Excerpt: Fragmented Evidence

Tears trickled down her face, branching out across wet cheeks, running into smears of thickening blood and vomit before thinning out to the cracked corners of her mouth. Her jaw shook as her lips formed words, mouthing a cry for help. A wide streak of red made its way from her nose, stopping on the edge of her upper lip which quivered, splattering blood through the air.

What past her upper lip overlapped and swirled into clear saliva before dribbling, falling from her mouth, adding to the pool of slick vomit and coagulating blood. Arms stretched flailing about, finely mixing the salt, the sour and harsh liquor into a medium that her fingers, unknowingly painted circles in, as she desperately sought a way out. The fear of death, as cold as the winter wind gust of upstate New York, whipped through her body before the warmth of exhaustion proceeded to over whelm the dull pain that made its way through her.

Suddenly her attacker stood up, letting go of the grip, and sending her partially suspended body crashing, her chin smashing, point first, before her forehead bounced off the tile floor. Tighten skin from her previously distorted face splintered and exposed living tissue. She laid there, eyes closed, sprawled in the contents from her stomach, not wanting to move, waiting and listening to the sound of foot steps and a door as it closed, sending deafening echoes through the floor.