All the Missing Girls

by Megan Miranda

Everett lived in a world that didn’t touch mine. In a place where he saw the injustices elsewhere—somewhere lesser than his place in life. His moral compass did not falter. His world was black and white. He could not look into the darkness, or take it home with him, or love it. He’d never welcome the monster into his heart. Would he hide a body for his daughter? Move one for his sister? Everett’s world was all on paper, because he’d never been tested. What was it he’d told me? The terribly dark thing that nobody else knew about him? He’d seen someone die.

Everett wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t kill, or move a body, or lie to take the heat or blame. He was a better person than the rest of us.