In the quaint cottage town of Red Grove, Daniella 'Rose' Elliott longs to escape her miserable life and pursue a brighter future. Yet, her dreams are thwarted not only by her family's financial struggles but also by an incident she buried away in th...
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Roses are red Violets look good with a dress shirt Atlas' life is on the line So now's not the time to enjoy dessert.
After arguing with an old lady at the small grocery store over the last package of crackers, Atlas had an hour to kill. An hour before his sister returned from her last-minute date with her college boyfriend. Their relationship was always on the rocks. Some nights Emma would come home crying, other nights she would be on cloud nine. Atlas has always thought it was weird he hasn't met him before. His other sister always brought her boyfriend to their house—Why couldn't Emma bring hers?
As his car chugged in the grocery store parking lot, he nervously scrolled through his phone; piratically through his messages. Any moment now the man would text him back, any moment now he would get the next assignment, any moment now he would be halfway to his freedom.
8 months ago, the man first contacted him. It was a little after the police arrested his dad for attempted murder and right before his mom filed for divorce. Atlas received a string of messages, all threatening him to finish what his dad started. He did not understand what the person behind the screen was talking about so he resorted to blocking the number. But then the man found other ways of contacting him, some of them more messed up than the others, and eventually, Atlas gave in.
The man explained that his dad—Brendon—had some unfinished business. A little while ago, his dad stuck a deal with the same man behind the screen. That deal comprised classified information Atlas wasn't allowed to know. But what the man allowed him to know was that his dad breached a clause in the contract when he was caught.
Now everything fell on Atlas' shoulders since his dad slipped his name in the deal.
He tried asking for more information, he even posed simple questions.
Why am I doing this?
How was this started?
Isn't there another solution?
But 'No' was the answer, and he was just told to comply or face the consequences. Consequences that he didn't deserve because he didn't start this—his dad did.
From what little information he received from the man, he drew one large conclusion. In court, they charged his dad with 3 accounts of murder. Those 3 people who died were a part of a list of 10. The man desperately needed to get rid of those people for an undisclosed reason.
At first, Atlas thought it was crazy since the people killed so far seemed random, but since he knew nothing else besides that, he decided to keep an open mind and avoid whatever the consequences were.
Atlas sighed as his phone slipped out his hands. Constantly checking wasn't doing him any good, he just needed to have patience and wait. Wait until the man gets back to him—hopefully at a reasonable time and with a reasonable person. His gut couldn't handle killing Charlotte. Hopefully, the next person on the list was someone he hated—maybe then he wouldn't feel remorse.
