It was a hot and humid day, and Jon was sitting in the kitchen reading the newspaper.  He first read about a baseball team that won a game in 17 innings of play.  They won that game 13-12 which is incredibly high scoring.  This reminded him of his baseball days way back in 8th grade.  He looked to the corner of the room and saw his picture of him in his baseball uniform standing next to his father who was his coach.  Jon looked around the room and saw all of the other pictures on the walls of the kitchen.  He saw a picture of him and his wife Julia, at a time when they were happy together.  Julia’s beautiful blonde hair fell down below her shoulders, and Jon was looking stronger and more fit than ever before.  Jon and Julia had been struggling together lately as he had been busy with work.  Jon dropped his thoughts and continued reading the paper.  The last article he read was about a man that recently went missing, and Jon recognized him.  He had seen him at the bar a few times in the last week. 

Suddenly Jon’s wife came storming through the front door looking furious for a reason that puzzled Jon.

“Where have you been Jon?  Every night it seems that you’re off at some bar or at work!” Julia yelled, “What I do know is that you’re never here, and we don’t work very well when you’re never here!”

Jon fired back, “Well whenever I am here you’re not so it’s not just my fault!”
Julia began sobbing, “Why can’t you just sacrifice something for us just once?”
“Because I didn’t realize that it mattered that much, but I know now, and I’m sorry.” Jon echoed.

“Yeah, well it’s too late now Jon. I haven’t seen you in forever, and I don’t trust that this won’t happen again,” Julia murmured.

Jon became furious after just offering to give something up like she had asked.  Anger ran through him from head to toe.  Jon proceeded to stomp out the door and into the woods just to get away from everything.  He decided he needed some time to think and make some choices, so he decided to walk out on to the trails, his favorite place in the world.  He walked past his tree stand and saw many beautiful creatures. The sun’s rays sprinkled through the trees onto his face.  It’s Jon’s happy place. There’s nothing like the cool breeze and the sounds of wildlife, he thought. 

Sun beating, Jon walks the trails for about half an hour, passing by all sorts of wildlife, streams, and other beautiful scenery.  He walks until he sees something that makes his heart stop for a split second.  Across the stream is a tarp, and Jon is expecting the worst when he notices its figure.  Thoughts race through his mind thinking about what he should do, until he makes his decision.  He decides to go and discover what is under the tarp even though his conscience is screaming at him not to.  Terrified, he crosses the shallow stream, splashing up water with each step, getting a whiff of an awful stench coming from ahead.  When he finally reaches the other side he notices blood scattered in the area.  So he builds up the strength to pull the tarp off the mysterious figure underneath it.  He pulls the tarp off and jumps back in terror.  It’s the body of the man that he read about in the paper that morning.

Jon doesn’t know what to do at the sight of this.  He thinks about investigating for a little bit, and he wonders if he should just report it.  However, he worries that he may be accused of killing the man, and he doesn’t want to have to go through a trial.  Jon decides to look for some sort of clue as to what happened.  He uses some of the skills he had from when he was in the special task force with the military.  First, he decides to look for any sort of clue as to how the man died.  He discovers that the man was most definitely stabbed,  so he tries to figure out where the body may have come from or where the murderer may have went.  Searching far and wide for a blood trail, he finally finds one leading up the shore of the stream, the only trail in the area. 

Without letting anyone know, and without hesitation, Jon starts up the stream.  Carefully, he takes each step with a purpose, making sure not to lose the trail at any point.  About 40 yards up the stream the trail splits off to the left on a cleared path.  Jon thinks it was because the body was easier to drag on the path.  Snapping twigs and crunching leaves Jon plows through the woods, still hot on the trail of blood.  Then something happened that surprised Jon.  He stepped on something that felt very out of the ordinary to be in the woods.  He reaches down to figure out what it was that he stepped on.  He works with his hands to dig around in the dirt and grab for something that seemed out of place.  The first thing he gets a hold of feels like a handle, so he steps back and pulls. 

