Inside The Mind Of A Killer

Chapter 4: The First Casualty

"ELIZA!"

The sound of someone's shrill cry wakes me up with a start. It's daylight hours and the sun is pouring through the tent. I notice that Noah is already awake. His lips are pursed and his brows are furrowed in a stressed manner, and it makes me question if he's slept at all this past night.

Noah turns his head slightly and jumps when he sees that I'm awake. "O-Oh, good morning..."

I rub the sleep from my eyes. "What's going on? Was someone shouting for Eliza?"

Noah shrugs. "I'm not sure. Let's go check it out."

We both stand and unzip the tent, quickly stepping out to slip on our shoes. I can feel an early morning breeze that chills my very bones. This is one of those few moments when it really gets cold in places like Arizona.

The first person I see is Joshua, who's searching around the campsite. He looks worried. Noah and I approach him.

"Hey, what's going on?" I ask him. "We heard someone shout."

Joshua stops what he's doing and runs his fingers through his dark hair with his right hand, all while keeping his left hand on his hip. "Eliza's gone missing. We're not sure where she went."

My heart stops briefly as I don't remember how to breathe.

Eliza's missing? I begin to worry myself, a blur of panic forming inside my head. Before I can pass out from my lack of air, I hear Noah tell Joshua, "We'll help."

His voice is a bit crackly and shaky, but I don't think much of it. He's just as worried as the rest of us.

Reminding myself that breathing is in fact an important function for survival, I force my lungs to cooperate with me, eventually steadying my breathing and overall calming my troubled mind.

It's time to go find Eliza.

We first look around the campsite in hopes that she would be nearby. Unfortunately, she isn't in the area, so we check the outskirts of the campsite. Joshua is progressively getting more and more stressed out, while Noah hasn't said a word since we began searching. It's difficult to remain stable and calm, but I try my best to fulfill that role.

We search for a little while, until we hear a sudden scream fill the air all around us.

Joshua perks up. "That was Alex. Hurry, we gotta find him! Now!"

The three of us run to where Alex is. Joshua is in the lead. He takes us to the cliff we were hitting golf balls off of. Konner and Alex are peering over the edge of it, and my face pales as I come to a quick realization of what happened.

Eliza fell off the side of the cliff.

The closer I get to Konner and Alex, the more noticeable several bright red splatters of blood that stained the ground are. Each splatter leads to the edge of the cliff and then to the bottom, where Eliza happens to be.

She lays uncomfortably at the bottom of the stony cliff, her limbs spread out and positioned in awkward ways. There are several deep cuts scattered across her body– one implanted in her right shoulder, two in her left arm, and one in each thigh. Her neck also happens to be cleanly snapped in two, which was most likely caused by the fall. Her once chocolate-colored skin is now pale, and her eyes are lifeless and dull. There's no way we can save her now.

Alex drops to his knees. His eyes are glossy and filling up with tears. His bottom lip quivers harshly as he's struggling to keep himself together. Konner kneels down beside him and pulls him close to his chest.

"Eliza..." Alex chokes out, unable to prevent the following breakdown from occurring. As he blubbers and wails for his lost love, Konner does his best to console him. However, he's holding back everything just as much as Alex prayed he would.