Due to Unforeseen Changes...

    Glued to the TV, her eyes searched the screen, waiting for the poor soul who gets sent to the moon this year. Most don’t mind, it is a blissful life there, anything you want you get. Cassie did not want to go, though. She knew that the old machine that sends people to the moon every year has been wearing down. The people who ran this entire campaign didn’t have the money to upgrade the ship and three people have died this year from attempted launch. This was their next try. Cassie Monte appeared in blue writing on the screen. She stared in disbelief. She was not getting on that spacecraft if she had anything to say about it.

    A few moments later, someone knocked on her door. She knew who it was and once she opened the door, her fate was sealed, she’d be gone. Like any logical person, she slipped out her window cautiously, hopped over the fence, and ran. Cassie had no clue where she would go. She kept running as she became covered with shade. A forest! Of course! Drones from above cannot see her and if Cassie climbed high enough, people searching on the floor couldn’t either.

    She had carried a radio on her before she snuck out so she could keep up with the knews. She heard a radio update, “If anyone sees a nineteen year old woman with pale skin, blue eyes, blonde hair, and a slender figure in California, please report her to the authorities.” This was perfect. Almost every stereotypical Cali girl looked like her. She had some time to stall. Cassie remembered that her sister left an old hair dye set at home with some colored contacts for her old halloween project.

    Cassie raced back to her house, but when she got there, someone else was already searching her rooms. She grabbed her kitchen knife, heart in her throat. The person turned around to reveal her old roommate. “Dixie?!?” Cassie yelped startled. Dixie turned around. She put a finger to her lips and motioned to a mic attached to her shirt. Dixie had a sign she had written on some scrap paper reading, “Grab what you need and go, make no noise and be quick!!” With that, Cassie gathered a box of hair dye and contacts, and ran back to the forest.

    After she dyed her hair and put in some contacts, she went to the town and quickly grabbed a dark spray tan with a fake id and cash. Cassie went to Emerald Tattoo and Piercing and got a sleeve as well as an eyebrow, nose, and lip piercing. It was painful, but it would make her look very different. She had an insane plan but crazily enough, she was going to try and pull it off. She had no other option. Cassie made her way to a beach in Avila and grabbed some heavy beers.

    After finding a girl there who had a very similar resemblance to her original self, Cassie chatted her up. She found out she wasn’t in contact with her family, had few friends, and lived alone… perfect. Cassie asked to go on a walk with this girl wanting to make friends. Her name was Jill and Jill happened to own a boat. Cassie and Jill got to the middle of a lake as Jill kept drinking beers while Cassie was hardly sipping hers. Once Jill fell asleep on her boat at sunset, Cassie carefully planted her own original identifications so people would think this is Cassie Monte. She pushed Jill in the water.

    Jill woke with a start being so drunk she could hardly swim, struggled with the shock of the cold water also stunning her, as Cassie watched her drown. Cassie grabbed Jill’s information, credit card, drivers license, house keys, everything out of her purse. She was now Jillian Ransul Shertip. Cassie docked what was now her boat, and headed ‘home’.

    Jillian was also nineteen and had only finished her first year of college. Cassie knew all they had to do was discover Jill’s body and she would be safe. There was a knock at her door so she opened it. It was a man. “I saw what you did on the lake, I followed you back,” the man stupidly stated. Cassie quickly pulled a pair of gloves out of a bag in her pocket, slipped them on, grabbed him by his hair, kicked in his kneecaps, and socked him in the face. She grabbed him by the arms and dragged him inside. Cassie closed the door. She grabbed a knife and cleaned it off so as to not leave any prints, and plunged it once through his stomach, once through his chest, and once through his eye socket. She sliced up every section of his body and put it in ziploc bags with a rock in each bag as well. Cassie put the torso in a garbage bag with more rocks. Then she went and got a large bag that’s made for inflated pool floats, put the body bags in. She put an innertube on top to go unnoticed. She cleaned up the mess on the floor and went to bed.

    Cassie woke up at four o’ clock in the morning and took the body down to the lake. She drove to the middle and tossed it all in. She headed back quickly and sat down. Over the week, her days consisted of sitting and watching the tv, waiting for them to discover Jill’s body, deciding what classes she was going to take sophomore year of college, and crying. She killed two people, she felt to be a monster.

    Three days in, they found Jill’s body. She watched the television as they picked a new person to launch into space. It was some random person. Her plan was in action, eventually, she told herself, she wouldn't feel as guilty.

Years later, Cassie legally changed 'her name' back to Cassie. Cassie Ransul Shertip. She had finished college and managed at a video game and comic store. She owned a small pet to keep her company and cope with everything. Kids came by every day and she helped them set up games and manage everything. She wanted to do more with her life, though. She wanted to help people to make up for what she did.  She ended up filing a case against the people who ran the space launch and she won. No one would have to deal with that again.