Prologue
"Row, row, row your boat... Come on, sing it." He prodded her.
"Gently" hiccup... sob "down the stream..." she clung to life as he came closer, trying to fight him off, but whatever he'd just put in her arm was fighting to take her over.
"Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Marilee....." he laughed a sickening laugh. "Finish the song, beautiful."
"I can't. Too weak." A hard stare told her otherwise. She was losing consciousness quickly, and she knew he'd kill her. She had trusted him with so much, and he was doing this to her. "Life..." panting, shallow breaths were coming quickly, and her heart felt like it would pound out of her body "...is but..." and she was out.
"A dream." He whispered, pouring old fashioned ether onto a handkerchief and placing it over her nose and mouth. He knew it wouldn't take terribly long for the substance he'd injected to reach her heart; its sole purpose to stop it from beating ever again. If it wouldn't beat for him or be his, no one would ever hear it again.