The birds circled overhead. Though, Madison wouldn't know they were even there, not until it was too late.

For years, Madison has been on the run.

She'd been falsely accused of murdering her best friend when she was 17. They'd convicted her on the charge of first degree murder. The day before she was set to be locked up for a life sentence, she packed up everything that couldn't be traced back to her, and left.

She's now 22.

While she's been living a relatively normal life in the past couple years, she also knows she has to always play it carefully. The chances that anyone recognizes her is low, considering she cut off all her hair and got colored contacts, it's never zero. Her case has been well publicized for years, and all it takes is one observant true crime fanatic to shatter her lifestyle.

Madison wakes up every morning and has to take 10 minutes to convince herself that she's not going to get caught today. She does the same this morning, but takes an extra 10, because today is possibly one of the riskiest days of her life.

She's going to a job interview.

Since she ran away, she's been going off the money she was saving for college, plus extra cash from babysitting jobs she's picked up, pretending to be a high schooler looking for pocket change. But Madison knows that won't last, not when she won't pass for a 16 year old much longer.

So she knows she has to get a real job. But a real job means identification. A resume, an ID, a fake name. There's a low chance she'll get caught. But there's always a chance.

She arrives at the office building where her interview will be, and the glass walls blend in perfectly with the rest of the Chicago skyscrapers nearby. She had chosen Chicago to live in purely because of the amount of people; no one recognizes an average looking young woman, even if she happened to be the suspect in one of the biggest trials of the century. Even better is working in an office job in a big city. It's so bland you could liken it to stale bread.

Madison almost makes it into the building before she's approached by an older man, likely double her age, who appears very professional. She'd guess he works in the same building she was about to enter. He says, "Come with me. We have to go the back way. Front door is for clients only."

Everything in Madison tells her that she should turn around and leave. What if he knows?

But if she reacts weirdly, and this man is actually her interviewer, what does it say about her that she's so paranoid? Madison can't afford to lose this job opportunity. She's been searching for the perfect place to work for months, and this was the only one that checked every single one of her boxes.

So, despite her better judgement, she follows the man as he leads her to an alleyway. And the moment they're out of sight from the street, she's hit in the back of the head with a blunt object, and her entire world goes black.

Once again, the birds circle overhead. Vultures. They're out for blood, her blood, seeking retribution for the crime she was believed to have committed.

This time, as the vultures spiral in the Chicago sky, it's too late for Madison to know they were there. The light on her life burnt out before she even had time to look up.