Prologue

A Chapter by Nola North

    A shrill cry of terror cut through the humid darkness. The screams grew as the woman's agony grew, and then all was silent except for the singing crickets and croaking frogs. A thump sounded across the open field as the woman's lifeless body was being loaded into a vehicle to take her to her grave. Elsewhere, the vehicle drives to the place the other women have been found. Slaughtered, tortured, murdered. Elsewhere, to the dirt path that one woman knows as Crimson Road.
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    The town buzzed with the gossip of the newest murder. People were morbidly interested, nothing to be ashamed of. Human nature causes them to talk. He doesn't like it, though. He moves among them, listening to their conversations. He's furious as he hears the people once again turn his art into nothing more than animal behavior. Don't they understand that only animals kill? He plans everything down to the last detail. Every minute thing has occurred to him in his planning. He doesn't make mistakes like murderers. Because he is not one. He is an artist.
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    Somewhere across the town, a phone rings. It is not answered as the woman beside it tosses and turns in a nightmare. Waking up in a sweat, reaching for the phone, she stays her hand. The memory of the last phone call she received stops her. For some reason, the killer contacted her, and promised to do it again.
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    The police station is alive and moving. Restless detectives move back and forth as the captain sits in his chair, silent, brooding. There is a serial killer in their town. And there's nothing they can do about it. He is invisible. He is safe. He is dangerous.
    A young woman sits in the corner, waiting for a statement from the captain. She is eager to make her boss proud, and she is too headstrong for her own good. Too close to stumbling upon something that cannot be found. She must be done away with.
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    A cry issuses from the sleeping woman. She sees him. She knows. He has killed again, and she knows. As she sits up, she's at a loss. She realizes now why the killer has contacted her. He knows that she sees. She knows that she won't live much longer as his need to kill grows. And why would such a smart man leave such a loose end that could be so easily tied?