He falls back on his butt after putting in more effort than he needed.  The hatch opens up and reveals a ladder going down into an underground area.  Jon considers going back home and telling the police but decides he should continue because he believes he is on to something.  He then starts down the ladder getting ready for anything to happen.  Once he reaches the bottom he finds himself in what looks like an actual house.  He sees pictures of a man with his wife and kids, and another that shows the same man with the person that went missing.  Jon stops for a moment to try to put it all together.  Maybe this is the killer.  Maybe they were friends before something important happened.  Jon continued to search through the house, he finds a bedroom, a bathroom and then a closed door.  Slowly, he creaks open the door, inch by inch more is revealed inside the room.  What he sees sends him running down the hallway on a B line for the ladder.  He reaches the ladder and flies up into the light shining down on him from the still burning sun above.  Jon rushes through his thoughts.  In the room he saw what looked like a board of pictures of the man that was killed, red writing all over it with arrows pointing to other pictures.  Was it some kind of planned killing? He thought to himself.  He then remembers seeing the thing that made him go sprinting for the ladder, knives.  Knives that were very expensive.  One knife, an F-S fighting knife with jagged and sharp edges that coated with blood, shone in the dim light of the room.  Jon assumed that it had to be the knife that was used to kill the man at the stream. 

Jon then started heading back towards the house, chaining all of his thoughts together and figuring out how to explain this whole scenario to the police.  Jon began walking back towards the stream, so he can make his way back to the house.  Then he hears something behind him, the sound of twigs snapping.  He turns around, bends his knees and slowly scans the trees around him, nothing.  Then, something flies past his head, a knife, Jon says to himself, he turns the other way and starts powering his way back to safety, scaling downed trees, crashing through branches.  He hears the person behind him, but Jon can tell he’s increasing the distance between them.  He keeps charging on, pacing himself and stepping carefully.  Jon then turns a corner and stops behind the thick trunk of an old oak tree.  He crouches down gasping for air, hoping the man runs past.  Suddenly the man comes into frame, the same man who was in the pictures with the family in the underground home.  He stops about 10 yards from the tree Jon stopped behind and squints looking for the man that invited himself into his home.  The night is now falling upon them, so Jon is able to use the darkness to cover himself.  Frustrated, the man grunts and continues in the same direction he was heading.  Jon lets out a quiet sigh of relief and waits a moment before getting carefully back on the trail towards the house.  Quietly he walks all the way back to his house and walks through the front door.  He goes to his bedroom and finds his wife reading a book in the bed.  He walks over to her, grabs both sides of her face and passionately kisses her.

“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done lately, I will do anything to make it up to you.  I’m incredibly lucky to have you, and I’m sorry I didn’t realize that earlier,” Jon cries.
Julia looks at him in disbelief, and without saying a word, she kisses him back.
“It’s about damn time.” Julia lets out with a small laugh.  “I love you.”
“I love you too Jules,” Jon replies.  “I need to go handle a quick thing in town, but I’ll be right back.
“Ok, but be quick,” Julia replies.
“Don’t worry, I will, I promise,” he says.

Jon then heads out of the house, to his truck, and drives to the police station.  He walks in the double doors of the police station and explains everything that has happened to him in the past 8 hours, all the way down to the underground home.  The officers listen to him and write everything down that he is saying.  They then put together a team of officers with guns and police dogs and head out to the area Jon described, looking to capture the man.  Jon hops into his truck and drives home.  He steps through the front door, kicks off his shoes and walks down the hall.  He finds his wife lying in the bed asleep, looking peaceful and happy, and Jon just stands there and smiles, happy to be done with this eventful day.  He cuddles up next to her, hugs her tight, and rests his eyes.

“Goodnight Julia.” he says.  Warm and relieved, he drifts off, with the love of his life in his arms.  Ready for a new day to begin, ready for a new life to begin.