"Thank you for listening to Dawn FM, dead or alive every morning at 7am."
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Set in 1987, Maggie Holmes is hired as a temp placement at Dawn FM for the summer. She gets to know the radio personalities, some more than others. One of the hosts, H...
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It would be one thing if there was just a single murder in the town. One unfortunate accident that had taken place between two people. Today, I found out we had the sixth one. Yet another victim. Another crime had taken place during the hours that I was asleep. I thought about how careless I had been. How I had not locked my front door, left after eight, went out by myself. I was so concerned about being single to a party that I put my own safety at risk. It could have been me paying for it. I could have been the one dead, and that was terrifying.
I listened to Harry's broadcast. He did the usual recap around nine-ten, and I thought it was funny that he usually did it when I normally started to tune in. Banking on the fact that he probably did that after every couple commercial breaks throughout the show, I found myself choosing to listen only because of the fact that the new victim was a girl who was twenty-one. She was my age, had a year left of classes, and was trying to be a teacher. She had similar characteristics of me, and yet she didn't get the opportunity to finish her life in the way that she may have wished.
Around ten, when the broadcast was finishing up, I shut the radio off. I needed to let my mind run ramped for a little while. Taking a few deep breaths, I pulled the journal out of my bag that Harry had gotten me my first week here. I hadn't filled it with much, maybe just a note or two, but today felt different. I found myself writing about how scared I was to live here on my own. I had wondered if these things would be happening if it weren't for my ex and I splitting up. Of course, I couldn't say that these murders wouldn't be taking place, but I felt that if my ex and I had still been together, I wouldn't have been in Winter Haven at this time watching this murder spree take its course.
It wasn't until about fifteen minutes later that there was a knock at my door. I quickly put my journal away before telling the person to come in to my office. He didn't say anything, simply came to sit down in one of the chairs in front of my desk like normal. Or, I thought he was going to sit down until he passed the chairs, Harry taking a seat on my desk. I stared up at him, his hands gripping the edge of the desk.
"How are you this morning actually?" he asked.
I knew what he meant. He didn't want me to tell him that I was doing well, and simply move on from the subject. This was a matter of how I felt; how I genuinely thought and felt about the whole situation that was unfolding here. Glancing away from him, I tried to look at what size was doing before I had written in the journal. The newsletter I was trying to make and accomplish for this week. Though I felt his fingers under my chin, tilting my head up so that I would look at him.
"Magdalina," he stated.
"Right. Uh, I'm freaked out."
"We can talk about it. I can come stay with you on the weekends if you want? Whoever is doing this seems to be active on the weekends for the most part."
He was very generous. I didn't know why he was always so kind and friendly to me, but I really did appreciate it. After all, he didn't have to be this way with me. He could have been rude, distant, and cold. Yet here he was being sweet, friendly, and incredibly caring with this entire situation. Of course, I had friends who lived around here—people I could trust. However, they already had other people to worry about like their kids and their husbands. Why would I want to bother them with me?
