It’s the last game in the tournament and I’m up against one of the best players in the world. I set up the board of chess and make the first move. I shake his hand and the game begins. Pawn to e4 then I hit the chess clock to stop my time from ticking down and make his clock tick down.

Quickly he plays pawn to e5. I respond with knight from g1 to f3 attacking his pawn. He defends with his knight. I wonder what should I do next, then I decide to develop my bishop.

After a little bit both of us developed all of our pieces and finished the opening and heading towards the middle game. I center my rooks and move the queen. Suddenly he attacks my king and queen with a knight fork. I scolded myself quickly and the moved my king. He took my queen and it was not looking good for me.

He tries to trade pieces but I decline and attempts to set up a attack. He catches on and then blocks my attack.

Suddenly I got a good idea and SACRIFICED THE ROOK.

He takes with his room looking confused and then I pin the rook to the king. I look at my other rook and smile checkmate was unstoppable. He thinks and thinks and eventually tries to stop checkmate but it was too late.

Rook to e8 checkmate. I knock over his king and shake hands. I walk away and go to claim the award as the winner of the chess tournament. I basked in the glory and went home happy and excited for whatever comes next.

“That was probably the worst idea you’ve ever had… and yet it still worked.” I say

“I will take that as a compliment as I’m a genius. Oh and how was that a bad idea huh.” She says

“Uhh considering a trillion things can go wrong that that is a bad idea. Do you need me to list it?” I say.

“Let’s see it.” She says ready for the list

“Ok so step one of the plan was to get money and you said to gamble it. Like am I the only one seeing that we could lose all of our money. Me being the idiot I am agrees with that. Now we get to the casino and you say we forgot the money and need a loan! I wasn’t thinking at the time so we got a loan for 100,000 dollars. We pick black jack and we lost 25,000. Then you said to pick roulette. For some reason I agreed and went all in. Somehow defying all odds we won and I convinced you to leave.” I say

“I don’t see what’s the big deal?” She questioned

“WE COULD OF LOST ALL OF OUR MONEY AND WOULDN’T ABLE TO PAY OFF OUR LOAN! OUR LIFE COULD OF BEEN RUINED FOREVER.” I yell

“Did we lose or win?” She say

“Win?” I replied

“Exactly and we can’t fix the past so let’s pay off the loan and get married.” She says pulling me along with her.

I start wondering if marrying her is a good idea. In the end I go with her to the bank.

“Tell me your secret! Tell me your secret! I know you have one! Every one does!” My girlfriend says.

“Uhh I don’t have one?” I say as I have nothing to call a secret.

“Of course you do. Every one has one.” She says eagerly.

I need time, I say in my mind. Quickly I think of a plan. “Are you willing to work for it?” I ask

“Yes! Wait no!” She says.

“Too late Amanda Rose. Now if you want my secret you have to go to your moms house and bring out a pen and paper and give it to me. In order for me to know your not faking it you will FaceTime the whole way there.” I explain

“Fine, it better be a good secret then.” She says

“Oh it’s a good secret alright. Chop chop better get movin” I replied.

She quickly leaves the house and FaceTimes me.

I muted my self and wondered what to tell her when she’s back. I sat there wondering and wondering until I got an idea. I whistled at my secret and at waited. When she comes back she’ll be shocked.

Paddle paddle paddle. That’s the only thing my mind was focused on. Paddle paddle paddle. It is the championship match and I got a early start. I’m in first place paddling my heart out. My arms burned and with each passing paddle I go slower and slower. I can’t let that distract me I say in my mind. Winning the gold metal in the Olympics would be a huge honor and it would give me a lot of money.

I sneek a peek behind me and see that they were catching up, I paddle faster.

“100 meters left!” I see the finish line. With a new boost of confidence I paddle faster. Even though I was paddling my arms was exhausted. I sneek another peek behind my back and see they are on my heel.

“10 meters left!” They were almost beside me but the gold metal kept me going.

Paddle. I finished the race! I look to my right and I see someone right next to me. With great anticipation I anxiously awaited the call. The winner is…. Tyler!

I raise my arms in excitement, I had won I had won!

A few days later I was at my house showing off my gold metal to all my friends.

As I stared into the eyes of the person I once loved, every ounce of my affection turned slowly melted into suspicion. He had a mischievous grin on his face as if he was going to do something.

