LifeofDeath 01

A Life of Death

Detective Alex Drummond begins the story by answering his son's question about an event that changed Alex's life. He went from being the ideal student through junior high to a lost high schooler with no sense of direction or purpose except to escape his present imprisonment and torture. After Alex's father died at the hands of a drunk driver, his mother found solace in the arms of a brutish, intolerant alcoholic with a mysterious past. The irony was not lost on Alex, and he counted the days until he could escape. Detective Drummond's tale continues in the perspective of his young self as he visits his father's grave, sitting under a large pine tree at the foot of his father's grave. The trunk's bark has been worn smooth by years of Alex's constant company. This is his sanctuary from the world until the dead come looking for him. Running his hands along the wrought-iron fences surrounding various colonial manors while walking to school, Alex finds himself thrust into the memory of a woman's brutal murder. After a brutal evening suffering under the hands of the drunk, Alex retires to the cemetery to contemplate his life and the mysterious vision.