Chapter 1

Maybe I was the cause of the pain.

A perfect whole vessel with nothing but inky darkness inside. Someone should plunge the damn knife into my heart and end me before I spread the darkness from inside.

There was blood everywhere.

My blood coated hands trembled at the sight of the woman that lay before me. Limp and cold. It was an effort not to break down in front of the hundreds of eyes.

I rather spend hundreds of nights with my whining cousin than face what I had become. Murderer. . Monster. Their shouts ringed through the air.

I had killed an innocent lady for the sake of my own life. A sacrifice for a lost cause was what I was.

Another person was led into the pit with a sack covering her face. They took it off and I stared at the face that looked back at me. Pure and innocent.

I knew the soft black locks that fell around her shoulders, the full mouth and rosy pink cheeks. And I knew those hollow brown eyes, corruption and despair that leaked from them.

I did not tremble as I gripped the knife and angled it to her heart.

As I gripped those thin shoulders and stared into those hated eyes–my eyes,

And plunged the knife into my awaiting heart.

My eyes shot open to darkness in my cell and I hurtled for the toilet emptying the contents of my almost empty stomach. Cold sweat coating my skin felt like blood.

The sound of my retching was the only sound that can be heard. Moonlight leaked from the small window that was perched above my mattress, the only source of light and sound of the outside.

I was trembling by the time the vomiting stopped, waiting for the lingering anxiety to fade and subside.

Only a nightmare, Rose. One of hundreds that haunted me, asleep and awake. Focused solely on my breathing, I counted my breaths. In from the nose, out from the mouth, over and over.

Panting, I flushed the toilet and hugged my knees to my chest. The torn white t-shirt and black pants that were given to me three months ago did no good to the col