting to be solved.

And I was going to find out who did it.