Gun shots in the distance.

Daniel ran through the trees and brush of the woods he had been camping in. He runs as fast as he can through the crunchy leaves towards the direction of the shots fired, normally he wouldn’t be concerned to hear any gun shots up there but it wasn’t deer hunting season. Plus, it was 11pm. As the cold air paralyses his lungs he can’t help but think , “what the fuck am I going to do?”. If something bad were to have really happened what would he do? He isn’t a cop or a doctor. All he’s ever known how to do was catch fish, gut ‘em and sell ‘em. Then again he did watch all those crime shows with his ex wife. He has all of these thoughts but he runs faster, then suddenly he trips over a large log in the path. As he looks up he sees a person in all black running down the other side of the path away from him. Small build, long hair. Seemed to possibly be a young woman. He feels something wet and warm on his hands flowing through his fingers in the diets. He looks down to see a puddle of blood still running down the path of sticks and dirt and dead leaves. Horrified and in shock he whips his head around to see the log was not actually a log. This huge thing in the path he had tripped over was a middle aged man with multiple gun shot wounds. Freshly murdered in cold blood. It had looked to Daniel like someone had killed this man and used the brush from the path to try to cover his body but they must’ve gotten scared and ran away when they heard him running over. He turns to the left and sees something shine In the sticks under the moon light. An old looking revolver, Daniel picks the gun up to get a closer look, not realizing what a big mistake he’s made.

As Daniel is processing everything in his head. He stands over the man’s lifeless body holding the revolver he had found in the grass.

“GET ON THE GROUND! DROP YOUR WEAPON AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD” his eyes come into focus and behind the blinding light he sees a cop pointing a gun in his face, he drops to the ground and does as the man says. As he looks around he sees two cops and then three and then four. He’s surrounded. Turns out someone else had heard the shots and radioed it in. It takes Daniel about 5 seconds to realize they were going to think he had done this. He wants to explain everything that he saw but all he musters up is “I trip-tripped and I um, she ran. She’s gone”

Sheriff banks, proceeds to put him in hand cuffs, ”you are under arrest, you have the right to-“. Daniel slowly zones out of reality and feels limp and empty inside.

While in the back of the sheriffs car handcuffed and uncomfortable on the cold plastic seats. He replays every moment in his head searching for a way to prove his innocence, but even he knows he looks bad. When they run tests on the gun it will have his finger prints. He was caught over the body and no one else was around for miles. They didn’t see that woman take off and there is no witness besides him.

When they arrive at the police station he makes the effort to fight for his freedom by telling the sheriff his side of the story and everything he had heard and seen. Of course no one believed him and he was prepared for that. This was a smaller town and there’s no option to get a fancy lawyer to fight his case. Not that he even had a case to fight with. Daniels tears leave little puddles on the questioning table, he knows his life is over. He’s going to be in prison the rest of his life for a murder he didn’t commit. Then right as they put him back in his handcuffs to take him into jail the sheriff receives a phone call. An anonymous tip that the killer was still in those woods and she planned on killing again.