Just a heads up to anyone who is either just starting this journey or re-reading. I am currently in the midst of a grammar check/rewrite. So things may be a little different then the original. Thanks to all my readers for sticking around! You rock.

Also a big thank you to Polkadottedgiraffe11 for agreeing to Beta for this story!

Chapter 1: The Present

Birds chirped in the distance. Even after all the time out in the woods I still hadn't learned exactly how to be quiet enough to not disturb my surroundings. But even if I wasn't the quietest person around it seemed I could still find dinner out among the trees that surrounded the small cabin I had come to call my home.

Kneeling down onto the soft moss floor I ran my hands through my knotted hair. I sighed, taking it all in. The trees spoke an old language only heard by those willing to listen. The flowers perked up to stare back at me. I was going to miss this place soon.

Four years ago I had left my family behind to come out into the middle of nowhere. It had become everything for me. Four years ago I had left my brother and twin sister to pick up the pieces left behind after the death of our parents. Four years ago I found out that if I didn't leave then I would destroy everything and everyone I had ever loved.

I dug into the softness below curling my fingers into the moss, and inhaling deeply. I was scared to go back. After all, in the years I had been gone I had learned to be alone. This was something I was used to now. How did I think I could rejoin society?

"My name is Peat." I told myself. "I can do this." I knew in my seclusion that I was safe and so were the people who mattered. Once I left here there was no telling just how safe those around me would be. It could all come crashing down.

Raychel. Beth. Caylee.

Past:

I could hear the screaming around me, blood dripped from my chin and down onto my white t-shirt,8 staining the fabric.

It had been my sister and I's fourteenth birthday that day. Our mom and dad had gone out late to get us some gift they had forgotten, taking Elena with them. Jere and I had stayed behind to entertain all of our friends who had come to help celebrate. There must have been at least twelve girls, Matt and even Tyler joined in later on.

The doorbell rang around 10:30 that night. I remembered because I had turned on my favorite radio station just before we all heard it. Jeremy was fighting with Tyler and Matt was trying to keep them both from doing something stupid. When the doorbell rang I ran for it.

That was the last moment I would consider myself a child. After that, everything changed.

"Is this the residence of Jeremy Gilbert and Peat Gilbert?" The officer asked looking past me and into the house filled with young girls. What the hell was an officer doing at our house at this hour? We were a large group but we really hadn't been that noisy, had we?

"Yes." I said as I opened the door further, a questioning look on my face. I had nothing to hide except the cake on my chin.

"Uhh miss if you could call your brother out here. We really should discuss this in private." He took his hat off and waited. His eyes were sad as he watched me shift uneasily in the doorway.

"Alright I guess I will go get him." Pulling away from the door I screamed towards the stairs, "Jeremy! Get your ass down here! There is an officer at the door!" Jeremy slid down the banister towards us, grinning largely at the officer.

"Sorry if we were being too loud. You have no idea how annoying some people can be." He pulled his hand thorough his hair looking back at the officer.

As the officer broke the news to us that had been the moment it all ended. He told us about the accident. He told us that our parents were dead. He told us that Elena would be in hospital for a few days but was okay.

Our parents had drowned under Wickery Bridge.

The world stopped in that moment. Our parents were dead. The two people who raised me, were dead.

I felt the hot tears fall as something dark took over. I had never felt anything like it before that night. The hot angry swell of power that filled me up and spilled over my edges. Why had it hurt so bad? I would always remember it. That is, until the blackness took me.

That's when the screaming had begun. I remember, I could hear Caroline calling my name while the other girls screamed behind me, but all I could see in those moments were people who were in the way of my grief. The heat was so painful that night that I had let it free, killing all the officers and the small ambulance worker that had followed. Later turning to my friends and killing three of them. Raychel. Beth. Caylee.

That was the night I killed Raychel, Beth and Caylee. That was the night I killed two officers who I later found out were fathers. That had also been the night I killed a young doctor who had been taking night shifts as a paramedic for only a short few weeks.

I killed them and I hadn't been able to stop it.