Don't look back. Don't look back. He kept telling himself as he ran. Don't look back. . . Where am I going? . . . I'll figure that out when I get there. He kept running. Everything started to get blurry. His legs felt weak. Maybe I should have eaten something before I left. I have to keep going. I have to get as far as I can before they find out that I'm gone. I can't let them catch me. I'd rather die than go back there. His determination got him another mile, but then his body quit.

It's morning. What happened? I must have passed out while I was running. How far did I run? There was a sign ahead "Welcome to Belknap" It seemed like a nice small town, somewhere that he could hide out for a couple of days. He figured that he should get off of the main road, so that his pursuers couldn't find him as easily. His legs were cramped from the previous night's run. It was a while before he spotted a house on the back road. He knocked at the door. A man in his early to mid sixties answered the door.

"Hello."

"Hi, do you know if there are any hotels or restaurants around here?"

"Of course I do, I've lived here my whole life."

"Are there any?"

"Nope, are you in trouble or something?"

"Sort of."

"It's not the police is it?"

"No."

"Then what is it, boy? You can tell me."

"I ran away from home."

"Why'd you go and do something like that?"

"My father's an alcoholic, and every time he gets drunk, he comes home and beats my mom and me. I just couldn't take it anymore."

"What about your mom?"

"What about her?"

"You just left her there, alone, with your father?" "I had to, she won't listen to reason. She thinks that its her fault that he's like this and that she deserves to be beaten."

"What makes her think that?"

"It's a rather long story, and I'd rather not talk about it."

"I respect that. So, what's your name?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

" 'Cause you'll try to call my parents."

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will. Your just like the rest of them. You think that I'm just some stupid kid that's looking for attention, or something like that."

"If that's the way that you feel, then you can just leave."

"Fine, I will. I don't need your help. I don't need anybody's help."

Feeling that he was going to start crying, he turned around and started running. He was starting to get really hungry. I really should have had something to eat before I left. There has to be a restaurant around here somewhere. Let's see, the body can survive four days . . . yeah four days without food and two days without water. I really wish that I would have paid closer attention in Science class when we were going over this. Wait a minute, I think that two days was in ideal surroundings without strenuous activity, and I ran a lot last night, and here it is midsummer. I'm going to die. I know it. I'm going to die in the woods of this Podunk town.

He was right, however he didn't die of starvation or dehydration, or anything like that. In fact he survived in those woods for two or three years before the incident."

Looks like it's time to go fishing. Let's see, I got my pole, just gotta go get some bait. He went out behind the shanty that he built by hand, and started to dig for some worms. Something rustled in the bushes to the left of him. He heard a shot. He was hit.

"Bob, I got one!"

"Where is it?"

"Over by that shack."

"Don't you know better than to shoot by a house, somebody could be living there. Did you think of that?"

"Sorry."

They arrived at the carcass, "Look at what you did, you killed somebody. This is definitely not good."

"What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know. We'll have to get rid of the body somehow. Wait a minute, I've got it!"

"What?"

"Remember when we were kids and you accidentally shot Mrs. Hubel's dog?"

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with this?"

"Do you remember what we did with the dog?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"We'll do the same thing with this body. Nobody will ever find out."

"Are you sure? Shouldn't we just call the police?"

"Do you want to go to jail?"

"No."

"Well, then help me move the body,"

To this day, the body of the young runaway has never been found. Some people believe that the body is buried somewhere waiting to be found. Others believe that there is no body to be found. They believe that he was the first of the many victims of the Bard brothers. Although the brothers were never convicted of anything all of the locals know what they did. And that they were the predecessors to the late Jeffrey Dahmer.

Have a nice day