I backed away and said “I’m going outside to do some shopping.” Quickly I walked away. What was I suspicious about I wondered. I replayed the situation over and over in my head until I found it, his face. I recently got a mission from the CIA to find this murderer and bring him in for questioning. There’s no way the murderer is my husband. I quickly dial a friend of mine.

“Hey Kara how you doing?” I ask

“Good how about you?” She says

“Good as well, can you give me a lift to the CIA agency?”

“Sure but can I ask why?” She questiones

“I don’t want to tell you information that might not be true and I’m heading to the CIA to check.” I say

“Alright coming now.” Kara says

Soon a black SUV rolls up and I get in the car. No one spoke a word until we got to the agency.

“See you later Kara.” I say

“See you later Lucy.” She says and waved goodbye.

I head inside and quickly found the person I was looking for, the queen of the CIA Emily.

“Hey Em how you doing?” I ask

“Good how about you Lucy.”

“Worried. Can I look over the details of my assignment again?” I say

“So soon? Ok.” Emily says

I look at the assignment details and see the same face I saw earlier.

“Uh oh, I have confirmed who the suspect is, my husband.” I say while pulling up a image of him on my phone.

“You know what to do right?” Emily says seriously

“Yes ma’am” I say

“Off you go.” She says and dismisses me

I was alone to my thoughts until I got back into the car.

“Kara bring me home, I got a mission to complete.” I say while internally preparing my brain for what’s is about to happen.

I’m Lily, I have one major flaw in my life, I’m indecisive.

It doesn’t matter what it is I can’t pick between each one, unless it is a no brainer. You want a example? Ok here, would you rather teleport or fly. I would just go with whatever my friends pick.

How does this affect my life? Well I have to constantly call my friends to either to homework now or later. Also when eating if there if my mom cooks many different foods and I have to pick what to eat I can’t. There is a lot more instances where this happens.

I have a therapist to help with my indecisiveness from being able to do pick no brainer stuff like calling my friends for help deciding.

One day while a was walking across a road a car suddenly appeared, I stopped and didn’t know what to do, should I run forward or backward. While the car showed no signs of slowing down. I still couldn’t decide and the car hit me. I was rushed to the hospital. Luckily the car used emergency brakes and I wasn’t hit very hard, I just got bruised

“Mommy why do I have to go to bed?” He asks

“So you will be safe from the dream stealer.” I replies.

“Who’s the dream stealer?” He question

“A mythical beast that steals your good dreams and replaces them with nightmares if you are not sleeping.” I answer

“Tell me the tale!” He asks excitedly.

“A long time ago, maybe 4000 years ago a mythical creature was summoned to do one important task, to take the dreams of humans when they wake up. Even though that was a very hard mission he did it very well. Until people stop sleeping. This is a problem as he can’t do his mission until they are dreaming. So to scare the people to sleep he put nightmares and takes the good dreams of people.” I say

“But who knows if that’s true?” He asks.

“You don’t know but it’s better safe than sorry.” I say

“Alright I’m going to sleep. Bye mommy.” He says

“Good night Phil.” I replied

The next day…

“Mommy! Mommy! The dream stealer have me nightmares!” He says crying

“Well you should have went to sleep.” I say internally shocked that the myth is true. “Next time go to bed before he gets to you.” I say

Crash! My vision goes dark. I wake up on a beach and look around. A clear night sky with the moon shining brightly. Palm trees are everywhere and behind it is a lushy forest. As far as the eye can see to the left and right is the beach.

I noticed a figure in the sand to my left and saw it was a girl. I rushed over to see if she was okay. She wasn’t breathing! I quickly started to do CPR. It seems like my lifeguard training came in handy.

Eventually her eyes open and she starts breathing again. “AAAGH! WHO ARE YOU! GET AWAY FROM ME!” She screams. I breathe a sigh of relief to see her alive and awake.

“Chill girl, I just saved your life and I get no thank you?” I say.

“Well, can you blame me? I wake up to see a random man pushing on my chest.” She replies.

“Fair enough,” I say.

“Where are we anyways?” She asks.

“I don’t know. The last thing I remember is being hit by a tidal wave.” I replied.

“Me too.” She says shivering.

“I’m Jack, what’s your name?” I asked.

“Claire.” She replies.

“Nice to meet you, Claire.”

“Y You t too. I’m c colddd.” Claire says.

I looked around for anything to make a fire as the cold was also getting to me. I spotted a bit of dry palm wood and a little bit of sticks and tinder. I start heading over there but I grab Claire’s hand to follow me.

