Methinks we have a clue. Be still, my heart.

I could probably have made the head shot from the railing, but with an unfamiliar gun, it was too risky. I didn't want to accidentally shoot the woman in the head. Killing the hostage is always frowned upon.

He's no more human than I am, ma petite." At least I'm not dead." That can be remedied.

Anyone who doesn't believe that the forest is a deadly place has never been lost in one.

But if anything will turn me off, it's a very practiced approach, as if the man has done it a thousand times before, to a lot of different women. Which always seems to imply that I am no different from all the rest. Not flattering.

Nothing cuts deeper than when another person says exactly what you're afraid to say out loud.

It all adds up; never discount your efforts, because small efforts build big things. One word doesn't make a novel, but one word does begin a novel, and from that small beginning everything else follows. Even if it's just 'The', write something on that blank page.