Chapter Eighty Three

A murderer..... murderer... murderer.....

The familiar word reverberates through my mind and I close my eyes to shut it out. But the harder I try, the more futile the effort because clear as day, the memory filters up from the deepest of my archives, playing out in my head like it was just yesterday it all happened.

15 YEARS AGO......

I sit in front of the mirror and brush out my hair stiffly, staring at my face like it's the first time I'm seeing it in a long time. Perhaps it is. For as long as I can remember now, I've not had the liberty of basking in the beautiful process of watching myself grow. I turn 13 today and no one had even wished me a happy birthday. When I had gone to school earlier, Miss Polly had told the class that it was my birthday and they had all said nothing, no one in school had wished me..... except Miss Polly. When the ball rang and we all filed out, I had heard the girls, Cynthia and her friends whispering not so quietly about how creepy I was b