part I

She walked down the street with her head down. She did not want the random passersby to notice the tears freely falling on her shoes. She walked alone with no idea where she would end up. A destination was never the priority. She stopped at her favorite bookstore. Maybe a book would cheer her up or at least allow her to escape to someone else's world for a bit. A girl of sixteen should not have been burdened with the heavy load of what had transpired the night before. She was witness to a murder that had not taken place yet. What fraction of innocence she still claimed was dangerously faltering. A decision was necessary and due sooner rather than later.

The sun was selfish with its warmth, remaining behind the clouds. People passed by at vigorous paces with no regard to how beautiful the trees appeared under casted shadows from the intermittent sunshine. Birds wandered and hopped about the sidewalk for morsels of food that could only be salvaged from the complacency of human beings to disregard what they did not consume themselves. The vendors swept and cleaned their storefronts in the hopes of drawing new business, but it never comes. She stopped, peeked in the window. It was closed.