Leslie walked around the entire mound trying to remember.


      “Did I bury Tim here? How? He was much bigger than me. How would I have gotten him here?” Confusion was setting in again and it was beginning to cause anger.


      “Well here goes!” She hollered out loud, as she thrust the shovel into the soft dirt and began digging.


      Her next memory stopped her in her tracks.


      The flowers. Delivered to her house the day after the accident.


      ‘I miss you; we need to talk when you feel better…love always, Tim’

 

      “Wait, what? I didn’t kill Tim?” She was back to a whisper but feeling the tiniest bit of relief.  While Tim was a horrible person, she didn’t want to kill him or anyone else.


      “But what the hell is this then?” She looked down at the growing hole within the mountain of dirt.


      Just then, another flash.

           

“I’ll kill him!” Bess, Leslie’s best friend, had exclaimed with clenched fists upon seeing Tim’s violent handiwork. “Please tell me you called the police!”


      “No, I just left. I-I don’t want to deal with it or anything. I just want to forget about him and move on. I would literally do anything to just forget.” Leslie had been softly crying as she spoke.


      “You can’t let him get away with this! He’s dangerous and needs to be locked up!” Bess was fuming.


      “I just want to forget. I just want to forget all about him and all of this. Please Bess, I don’t want to have to deal with all of that, not now, please.” Leslie was sobbing now.


      “Okay, shh! Just calm down, we don’t have to talk about this right now,” Bess’s voice was calm as she embraced her heartbroken friend.


      “I still say we should kill him though,” Bess’s tone had an element of humor in it, enough to cause Leslie to softly chuckle between sobs.


      “How would we?” Leslie pulled back from the embrace hoping to gain a little comfort from perpetuating this little fantasy.


      “I don’t know, but we know the woods like the backs of our hands. However, if we actually chose to do it, we’d at least know where to bury the body!” She smiled at Leslie, who was smiling right back.


      “Thanks, Girl. No one can cheer me up like you can.” She had genuinely felt better by indulging Bess’s attempt at some dark humor.


      But that was the extent of that flashback.


      She still didn’t know what was going on, and she didn’t know how she got here or what might be buried here, or…who might be buried here.


      So she kept digging.


      Her heart rate was increasing, and the forest seemed to swirl around her. Recollections of Tim’s violent outburst and the accident swam in and around her brain with each shovelful of dirt.


      It seemed as if she had been digging forever but nothing seemed to be there.


      But wait! What was that?


      Something caught her eye as panic took hold once more.


      She fell to her knees, dropping the shovel to her side.


      Using her hands, she moved the dirt around, uncovering…flowers.


      Dead, dried-up flowers.


      The flowers Tim had sent.


       But how had she gotten here? When had she come here? Was Tim dead…or alive?

           

Night was going to fall soon and Leslie was still no closer to figuring any of this out.


       She would have to find shelter or try to walk herself back to safety and she was still not entirely sure which direction safety could be found.


       She looked around trying to get her bearings.


       ‘We know the woods like the backs of our hands,’ Bess had said to her.


This was true. They had been avid hikers, all their lives, she and Bess. In fact, that’s how she had met Tim in the first place! On a trail not far from here, just over four months ago.


        Of course she knew where she was! And she knew how to get herself back to safety!

           

        Leslie set the shovel up against a nearby tree and began walking.


        Just then she heard voices in the distance. Who was that? It sounds so familiar!

 

        “Leslie! There she is! Leslie! Thank God!” It was Bess and there were others with her too.


        “Leslie we were all so worried!” Bess embraced her friend as some of the others with her radioed that she had been located.


           “What happened? I don’t know how I got here,” Leslie began crying.


           “Um, well, the other day you texted me saying that you couldn’t live with yourself anymore and you were going to, um, find the body and make things right…” she heavily emphasized the words ‘find the body.’


           “Yes. I was um, somehow convinced that I had killed Tim…” Leslie sniffled.


           “Yeah, we know, hon.” Bess was crying now too. “You’ve been having nightmares that we, well, took him out and buried him out here.” Bess cleared her throat and glanced sideways at the men with her.


           Nightmares. Was that all it was? Did she only just dream about Tim being dead?


           “Hi, Leslie,” a man behind Bess extended his hand and made his way toward her. “We’re going to get you some help.” He appeared to be with the local sheriff’s office.


           “What do you mean?” Leslie felt fear take root once more.


           “No, sweetie, it’s nothing to be afraid of. Ever since the accident, you have been having the dreams of course, but also blackouts. And delusions – that you killed Tim. This one has been the worst though - you’ve been out here for over two days!”


           “Blackouts?” As alarming as the thought was, it made sense. But Leslie still couldn’t remember.

           

“You do remember the accident, right sweetie?” Bess asked.


           “Of course…I mean, I think?” Leslie wasn’t sure how much she could actually recall.


           “You had stopped by Tim’s house. He wanted to talk to you. You went over thinking you would hear him out, but he flipped again. The neighbors saw the whole thing and they called the police right as you were hightailing it out of there.” Bess was hugging Leslie again.


           That was right before the accident. Leslie had been so rattled that she’d driven off the road and crashed her car.


           “Just to let you know,” the sheriff spoke, “Tim’s been in custody for a few days. He drunk drove his car into a telephone pole. He caused quite a bit of damage, but he can’t hurt you anymore. Thankfully, no one else was hurt either. He also had a warrant. For assaulting his ex. We are going to put him away, Leslie."


           It was all starting to come back now…


           She hadn’t killed Tim. The only thing she had been guilty of was trying to give him a chance to explain his actions.


           Under extreme duress, she had frantically tried to get away from Tim and his anger. This caused her to lose control of her car and end up with a concussion.


           “We want you to see your doctor again, Leslie.” This was from the sheriff. “This kind of thing can happen with head injuries. You just might need a little extra help for it, that’s all.” He patted her arm gently.


           The blackouts, the delusions, they all came flooding back.


           This was not the first time she had been here. She had dug and un-dug this mound several other times over the last few weeks. Each time, the sight of the crumbling flower petals had been enough to bring her back to her senses.


           But not this time. She definitely needed some help.


           “We always know you’ll wind up somewhere out here, and then back here to this spot eventually. You went a little further this time though. It’s a good thing we found you, it’s supposed to get down to 32 degrees tonight.” Bess had her arm lovingly around her friend as she explained the whole thing.


           “Let’s get you to the hospital, Leslie. The truck is just up over here a bit,” the sheriff gestured straight ahead.


           “You’re going to be alright, Les. I promise.” Bess pulled Leslie in tight again before they made their way to the sheriff’s vehicle.