She found herself smiling often these days, as a way to cover up the horrific things she had done. But she had to. Shed made a mistake recently and she had to correct it. No one else would…that was for sure. Thats when shed started killing those womenwhen she realized she was the only one that had the power to correct her mistake.

Shed had a moment of weakness several months back and that had been the first true mistake.

Of course, her mother might tell her that the first mistake that started this whole mess was going out to the bar that night during her freshman year of college. Shed not been old enough to drink, of course, but a short skirt in a college town was an easy work around for such a problem. Shed only had three drinks, but it had been enough to cause her knees to wobble as she made her way through the back alley with her friends, a shortcut back to the dorms.

Her knees had still been wobbly, her head still a little off kilter, when the three men stepped out of the shadows. One served as the lookout while the other two raped her and her friend. And then they alternated. Her only mistake had been trying to fight back when they switched places. For that, shed received a head slammed against a brick wall that resulted in fifteen stitches. Shed also received cuts and bruises between her legs, one cut receiving five stitches. And shed also received the news that she would likely never be able to have children.

Maybe her mother would be right. Maybe the visit to the bar had been the very first mistake. The very bad decisions shed made of late had stemmed from that bad news from the doctor. Her choice in men had been affected, as had some pivotal life decisions. But then there was the really big mistakethe thing shed meant for good but had come back to burden her and cause her to kill. The

The bell rang. She snapped out of her dark thoughts and for a moment she had no idea where she was.

School. The children…

The kids got up in an orderly fashion and put their laptops away. They then exited the class, chattering and laughing. A few waved to her and one young boy that seemed particularly drawn to her even gave her a fist bump.