It was getting colder the closer we got to winter, I was excited I loved winter. Lying in bed in the mornings, lighting the fire, playing cards, reading a book it was my favorite time of year. Charlie on the other hand didn’t like the cold that much although he did like it when we sat in from of the fire listening to music with a nice glass of whiskey on the rocks. One cold morning we get ready to go into town and there is a knock at the door Charlie goes to the door and it’s the mail man. He has a package for us, he looked at Charlie and said “Mr. Smith? I have a package for you, please sign here” Charlie smiled signed the paperwork took the package and closed the door. He walked to the kitchen and said, “honey our toys are here”. I looked at him and said with a little devilish smile “oh nice let's have a look”. Charlie opened the box and pulled out two leather pouches, he put them on the kitchen counter and unbelted one of them to show new beautiful arrow heads. He looked at me and said, “well it looks like they will help go further and hopefully they will go through anything we shoot at, better than our last ones”. I laughed and opened the other one, i took a deep breath and thought oh my god they are so beautiful, they also looked very sharp. I took one out and touched the tip with my finger “oh Yeap that is sharp, it would definitely go through a pig”. We both laughed and Charlie grabbed them and took them down to the cellar where we had a wine rack with a hidden door, behind the door was a keypad. Charlie put the pin in and the door opened, he walked in and placed our new arrow heads down on a shelf where all our other arrows were. He thought to himself I think I need to modify them a little, put some grooves on the blades make them a little meaner and laughed at himself. He closed the door and walked back up the stairs and looked happy with himself.

We headed to town and decided to look for some new cameras, outdoor cameras we could put in the woods so we can keep track of wild animals. The wildlife in the woods are increasing we thought as we keep finding trails of feathers, dead birds and other little animals. We wanted to make sure whatever was killing these animals would not try to come on our property to get to out chickens. I am sure Arthur would protect them but it’s nice to keep an eye out anyway. Charlie asked the store man for a specific brand of cameras, as he likes to google everything, he wants to buy you know make sure there are good reviews, and requested they have a range of fifty meters as in we can zoom in up to fifty meters. The guy knew exactly what Charlie wanted so we bought ten cameras, two monitors and a hard drive. We headed back to the car when we heard people yelling and crying near the grocery store, so we put everything in the car and went to see what was going on. Mrs. horseman was yelling at detective Blossom “where is she? Why haven’t you found her? She has to be found alive, why aren’t you out there looking?” We got closer and asked one of the other people standing and watching “hey what’s going on, who’s missing?” Mrs. Horseman turns around to everyone and says “my daughter is missing; she went for a run 3 days ago and never came back. The detective isn’t doing anything he says she probably ran away”. Detective Blossom looks around at everyone “we are doing the best we can, we have officers looking everywhere, we haven’t found anything to say something bad has happened to her, but we are looking”. Mrs. Horseman’s daughter was the teller at the grocery store, she was a tall solid brunette girl, always wore her hair up, shorts and t-shirt with birds. Sandy was her name; she was always the one everyone went to for gossip she somehow knew everyone and everyone’s business.

We walked back to the car leaving all the drama and got Arthur out of the back sit. He didn’t need a leash as Charlie, and I trained him to listen to all our commands for example he would stay by our side until we told him he could go. We walked to the corner coffee shop ordered coffee for us and a dog chino for Arthur, he loved them loved them so much that i swear he would have eaten the cup if he could. Arthur was a friendly dog of sorts, everyone knew him, kids could come up to pat him, play with him, get chased by him but if he didn’t like someone he would growl and look at either Charlie and myself waiting for a command. It’s only happened a couple of times. This one time a guy walked up to Arthur while he was playing with some kids and tried to grab or cuddle him, I don’t really know what happened but Arthur didn’t like it so he stepped away from the guy and started growling. He only growls at people to scare them and will only attack if we tell him to.

After our walk through town we headed back to the car and back home so Charlie could install our new cameras. Charlie likes to plan everything so he took his time to decide exactly where to put them, walked around the property marking areas where he thought the cameras would best see every angle at all times. Took him a couple of days to have everything set up including the screens, one in our room and one in the kitchen.

