Owen

FOR A MOMENT I SIMPLY stand and watch her run, as though my feet are nailed in place.

I followed the blinking dot to the edge of the woods. Hurtled through the trees, until I came to the Woodland Hutches and saw Francesca standing there. I wanted her to look me in the eye. I needed her to explain. Part of me desperate to be convinced that in spite of what she'd said on the phone she was somehow innocent. The alternative... unthinkable.

But the look on her face when she saw me just now told me everything. The guilt, beacon bright.

That, and the fact that she ran.

I created this place for her. For the girl-goddess I first saw all those years ago. For the dream of perfection that she and this building represented. The woman who gave meaning to everything. My love. My light.

Murderer? My mother's killer?

Now everything is dead clear: clear as it was when I stood as a boy holding that lit match. Foreseeing the change I was about to make in the fabric of things.

I know what I have to do.