"So, Mr. Miller," the detective said, rubbing his temple. "If I understand correctly, you're here to report a murder."

No answer came out of my mouth as I tried to steady my breathing and keep the rhythm of my heartbeats in check. And with all my might, I tried to choke the inner voice that kept urging me to run—as far as one could go.

But where would I run to?

Deep down, I knew that every attempt to escape was to no avail. My fate had been sealed, and his claws would hunt me down wherever I went. So there was no point in even trying.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up, and my eyes met with the detective's cold gaze.

"No." I clenched my hands together to stop them from trembling before I continued. "I'm here to confess to murder..."

***

Throughout my thirty years on earth, I was never able to understand the mechanism of how the human brain worked—especially the part that was concerned with memories.

I always thought memories were like the shelves of a library containing countless books. Wherein the lower shelves, our beautiful memories were stored, the ones we could never help but read over and over again to relive the moments that made our lives worth something.

But unfortunately, time has a terrible habit of ruining all the finer things in life. So one day, we put our hands on one of those books only to be appalled to find that some of the papers had been torn apart, and we could no longer remember what they were about. While other pages have started to fade away, and eventually, they too end up completely forgotten—as if they never existed.

On the other hand, some books had been placed deliberately on the upper shelves so they could be out of our reach, hoping that the dust of time would turn them into a pile of debris, along with all the pain and agony they carried within their pages. But no matter what we do, they never disappear.

And from time to time, we find one of those books falling on our heads, reopening wounds we were so naïve to think that time could turn into mere scars—a tiny reminder of what we have been through. As if we were soldiers who got injured in a battle, and their scars become lifetime proof that they had survived.

But the sad truth was that whenever one of those books gets reopened, we always find that the wounds are still open, the blood of the past gushing out of them with no hope of ever stopping.

And now—ten years after the hell we went through—a very deep wound has been ripped open. And my gut told me that it would lead us to our graves, burying us six feet under...

***

The three of us have to go to our high school reunion. I can't believe it's been 10 years already!

It was a message from Connor. I wondered how he still could be so excited after everything that happened in that town. But he has always been the most boisterous and mischievous one of the three of us.

He used to voice his opinions on everything and anything, even if he understood nothing about what he was talking about. And he was the debate team leader during our school days, so I wasn't surprised when he decided to study law; no other profession would have suited him better.

You must be kidding. I don't want to step foot in that place again.

Aiden replied to him. He has always been the voice of reason among us. He was good... pure.

Unfortunately, though, Connor and I succeeded in tainting his soul forever, but he refused to surrender to the darkness that had ever since devoured our souls. He fought it with all his strength. He studied psychology and decided to work as a social worker in a juvenile prison. He wanted to help the delinquent adolescents who were mentally unstable—all to probably atone for what had happened.

Come on, don't be a killjoy, Aiden. Let's take Erin's opinion. Connor replied to him and then sent another message, mentioning me. What do you think, Dr. Miller? Will your precious time—spent mainly at the hospital, perhaps until you become an old man and die alone—allow you to come to town and see your old friends?

Rolling my eyes, I decided to ignore Connor for now as I sent a message centered on a different topic. Remember those capsules we buried behind the school? We promised to dig them out together after a decade or so.

Aiden was the first to reply to my message. Wow! I totally forgot about them.

Connor sent a message. Then, it's settled. The three of us will go to the party, dig out those capsules and see what we have put inside them. Now, I'm even more excited. See you soon, guys!

Neither Aiden nor I objected as curiosity was stronger than our fear of the ghosts of our past...

***

The promised day arrived. The three of us met in the vast field behind our old school. We had buried the time capsules under a large oak tree.

"Should we at least go and say hello to our old colleagues?" said Aiden. His face looked paler than usual, making his blue eyes stand out even more.

"They're probably just prattling. Most of them have already made families and brought their kids with them. And you know I don't like kids," replied Connor, whose dark eyes were sparkling with excitement.