A few days later there was a knock on the door, Detective Blossom and 5 deputies. I open the door and say, “Hi Detective is everything alright?” He simply looked at me and slowly said “We found Sandy; she was killed.” I didn’t know what to say, I was in shock. I tried but nothing came out, Jack then said, “Same place the first body was found.” I gasped and called out for Charlie “Charlie…. They found Sandy…. They found her…. Same place as the first body…. Near our home…. Oh my god, are we safe here?” Charlie comes running and puts his arms around me, he looks at the detective “How did this happen? Do we know who is doing it?” Detective Blossom looks at both of us. Looks like he has more bad news and hesitates. “Umm, look guys I am really sorry, but I have a warrant to search your property”. I started to cry, oh my god I thought they think we killed these people. Jack handed the letter to Charlie and made us move a side while the deputies and detective Blossom went through the house, the garage, the cellar, the back yard and the shed. After at least what seemed like most of the day, Jack comes back to us to say he is sorry and hates doing this but he has to look at everyone around the surrounding areas.

Charlie seemed very calm and unbothered by all this, he went and got me a cup of tea to try to calm me down and kept rubbing Arthur’s belly. When everyone had finished, Charlie walked up to Jack “Detective… Found anything?” Jack smiled softly “No, I knew we wouldn’t have any issues here but unfortunately we have to follow protocol; I hope you two have a nice rest of the day” and left closing the door behind him.

Charlie was watching them leave then turned to me “Are you alright honey? Do you want anything?” I just looked at him and said “What on earth did they think they were going to find? I mean honestly do they really thing we could have done anything like that?” Charlie smiled, came across to where I was sitting to hold my hand “Honey they were just doing their jobs, we can’t really be upset for that, I am sure we weren’t the only house they have gone to look at plus we have nothing to hide”. He said it with a proud smile “why don’t you take Arthur and go for a walk, somewhere away from that murder site, clear your head”. I nodded went for a walk on the other side of the woods.

Charlie watched me until I got to the woods, he was smiling and waving. Once he couldn’t see me anymore, he walked down the cellar stairs and looked around to see if anything was moved near the wines. It looked like a few bottles were removed but that’s it. Charlie walked up to the special wine rack/door opened it and put the pin to unlock the second door. He grabbed the box with the bloody glove and the boot and walked back upstairs to our fire pit outside and burned everything. He couldn’t believe that I had forgotten about the boot we found and didn’t want me to remember.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He cleaned the box and put it back in the safe room placed it under other things, walked out of the safe locked the door and walked back upstairs to start dinner. I came back a few hours later all refreshed to find he had set up a little table near the fire pit with our beautiful dinner and a couple of glasses of wine. “I think you are a keeper darling; everything smells delicious”. He smiled as he always does with those loving eyes of his. He is my soulmate, and I am so happy that we found each other. We ate dinner next to the fire and enjoyed the warmth it was giving up. Arthur was on his back sleeping near the fire, he is a funny thing he is.

A few weeks later we drove into town to do some shopping, parked the car near the grocery store leaving Arthur in the back sit with the windows down. It’s starting to get cold now so there is no worry that he will get to hot in there. Walking the isles, we heard people talking about the murders and what the police are saying happened, apparently, they think we have a possible serial killer in town and are looking at all newcomers including any surrounding towns. Charlie and I walked to the checkout where Sandy’s sister worked, she looked so sad, I smiled and said “Are you ok Helen? Is there anything we can do for you or your family?” She put on a small smile “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Smith, no thank you, there is really nothing to be done, we are just waiting for the sheriff’s office to find the person who is doing this before they kill anyone else.” Poor thing, I thought, I hope they find who is doing this.

Driving home I turn to Charlie “Honey do you think we will be ok, is our home safe?” He looked at me with that smile “Babe we are safe, there is nothing to worry about, you have Arthur and me to look after you. We won't leave you”. He made me feel safe.

Once we got home, I decided to put on a warm jacket and take Arthur for a walk before dinner. I headed toward the woods, Arthur followed closely, the smell of the grass, trees and flowers in the air made me so happy. Walking through the trees we could hear voices, laughter and yelling. Arthur and I walk closer to where the voices were to listen in, there was three men around a campfire. They were drinking and making fun of photos one of them had. I tried to get closer but the branches under me cracked and the men turned around and found me in the bushes. They grabbed me and wanted to know what I was doing; I could see Arthur looking at me from the other side of the bush and I just shook my head for him to stay put. I looked up at the men “What are you doing here, this is private property, this is not a public area?” They laughed while imitating what I was saying then one of them grabbed my arm “What are you doing here on your own, don’t you know there is a murderer in town, or do you think you're safe?” I got out of his grip and stood up “you guys shouldn’t be here, I told you this is private property, get off my property”. They laughed and started towards me, I yelled for Arthur, and he came running out of the bushes charging at the men. One of men hit me in the stomach and I went down passing out with the pain.

