The drop all went wrong. I told Marsha not to get the police involved but she was too scared to think straight. Joshua had been a special baby after five failed IVF attempts. It wasn't his fault that his parents were so rich or stupid as to allow a nanny to look after him without checking up on her properly. She seemed so nice when they met in the park, soothing the baby during his bouts of excessive screaming. Autism. She seemed to instantly recognise the shrill pitch. Told us it ran in her family. He wasn't really a baby...

My nails had been long. I'd given up biting six months ago. But ever since I tasted his blood I couldn't stop putting my fingers into my mouth, chewing the skin, licking up drops of redness. Hoping it would satisfy my craving.

It didn't.

I kept looking at necks. Middle aged triple chins the type with thick white hair growing under. Women too scared too pluck them out. Or too blind to see.

Throbbing Adam's apples on smooth soft skin. Younger boys looking into my eyes, misreading signals. Lustful.

My history professor, all nose hair and stubble. Wondering if there...

The episodes were getting more frequent. I'd forget where I was. Friends looking at me strangely as I carried on conversations finished ten minutes ago. Losing my new phone. Girlfriend called off our holiday, fed up of getting ignored. The tests showed it wasn't epilepsy. I felt strangely calm as though it was meant to be.
During my time away I lived a different life, on a different plane. Soon I knew it would be my permanent home.

I could hear dad's voice at a distance, feel mom's hand on mine. Fear.

I was slipping away in the hospital bed....

The mail box never had anything I wanted so I went onto the next home. Usually I picked up a few interesting pieces from No 6, it was a busy household. But no 4 only ever contained a thin airmail so I knew there wasn't any cash. Until last Sunday that is. Brown envelope, thick. Tore it open around the corner of the block, $2,000.

I never realised the significance of what I'd done, not that day, nor that week. But first week in February I knew I was in trouble. The house had been under surveillance. Not by the...

Everytime I took the Color Quiz I got the same results even though my life changed so much over the months since I first tried it. Self absorbed, seeking sexual satisfaction, emotionally distant, needing approval, always in relationships yet unconnected and vulnerable. This didn't make any sense.

I was happily married (three years) everyone said I was a really kind hearted generous woman, very friendly and open with friends and strangers alike.

After our anniversary meal, Tom wiped his mouth on the linen napkin and sighed. I liked to see he enjoyed all the hours I spend in a small,...

The Moon would never the the same again. That's what I told John after I watched him smooth over the earth with the shovel, cover the grave with branches and walk ahead of me back to the car.

We didn't mean to kill him. But night after night hearing him beat and rape his small Asian wife whilst their young daughter cried in another room eventually made us realise that something had to change.

We just wanted to scare him, role reversal. Make him feel like he was worthless. Had no-one to turn to. Somehow the gun went off, that's...

My sister was called Heather. She only lived three years. I've never been told what really happened to her, only that she was taken away from us too early. I used to lie awake all night, terrified of someone coming in through the window, dragging me out of bed, over their shoulder, down a ladder, running across the back lawn, through a gap in the fence and into a van. Driven away forever.

It wasn't until I was about eight years old and settling into a new house (we'd moved four times already) that I came across a scrapbook of...

After the murder I found it hard to recall what happened in my personal life but only remembered other things.

The autumn leaves were not covering the muddy lane as usual this time of year. I was grateful to Mother Nature to avoid the hard toil of removing the crisp orange leaves, too sticky and gooey with liquid earth deal with a power tool.

The deer from the woods below ignored my home made devices to deter their rampage over my immaculate lawn and ate the rose heads in the large bed in the middle.Bright pink, deep red, white, burgundy....

The old woman was lying on the park bench underneath layers of musty old coats, pink v-sweaters (four) and thermal underwear, not only yellowed but stained. It was hard to discern if she was skinny beneath all that or fat as her head was covered with a stripey blue and yellow scarf so only two black eyes were visible when we shook her awake.

She didn't show any emotion or even interest when she viewed the photograph. Her family were waiting in the car, giving her some time and space to take in they had been looking for her all...

She didn't look at him anymore. He knew that it was too late for their marriage. Betrayal this time was over stepping the boundary. Twice already. They passed days and nights like strangers, polite yet unemotionally connected.

Lisa did not know what to do. Never expected to be in this position. Couldn't face the future, alone. Yet knew she couldn't bear to be in the same room with him let alone in the same house.

None of her family were around anymore, she didn't want to have to move again, relocate, make new friends, go over the same lies. She...