I couldn’t sleep at all that night. I tossed and turned in the bed, but could never get comfortable enough to drift off into dreamland.
Every time I closed my eyes, I was in that forest again, with the rope around my neck and that man’s knees pressing into my back.
I stopped trying to close my eyes just after midnight, and stopped trying to get comfortable an hour after that.
In my pajamas, barefoot, I stepped out of my room and into the hallway of the sleeping house. There were some pictures on the walls, so I moved to look at them, trying to see faces and places in the dark.
There were many of Amelia, some with her and Damien.
Looking at them, seeing a face so similar to mine staring back at me, I felt both nostalgic and mournful in a way that I didn’t really understand.
Turning f
