Chapter 1

A woman stood facing thw wind, taking slow breaths of air that was not clean. SHe jammed her hands in her jean pockets and fingered a tissue left there after wiping a runny nose. Her dark brown hair swirled around her face and she squinted her brown eyes as the force of the wind behind her went up a level of strength.

Life would go on without her. No one would find her and remember her not so sweet melody of a life. No one was watching.

The woman took her clenched fists out of her pockets and dared to open her eyes wider. The sun cast a weak light behind her, outlining her healthy figure. She spread out her arms as if they were wings and jumped.

Nina gripped the van's steering wheel, staring straight out at the road like a zombie. "Must get drycleaning for John...must get groceries...I must." She told herself. She could barely hold down the voice that harassed her late at night while she took to her own selfish pleasures. A psycologist had said it was her conscience but Nina knew that that whisper of a voice was not her conscience but some evil inside of her. It hid during the day and was unleashed at night.

She tried to push it away into deep corners of her mind and thought of other things. John, her kids, Jack-"No! Not Jack!" The good part of her mind screamed at her.

Suddenly, an ignorant driver honked his horn, sending her back to reality. "Shithead!" The driver screamed hoarsly into the wind while passing her quickly. Nina shook her head and felt cold sweat sliding down her spine. She looked around then turned into the shoulder of the highway, momentarily stripping her hands off the steering wheel.

"Forget about the drycleaning and groceries. You should be punished for your stupidty..." the evil voice hissed at her.

Nina blinked away a salty tear that started to glide down her cheek, her mascara slowly dripping down her face as more tears descended to the floor of her car. She couldn't hold anything back.

Nina floored it, out into the highway to where she could lose herself to darkness. Darkness with quietness and clarity all wrapped into one package.

Nina crouched down, making herself look evil with her head bent down and her eyes looking up to look at the road. She was ready to be freed.

Adam could remember, back in the day, of happiness in every home. In that time he had been lonesome, no wife, no kids. He let himself go into the belief that there was no pupose for him on earth. One night, his friend gave the thing taht would save him for sure. Alcohol.

From that time on, Adam drank and drank, never stopping. He cried himself to sleep every night when he came home and yelled out for help, but no one came to save him. He was lost.

One July night, at 2:03 am he pushed himself out of Cici's Bar and clambered into his old truck. He drove without thinking of where he was going, only seeing dark streets and trash flying out to the sidewalk as he drove on it with great force.

He finally stopped, finding himself at a cliff. A cliff no one had bothered to find because it was so far away from town. Adam got out of his Chevy clumisly and walked to the edge to look down.

"What a great place to die!" he shouted to no one in particular in a drunken slur. He intched closer and watched a couple of little rocks tumble down to their doom.

Adam smiled and jumped down to the depths of nothing.

Detective Arnold poured over the many files, spread out onto his desk, of those who were missing. Each single, each known by no one. Detective Arnold scratched his head in thought and looked over them once more beforing going home, expecting an answer to pop out of the pages.

"Where are you?" he asked in a whisper. He stared blankly at the wall in front of him for a brief second then switched off his desk light. No one but those who were already dead knew where Anne, Adam, Jane, and Kevin were...they were all victims of Hope Cliff.