Authors Note: This first chapter is really short, and is basically just being used as a set up. I've actually got about 3 more chapters worth written, which I intend to type up and post ASAP. Then I'm in a rut. But I have a few ideas for where I want to go next. So hopefully what I have now will be enough to keep you going for a while!!

Anyway, as always, I want to know what you think............. _________________________________________________________

I was sixteen years old when my life fell apart.

It all started with the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl in a town a few miles from where I lived. The girl's mother had put her in a taxi to go to see her aunt. She never arrived. Her badly mutilated body turned up four days later in some nearby woods.

So, what's this got to do with me? I hear you ask. Absolutely nothing. Or, at least, it SHOULD have absolutely nothing to do with me. And but for a huge stroke of misfortune, it would never have had any effect on my life.

I guess I was just unlucky that the photo-fit they released of the taxi driver looked a little like me.

And the fact I dyed my hair the day after the girl went missing. Well, I guess a couple of people got suspicious and called the cops to report a possible match.

So, the police turned up at my school and took me out of class in order to interview me. Find out where I was when the girl vanished. They made it pretty clear that I wasn't a serious suspect, but they had no option other than to follow all leads properly.

The interview took about an hour. By which time the police were totally convinced that I hadn't been involved in the girl's disappearance. By which time, everyone at the school was convinced I was a murderer.

Gossip is a truly dangerous thing.

Gossip is especially dangerous when kids get involved. They can be pretty nasty at the best of times if they dont like you. But something like this, well, once word got round I was being questioned, that was all they needed.

The old "no smoke without fire", and "why's he been arrested if he didn't do it?" scenario spread like crazy. The fact I was back so soon meant nothing. I was guilty as far as they were concerned. No way was something small like the truth going to get in the way of a good story.