“Where is it!” he screamed at me again. The gun in his hand shook as he pointed it at my sister’s head.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I whispered. “Please, just let her go. She has nothing to do with this!”

“Tell me where it is and I won’t hurt her.” My sister’s eyes were red with tears and she whimpered with fear. “Shut up!” he shouted at her. “Marie, where is the camera?”

“What camera?” I said softly. I stared at the floor. I couldn’t bear to look at my sister, and I was too scared to look Luke in the eye.

“Which camera do you think, Marie?! Tell me now!”

“I don’t know where it is…I can’t remember where I put it… I may have thrown it out-”

“You know exactly where it is!!” He kicked at my chair, then got real close to me, up in my face. His eyes were the coldest, most frightening eyes I have ever seen. How could I have not noticed them before?

“Now you listen to me very carefully Marie. I am going to count to ten and you are going to tell me where that camera is or I will end Tara’s life right here. You got it?”

“Please! You don’t understand!”

“One.”

“She is not involved, let her go!”

“Two.”

“I didn’t see anything! I swear!”

“Three.”

“I deleted the picture…I threw out the memory chip! I don’t have them!”

“Four.”

“I didn’t tell anyone! No one knows!”

“Five.”

“And I’m not going to tell anyone! I won’t!”

“Six.”

“I will leave town- I’ll disappear, know one will ever know this happened!”

“Seven.”

“Luke! Let’s just talk about this… you once told me you loved me, remember?”

“Eight.”

“Don’t do this Luke! You can’t do this! She’s my sister. Please I am begging you!” Tears were streaming down my face.

“Nine.”

“IT’S IN MY HANDBAG!! IN MY CLOSET!!!!”

“Ten.”





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Luke and I have been dating for over a year. I mean it when I say he is absolutely perfect. Kind, funny, handsome, he’s like my best friend, but more than that. I can talk about anything with him, and I know that I can trust him He respects me, and understands me. Luke is the best guy I ever met.

I had a crush on Luke the day he came into town, about two years ago. He moved in with his great uncle (his only living relative) after his parents died. I really don’t know exactly what happened, for he doesn’t like to talk about it much, and I don’t pry. Dead parents are not a good topic of conversation, especially when you loose them when you are only fifteen. So since his uncle is really old and mostly sleeps, Luke comes over to my house a lot. My family loves Luke, including my younger sister Tara. She’s a quiet thirteen year old, and sometimes becomes shy around him. Luke and I spend a lot of time together, and we have gotten pretty close. I honestly think that I am in love with him.




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Prom was the best night of my life. I wore a beautiful floor length dress, light blue with sparkles everywhere. When I walked the dress flowed around me, so I looked like a waterfall shimmering in the moonlight. Being apart of the student council, I helped decorate the gym. It was winter wonderland themed- not very original, but you can’t beat the classics. I went with Luke, of course, and had a blast. We danced to every song, and it seemed as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. Time stopped for a couple of hours. During the last song, one of my favorites by Coldplay, Luke whispered “I love you.” “I love you too,” I whispered back. I believed what he said and I meant what I said. It was the night I had always dreamt of and I couldn’t have been happier.

A week after prom, my parents decided that we would take a vacation down to Florida to visit my grandparents and to celebrate my grandpa’s 80th birthday. I enjoy visiting my grandparents, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood to leave right now. I wanted to stay here, with Luke. But I was being forced to go, so I agreed with Luke that I would call him every night while I was away. I was only going to be away for ten days, but to me it seemed like ten years without Luke.




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Luke has been acting very strange since I went on vacation. I called him every night, but he didn’t answer, so I left voice mails. He never called back. Then, the night before I was supposed to leave Florida, I called him one last time. Once again, there was no answer. I was very worried about him. What if something happened? Just then I heard my phone buzz on the table and I practically pounced on it. It was a text message from Luke. I was so relieved until I read it. All it said was “can’t talk right now, I’m busy.” At that moment, my heart broke in two and it stayed that way until I returned home.

Things are not the same with Luke and me. It’s been a month since I went on vacation and we have hardly seen or talked to each other. He has been throwing me these lame excuses such as “I have homework” or “I have work tomorrow” or “my car broke down” and his famous “can’t talk right now, I’m busy.” His excuse for ignoring me while I was on vacation was that his phone broke. You may think that I’m being a little paranoid but this has never happened before with him and I. Susan, my best friend, popped the idea of him possibly cheating on me into my head. “No, Luke wouldn’t do that, would he?” “You don’t know until you find out,” she sighed, pushing back her blonde curls. “I’m sorry, Marie.” So naturally, I was very upset, not necessarily at Susan, but I wanted to prove her wrong. I confronted Luke about his odd behavior and my suspicions, but he denied it, and in return became angry with me for thinking such a “ludicrous” idea. “Susan is probably just jealous,” he said. I wanted to believe him, to go tell Susan it was just a big misunderstanding, but I couldn’t. As much as I wanted things to be back to normal I knew they weren’t going to be, because Luke was lying. And I was going to get the proof I needed to confirm it.

