As Leslie walked the well-established path in front of her, she started piecing back memories.

Tim.

Where was Tim?

Just who was Tim?

“Oh, Tim!” She spoke aloud, a single tear escaping from her eye.

Tim was her boyfriend? Yes? Was that right?

Yes, Tim was her boyfriend.

“Why am I crying? What happened to—” Before she could finish the sentence, she remembered.

“Oh my God, Tim is dead!” A sob broke through her sentence as dread and sorrow filled her body.

Leslie was sobbing so hard now that she had to sit.

Her eye made its way to a smooth-looking stump just off the path a few yards.

As she made her way to the stump, more memories flashed across her mind.

“Oh my God!” She yelled loudly, hearing her angst echo throughout the wilderness.

She didn’t make it to her stump, instead she fell to her knees, as the next realization fell upon her like a brick.

I killed him.

 

I killed Tim.

 

      Somehow she managed to make it to the stump, where she sat as fear and sadness coursed through her body.


         “How? Why?” She whispered through her sobs.


         “How could I?” The only warm part of her was her face, where her tears were scorching her cheeks.


         Just then, another memory.


         Tim’s hand, coming toward her, fury etched across his narrowed eyes.


         The hit. The pain.


         Memories of the subsequent blows and his bellowing voice came back one by one.


         Tim had gotten violent.


         But she had no comparable bruising – when did all of this happen?


         “That was three months ago…” She whispered to herself, realization coming to her yet again.


         “But when was the accident? When did I…kill him?” Her grief had slowed, making way for more confusion.


         “The accident…it was supposed to look like an accident!” She recalled as another brief memory played in her mind like a movie.


          She could see him, lying in her backseat, unconscious or…possibly not alive. She couldn’t fully remember. She was still so confused.


          And cold.


          Shivers wracked her body as she pulled her knees up with the hope of warming herself.


          As she fidgeted in an effort to warm herself, something caught her eye.


          A random beam of sunlight was landing just a few feet away, causing something to glimmer and glint.


          Pulling herself off the stump, Leslie walked toward the object in the sunlight.


          It was a handle of some kind, attached to a long wooden piece…


          “Oh my God!” Leslie spoke aloud, as she noticed what it was.


          It was a shovel, and right next to it on the ground, under a bush, was a coat.


          It was her coat.


          She had been right here, before.