“W where are w we going?” She questions.

“I going to start a fire,” I answer.

I sit her down and start gathering the tinder in one pile, sticks in another, and branches in another. Then I suddenly spot some rocks that I recognize can make some sparks. After grabbing the rocks I start striking the rocks to make sparks to light the tinder on fire. Over and over I try until a spark catches and it lights the tinder. I quickly place sticks over it and then blow the fire to give it more oxygen. Soon the spark becomes a smoldering fire I keep feeding it wood until it becomes as big as a bonfire.

While I was making a fire Claire decided to make herself useful and collected several coconuts. By the time she comes back, the fire is blazing. Claire quickly sits next to the fire and warms herself up.

I plop myself next to Claire and say “You cold now?”

“Thanks to you no,” she replies happily.

I grab a coconut and crack it open on a rock, I give half to her and half for me. The coconut was full of water. I gulped it down and then used my finger to scoop the fruit out.

“Mmm this is good, how’d you know that these coconuts are ripe?” I questioned.

“My mom taught me. When we were thirsty my mom would teach me how to pick the right one.” She answered.

“Was your family rich?” I asked

“Yeah very rich.” She says.

“Now what? What are we gonna do?” I say.

“Shelter.” She answers

I look around and take in our surroundings. A forest in front, beach, and ocean behind me. I see some large branches, slabs of rocks, moss, and tall trees. I spotted 2 trees very close to one another.

“Hey Claire could we make a fort over there? We could use the branches to make a roof and wall, use the moss to put over the roof, and use the stones as the floor?” I ask.

“Sure, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work,” Claire says.

We get working, I collect the branches while Claire collects the moss. After that, I make a fire pit while Claire gets rocks to put around the fire pit and inside the fort. She finished placing the rocks and I get working on a fort. She finishes it with moss on top and the fort is complete.

I put up my hand and gave Claire a high five.

“Good work Claire. Look at how this turned out.” I say with a sense of accomplishment.

“You too. I would have never thought to use the trees to make a fort.” She says.

“I’m tired what about you?” I ask.

“Me too.” She says.

I lie down on the cool rocks with Claire next to me. We used some of the moss to make 2 blankets and covered ourselves.

“Good night Claire,” I say

“Good night Jack.” She says back

I go to sleep wondering what adventures await us tomorrow.

Well it's that time of year. Time to mow the lawn. I look outside and it’s a cloudless sky with the sun shining brightly. I go to a my white shed and grab the lawnmower. I start the engine and start mowing. Up down, up down over and over until I get to the grass next to my window and see a what looks like a whithered flower.

I should give it some water. I say in my head. I start for the watering can. After filling it with water I go back to the plant and water it. I nicked my finger while watering and blood drips down with the water. It didn’t stop bleeding until I stopped watering.

The rest of the day flys by and eventually it’s time for bed. I look up and see a full moon. Shining brightly like the sun against the cloudless sky. I look down and see a dark read crimson flower kind of like blood.

That wasn’t there before. I say in my mind. Not long it starts pulsing like it had a beating heart. Red vein-like lines appear on the flower. Pulse. It’s gone Pulse. It’s back. I watch fascinated, entranced even. After what seemed like hours I finally went to sleep.

I tried to recreate what happened over and over but nothing happened until it was a full moon. I called it Blood Flower.

“She’s not who she says she is.” My friend tells me.

“Then who is she, besides my wife?” I question.

“A killer. He answers.

“What? That can’t be true! I never seen her do anything of the sort. She’s so kind to other people and genuinely a good person. I don’t see how she’s a killer. I know you’re a cop but you have no right to accuse her of such a thing!” I said baffled that he would dare accuse her of murder.

“I’ve got evidence wanna see?” He replies while pulling out a file filled with paper.

Curious I say yes to see why he’s making such wild assumptions.

He pulls out a picture of a man. “This is Gregory Phil and he was murdered 5 days ago. At the crime scene there is a 33mm bullet at the scene.” He pulls out another piece of paper showing a person that resembles my wife buying bullets from gun dealer. “That is your wife buying 33mm bullets.”

“That gotta be a coincidence right?” I say confidently that my wife isn’t a killer.

He pulls out a picture. “That’s your wife’s car plate right, and she walks out of the gun store with a box. That can’t be just a coincidence.“ He says confidently.

“I see.” I say and get up from the marble table and walk away. I knew what to do. It’s time to confront my wife.