I let out a chuckle at his reply. "Then why were you looking forward to the party even before I mentioned the capsules?"

He shot me a glare. "Stop being a smartass, Erin, and let's get started." He picked up the shovel we brought with us off the ground and started digging.

It didn't take much time before the shovel's tip hit metal. Aiden and I hurried to help Connor take out the three capsules.

Then, we sat on the ground and stared at the capsules without uttering a word, none of us daring to take the first move.

"Do either of you remember what he put in his capsule?" Aiden was the first to break the silence.

"No," replied Connor. "All I remember is that we buried them on graduation day—it was only a few days after... after what we did."

"Connor!" shouted Aiden with a warning tone. "We promised never to mention that day again. We buried that day with—" He stopped mid-sentence as his mind had probably taken him into an unpleasant trip down memory lane.

"I remember..." I said without taking my eyes off the capsules, but I still could feel their stares digging holes into my skin. "Each of us wrote down his pent-up feelings on a piece of paper and stuffed it in his capsule. We did this so we could live with ourselves after what happened." I looked up to meet their wide eyes. "Well, this and some other stuff we held dear in school days," I added casually.

"Do you mean that we have put things that could incriminate us inside these capsules?" Connor pointed at the capsules with a bewildered look on his face. "Were we really that stupid?"

Shrugging, I let out a quiet snort. "We promised not to mention any details that would lead back to us, but we were just kids anyway. Kids trying to cope with the ugliness of their handiwork."

"I don't know about you two, but I don't want anything to remind me of that day," Aiden said, rising to his feet while dusting off his pants.

"Sit down, Aiden," said Connor, jaw clenched and looking distressed. "We need to see whatever we put in these damn capsules. If there's anything that can be used as evidence against us, we can't just leave it there. We have to burn it and get rid of it for good." He reached out and grabbed his capsule, ready to open it.

"I agree with Connor," I said before picking up my capsule.

Aiden let out a sigh and reluctantly sat back on the ground after gripping his capsule.

The three of us started opening the capsules that remained buried underground for over a decade, covered by the dust of time. However, nothing in the world would have prepared us for the horror of what we found inside them...

I didn't know how they felt, but I felt as if all the blood in my veins had turned into ice, and my heart was beating so hard I thought it might burst out of my chest. I swallowed hard to push down the pile that had formed in my throat.

Silence enveloped the place around us as if we had lost the ability to speak. We sat there, not moving a limb. We stared at the contents of the capsules, hoping that what we were experiencing was just a terrible nightmare.

Connor was the first to break the silence, not with words, but with a punch to my jaw that knocked me to the ground.

"Connor, what are you doing? Have you gone mad!" shouted Aiden as he stood between us, holding Connor, who looked more than ready to take the fight to the next level.

"Don't you get it, Aiden?" Connor's eyes were flaring with anger as he pointed at me. "This arrogant bastard is the one who orchestrated all of this. He's the one who reminded us of the damn capsules, and he must have replaced their contents before we came here!"

"Did you really do that, Erin?" asked Aiden with a sharp tone.

I spat some blood that had pooled in my mouth as a result of Connor's punch before I focused my gaze on them. "Surely, you have lost your minds! Why would I do that when the things inside of these capsules will condemn me too? I certainly have no desire to spend the rest of my life in prison."

Then I looked at Connor with subdued rage. "And you, idiot. You were the first to start digging, and you could clearly see that the place was covered with plants that took years to grow. And I only came back to town today just for the sake of this stupid meeting."

They both knew that I had moved to another state after high school and decided to put as much distance as possible between me and this doomed town.

Aiden looked at me in understanding while Conner kicked the ground in anger before taking a few deep breaths.

"We have to check everything inside these capsules to know exactly what we're going to be dealing with," Connor said when he had calmed down a little.

Aiden and I agreed. And we decided to take the capsules and head to Connor's place to avoid the risk of someone seeing us.

We couldn't handle any more disasters; our hands were already full...