I heard my name “Bella? Are you ok?” I could feel Arthur licking my face too. I slowly opened my eyes, realizing I was in laying in my bed with Arthur next to me, looking up I saw Charlie smile at me and Detective Blossom next to him “Are you ok Bella?” he said. Charlie said, “Hi honey how are you feeling?” I wasn’t sure what had happened, why I was lying in bed, I couldn’t remember anything “I’m ok I think, what happened, I don’t remember anything?” Detective Blossom started with “What is the last think you remember? How did you get away? Do you remember who did it?” I looked at them confused “I am not sure what you are talking about, I went for a walk with Arthur, fell and passed out”. Detective replied, “Bella you were found not far from a camp site” “What?” I said confused “what camp site? I was in the woods walking, there wasn't any camp sites”. Charlie smiled “Jack, I think we should let her rest and I will bring Bella to the office in the morning, is that ok?” “Of course,” he said, “Bella you need to rest and tomorrow we will go through what you remember, is that ok?” I nodded.

The next morning Charlie drove me to the station so I could make a statement… About my walk, I honestly don’t know what is going on or what else I would possibly remember about my walk, I am sure I will find out what’s going out soon.

I was taken through to an interview room for questioning, I sat down across from Detective Blossom, and he started “What do you remember from your walk?” I sighed “We got home from the store and I decided to take Arthur for a walk before dinner, I remember walking through the woods and…. And…. I woke up in bed. Now is someone going to tell me what is going on?” Detective Blossom took in a deep breath and took out some photos, laid them in front of me. Oh my god I thought, what the hell am I looking up “what is this? How many bodies? I was near that?” I started to cry when Charlie came running to me and put his arm around me. Detective Blossom looked at me with a gentle smile “They were camping illegally on your property, looks like someone attacked them, cut up the bodies and burned them in the firepit. We found you a hundred meters from the scene, do you remember anything or those guys, anything at all?”. Charlie moved the pictures away from me, I couldn’t stop my tears, I was horrified. “I could have been one of those victims!” I said, “I could have been killed”. Detective Blossom put the pictures away “I am glad you are safe Bella but are you sure you don’t remember seeing anything, anyone, at all?” I just shook my head. “Jack” Charlie said, “Can I take her home?” He nodded “Please make sure you call me if you remember anything, we want to get this son of a bitch”.

On the drive home Charlie asked “are you ok Babe? Want me get you anything while we are out?”. I just looked out the window “No, I just want to go home and have a look at our cameras. I want to see if we can see anyone or anything really that would help me remember something”. Charlie held my hand and smiled “ok” he said, “let’s go home and look through some camera footage”. We got home and went straight to the computer, it was off. All the screens were black. Charlie Looked at me “Oh shit there must have been an outage while we were out, let me see if I can restart it, hopefully nothing was deleted”. Charlie started up the computer, but everything was blank, nothing, footage was not there. “Ok baby I am so sorry it looks like the footage is gone. Maybe a cut of tea will help you remember, what do you say?” I smiled and nodded; I would love a cup of tea I thought but still annoyed that there was nothing for us to look at.

Next morning Charlie had breakfast ready for me while I was having a shower. I came down to the smell of banana pancakes with maple syrup, oh my god I thought, this man knows my weakness. Charlie started “how did you sleep baby?” I looked up from my delicious pancakes “okay I guess, kept remembering those photos Jack put in front of me”. “Yes, they weren’t the nicest thing, did you want to go for a walk this morning, see if we can find anything that will help you remember?” I thought for a second and agreed “yes we really should, maybe I saw the killer before I blacked out or something in the area may trigger a memory”. Charlie and I finished our coffees and breakfast and dressed up for our walk.

We walked around the area where the bodies were found, nothing…. I walked up to the firepit, memories flooded in… “I…. I…. Oh my god…. I remember something. I took their limbs off…. I don’t understand….” I sat on the ground looking at Charlie, he smiled and came to sit next to me “It’s going to be ok babe”.