I didn’t tell anyone else what I was going to do, not even Susan, for I wasn’t in the mood to be judged. Away on a business trip, my parents weren’t going to be home for three days, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them either. I texted Luke and asked if he wanted to go to the movies. He said he couldn’t because his grades were low and he needed to study. His grades are definitely low, but Luke was definitely not the type of person to do anything about it. I grabbed my camera and ran out to my blue Toyota. I drove to Luke’s apartment building, parked across the street a few buildings down and waited. Then I saw him walking out of the building to his old pickup truck. I followed him until we came to the lake near the edge of the town line. I parked on the other side of the lake near the trees and hid behind a bush about 100 yards from the dock. It was the perfect place to spy on Luke. A soft breeze blew over the water, the clouds making it gray and cold, like my mood. I saw Luke walk onto the dock and look out over the lake, alone. He just stood there and after a few minutes I considered going home, for it was getting late. Maybe I was crazy, maybe Luke just needed a little time, maybe- Who is that?! A tall, dark haired girl whom I have never seen before walked out onto the dock. Luke turned and they imbraced each other. And then he leaned in and kissed her! I could not believe what I was seeing. Susan was right. That lying, deceiving cold hearted- wait Marie focus. All I have to do is take a few photos and show them to Luke. I started snapping pictures of them together, trying to hear what they were talking about, but I was to far away. I must have snapped a hundred pictures when the fighting started. It quickly escalated to loud shouts and shoving, but I continued to take pictures. The mystery girl turned and started walking away but stopped and looked back, shouting one last thing at Luke. It had to have been pretty bad because his whole complexion turned dark. She spun on her heel and started off again but Luke leapt right up behind her. Before she even new he was there he- I froze. I dropped the camera after I took one final picture- a picture of Luke stabbing the girl in the back.

Words cannot describe how I felt. I don’t think I felt at all, but just stared in disbelief as I watched the girls face with the handle of the knife sticking out of her. Pain gripped the girl’s body while Luke carried her to the edge of the dock. Splash was the sound of the water as it swallowed up her body. I fell back, scrambling on the ground, picking up the camera with shaking hands. Luke had just murdered someone…my Luke had just murdered a girl! A human being! It could have been me I thought. As I tried to get up, a couple of branches snapped. I ducked down and peered through the bush. Luke had heard the branches, and was now walking over. My heart was beating a mile a minute…I had to get out of here! So I sprinted to my car and drove away as fast as I could. I barged through the door of my house and locked it behind me.

“What’s wrong with you?” Tara asked.

“Nothing,” I said, “just turn off the TV and go to your room.”

I felt my phone buzz. It was a text message from Luke. I need to talk to you it read.

“But I’m right in the middle off-”

“I don’t care Tara just get to your room now!”

My phone was buzzing again, this time with a call from Luke that I was to scared to answer. I went into my room and hid the camera, the only evidence. It was just me and him, or so I thought.

“Marie!” I heard Tara whine.

“Look Tara you are not watching that stupid-”

Luke was standing on the stairs, his arm wrapped around Tara’s throat.

“You see, I wouldn’t have to be here right now if you had just answered my call, but I guess we have to do this the hard way.”

“Get your hands off her,” I stated firmly.

“Shut your face Marie! Down the stairs, you little dork,” he dictated, shoving her into the living room. “Sit in that chair,” he barked at me. I sat down and he came over and duck taped me to the chair. This violent situation was escalating greatly. But the climax was when he pulled out the gun.

“I have been keeping this in my car for a special occasion,” he sneered sarcastically. He grabbed Tara and pointed the gun at her head. This couldn’t be happening to me.





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He shot the gun directly in front of my feet, narrowly missing them. Tara screamed as it went off. There was a small hole in the floor now, and Luke smiled as if he just created a beautiful piece of art. If I wasn’t tied up and deathly afraid of him right now, I would have killed him.

“Don’t move,” he growled at Tara. Tara sat on the floor, terrified, shaking, but alive. Yes, alive. Luke disappeared down the hall into my room. He returned a few moments later with the camera in his hand. He took the memory card out, put it in his pocket, then threw the camera on the floor and proceeded to shoot at it. Bang, Bang, Bang! Then sound was deafening and my camera ended up destroyed.

“Thanks for the pictures, Marie. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I spat on him as he walked by me. He opened the front door, and he was just about to walk out when I called to him.

“Wait Luke.” He stopped and turned to look at me. “Why Luke? Why?” I said with tears in my eyes.

“I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself,” he smirked. He closed the front door with a bang, and was gone.