At first the weather was fine and still. The threshold was calling, and the swamps were alive by something adorned with a sound such as the warm breath over the opening of a bottle. A snipe flew by, and the shot aimed at it rang out with a gray, resounding note in the cold spring air. But when it began to get dark in the forest a cold, penetrating wind blew rapidly from the west, and everything sank into silence. Needles of ice stretched across the swamp, making our lonely forest seem quite remote. There was a whiff of winter.

When he crossed the river by the ferryboat and then afterwards, climbing the hill, he looked at our village and towards the west where the cold windy sunset lay a narrow streak of light, he thought that truth and beauty which had guided him, and had evidently always been the major thing in his life. He had the feeling of youth, health -- he was only twenty-five -- and the inexpressible sweet expectation of happiness, of unknown mysterious happiness, that took possession of him little by little, and life seemed to him enchanting, marvellous, and full of conspicuous meaning.
“What do you think of this view John?… John?… JONATHAN!”
“Alex, dude, you don’t need to shout i’m right he--”
“Pay attention next time.”
“Here.”
“Come on we have to leave, its getting late.”
“Brooksdale will be there in the morning, i’m going to spend the night on the cliff.”
Something was off about John, i’ve known that guy since we were both four years old and i’ve never seen him act this way before. We both grew up here in Brooksdale CO, and lived identical lives, but still i could tell something was bugging him.
I turned to him as I was walking away, “John not too late.”
“You know me Alex i’ll beat you back to the house,” as he turned and smiled at me.
“You wanna race?”
“Not now, I told you i’m gonna stay here for a while.”

The seriousness in his voice was like one that I had never heard before. The feeling of testing my friend compelled me, so I decided not too. On my way home to our small town of Brooksdale, is low on citizens, theres only about 20,000 of us living here. All of these people are here to stay as they made their choice just like me and John did back on our 18th birthdays. They don’t want us to leave, they would prefer it if we all stayed to make life easier, but were not suppose to talk about it.

I awoke the next morning to a large beeping noise of my alarm, I quickly turned it off. As apart of my daily routine the tv was put on the news so I could know what the weather would be like today. An hour later the news started to report about the death of a local girl, who was pretty popular, I thought nothing of it at the moment until they said her name.

I spent the entire day doing nothing but talking to people I had meet before trying to figure out where I had saw that girl before.
“Hey Alex!”
“Hey Dan”
“What have you been up too all day? I heard you were roaming town all day.”
“Did you hear about the girl killed.”
“Yeah, sad thing ain’t it?”
“I’ve been trying to find out how I know that girl, all day.”
“Aren’t you still friends with John?”
“Of course.”
“If i’m not wrong I believe that was one of his ex-girl friends. Maybe if you go find Alex.”
“Thanks.”

I heard fighting coming from John’s bedroom, but I never thought that he would kill someon.. No it couldn’t have been him. All I need to do is find John and find out what he knows. Where was John? I spent another five hours looking for him but came up short until I realized that we went up into the mountains yesterday and he stayed behind.

After two hours of walking to the spot where I had last seen my best friend John I finally arrived. At that point I saw off in the distance, about three miles, a campsite. After walking there I got my first glimpse of John in just over a day, he look terrible.

“I didn’t mean to do it.”
“Do what John?”
“You know what.”
I turned and walk almost five feet before stopping and saying to myself that enough is enough. I turned back to see my friend looking off into the distance as if it would be his last. I knew I had to make it his last due to the things he did to that poor girl. I told him I was sorry.
“John I’m sorry.”
“What for-”
I had turned and Alex was running straight for me, I reacted and punched my best friend right in the face. He punched, I punched we went back and forth for an hour just fighting.
“Alex why?” as he pinned me to the ground.
“FOR WHAT YOU DID TO THAT POOR GIRL!”
John had stopped moving. I got up and simply walked away, but before I did, I stopped myself and turned to my small town as the sun set one last time.
The End