Red winter.

I looked outside through the window, it was snowing lightly. First snow of the year. I am talking about ten years ago when I was seven years old. That evening in the kitchen of our old house. I was standing on a cold tiled floor, with a regular kitchen knife in my blood stained hands.

Zeshan Masood, my best childhood friend was lying dead on the floor. He had been lying there for an hour, and I stood staring at his corpse the whole time.

It was me who killed him. But it was not on purpose. We were just playing a game - a stupid game! Zeshan usually came over my house to play after school. That evening when we reached home, we found a note from my mother, which said she was going out for a bit. It was Zeshan's idea to play a sword game. We had no swords in our house so we had to use kitchen knives instead. My parents always taught me not to play with dangerous things like hammer, needle, fire or anything which can hurt me or others. I knew that a knife could hurt people. But I had never known it could even kill a person. I was just a kid.

I was trembling like an autumn leaf. Maybe because I was terrified for what I had done, or maybe because it was freezing cold that evening. My mind could not think straight at all. I should have called someone for help. But my mother was out shopping with Zeshan's parents as the note we found said, and my father usually worked late on his job. Also I was afarid that I would be punished severely. The thought of police coming to arrest me also crossed my mind. I knew that prison was a scary place where scary people were kept together. That thought made me shiver with fear. So I did nothing when Zeshan was suffering in great agony - I saw his life slowly and excruciatingly fading away.

I watched my friend die.

That's when I heard the door open. I was so startled that I involuntarily took some steps back. My legs were very numb from standing on the cold floor for too long. I heard someone walking inside of the house and soon saw that it was my father. He had came home early from work that evening - after all it was my birthday. We were going to celebrate my birthday together with Zeshan's family. But I knew it was not possible anymore.

When my father entered the kitchen he completely froze when he saw blood spilled all over the floor. He saw Zeshan lying lifeless on the floor and me standing with a knife clasped in my fist. The birthday cake that my father had brought for me fell on the floor. Father ran towards me and knelt down to look at me face to face. He was looking dead worried.

"Noah. What happened here?" he asked me. I wanted to tell him that it was an accident, but words were getting stabbed in my throat. So I started to bawl my eyes out instead.

My father quickly turned towards Zeshan and checked his pulse. He trembled when he could not find any sign of life from the body. Then he saw the knife in my hand and quickly snatched it away from my hand.

"Noah, did you? Did you do this?" my father asked me desperately, but I couldn't reply, I kept on crying louder.

My father's face went white pale and he slowly took me in his warm embrace. I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders. We remained that way for few moments until suddenly my father said,

"Noah let's change your clothes."

He quickly took me to my room and made me take off my clothes. I was told to clean the blood on my face and hands. Father ran out with the blood stained clothes. When he returned the clothes were gone. He made me wear new clothes. I could feel his hands trembling wildly over my body.

Then suddenly the door bell rang. It made father jump! He quickly ran towards the window, discreetly looked outside and said, "It's your mother., and Zeshan's parents." I had never seen my father so terrified ever before until that evening.

Father ran towards me and picked me up. He took me to the back door of our house and opened it. A cold breeze of wind blew inside carrying some snow with it. Father carefully scanned his eyes outside and then he knelt down and told me,

"Noah, my dear son. I want you to go straight to your grandma's house. You can't go from the main road. The lake is frozen, so you can use it to get over to your grandma's house. But walk on it very carefully." he told me and I saw his eyes filled with tears.

" and, and when someone ask you about Zeshan..." he continued, " Tell them that you know nothing about his death. Tell them I send you to your grandma's house. You tell them you were at your grandma's house the whole time. Am I clear? What did I tell you?" he asked.

My father used to tell me, 'to lie is a great sin.' So I could not understand why he was telling me to lie so suddenly. I didn't reply, which made my father scream at me. "NOAH! TELL ME WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!"

"That I, I know nothing and, I was at grandma's house." I said.

My father then smiled at me. A tear rolled down his right cheek and he hugged me dearly. I could tell he was sad. Then he told me to get going. I ran towards the lake but stopped before setting my foot on it. The back door was already closed when I looked back. My heart just sank in my chest and I started to cry again.

I looked ahead and saw the frozen lake infront of me. After taking a deep breath I started to walk on the frozen lake tentatively.