Leave No Trace

Prologue

       She knew it was a mistake. This was a huge mistake. She knew that she should gotten it done earlier in the afternoon. Allison glanced around uneasily, not liking that she was walking through the dark park at night. Though she should have felt safe in downtown Fonthill, the tiniest of small-town Canadian nowheres, a chill of unease was still creeping up her spine. She felt almost as though she was being followed. She glanced over her shoulder, but the park was empty, the shadows menacing. I hope Mel and Dawn are happy with their birthday presents, she thought, as she scrolled through her music. She chose a Nickleback song, and tried to ignore her growing feelings of unease. After putting the song on repeat, she stuffed her hands in her pockets, trying not to glance around nervously. It was hard though, hard not to act scared. She was never usually this jumpy. She knew she was being a baby, that at fifteen, she Allison Perry, shouldn't have to worry about being attacked. And yet.... She was alone. It was dark. And no one would be expecting her at home, because her mother was at the Mayor's Debate, and her dad had taken her sister to basketball. Allison was alone. She was scared and alone. Her heartbeat picked up at the thought. In hindsight, she wasn't street smart. She should have done it that afternoon.

And suddenly, someone grabbed her, around the waist. She shrieked, as a hand was clamped over her mouth. Her nose was overwhelmed with the scents of cigarette smoke and cheap beer. She tried to remember something, anything from her self-defence class, but she was panicking, her mind shutting down as she tried to make sense of what was happening. A shadow appeared in front of her, and was she just panicking or did she recognize the figure in front of her? She could not tell their gender, but she was terrified all the same. And then the hand was replaced with a rag, and she was floating, floating away, her eyes sliding shut, and the last thing was she heard, was ironically "Each day's a gift and not a given right." Then her world faded into nothing.