Seven years ago, before she came into the world, Sally Acomb was in the process of coming down from the heavens. For a long time, she didn't know that she was the result of an unplanned pregnancy, or that her parents were in an unhealthy relationship. Her mother was a kind and loving woman, while the man responsible for her birth was a good-for-nothing criminal who never had any intentions of wanting to be a father, let alone be a part of his daughter's life. Sally's mother had an older brother who was a detective, and while he despised his sister's boyfriend, the uncle adored his young niece and loved her almost as much as he loved his sister, for she was his only family. Then one night, Angelina Acomb was found murdered in her apartment, and while his colleagues tried to prevent him from seeing the body, Sally's uncle broke down and started crying, holding onto her cold hand and plastering it with a thousand kisses. This did nothing to bring her back, and no matter how hard he prayed, no matter what he did, nothing would bring his sister back to him.

The man who murdered Angelina Acomb was sentenced to life in prison, but due to a technicality, his sentence was reduced down to five years. Seth Baxter walked out a free man, but not for long. Several weeks after his release date, the ex-convict was found dead at the scene of a gruesome crime. The Metropolitan police department originally thought this to be the work of a notorious murderer known at the time as the Jigsaw Killer, but the trap was not designed by him, nor was it set up by him. This had been the work of the aforementioned detective himself - Mark Hoffman.

When his sister died, Mark became the legal guardian of his then one-year-old niece. After the funeral, he took the toddler home with him, but because he was a bachelor and had no offspring of his own, the thirty-eight year old man didn't know the first thing about how to raise a child. Angelina showed Mark how to change and feed her daughter when she was just a baby, but now that Sally was a little bit older, the orphaned child didn't require any assistance in taking care of herself other than a good home and a loving environment.

...

Waking up early on the morning of her seventh birthday, Sally moaned softly as she rolled over onto her back and rubbed away the sleep from her eyes before opening them. Her room was dark, so she looked to her left and reached over to turn on the lamp sitting on the nightstand next to her bed. The alarm clock told her it was fifteen minutes past six o'clock, and since she was wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep, she decided to get out of bed and start her day.

Normally, Uncle Mark came into her room and woke Sally up in time to get her ready for school, but he had come home late last night and was currently suffering from a terrible hangover as the result of heavy drinking. It was completely irresponsible on his part, but Sally knew there was a reason why her uncle came home staggering at least once a week. Mark never got over the death of his sister, and although he never said it out loud, he secretly hated his niece for the mere fact that the blood coursing through the little girl's veins was not only his, but also that of his sister's murderer. The depressed detective knew that his niece was only an innocent child and practically nothing like her birth father, which he made damn sure that she wasn't, but Mark still felt disgusted with it all, resentful that Angelina had allowed her relationship to be taken this far.

Opening the door, Sally walked out of her bedroom and went towards the room at the end of the hall. Her uncle's bedroom door was slightly ajar, which gave her a chance to peek inside and see that Uncle Mark was lying on his stomach, his right arm dangling over the side of the bed. His snoring informed her that he was still asleep, so she quietly closed his door, that way any noise she made wouldn't disturb him.

Sally went into the living room and turned on the TV, making sure to keep the volume down, that way it wasn't so quiet in the apartment. Her uncle always kept it on the local news channel, which she didn't care for, but she was afraid of picking up the remote and changing the channel. Not that he would get angry at her or anything, but then again, Uncle Mark was always unpredictable. Sally went over and sat down on the couch, pulling a throw blanket over her legs while she watched the weather, which showed heavy rain for the week. Next, a woman came on to talk about the local news and mentioned that a man had been released from prison yesterday morning. Sally didn't recognize him, but from his mugshot alone, the little girl could tell he was a bad man.

Suddenly, a light turned on down the hall, signaling to the child that her uncle was awake. Sally leaned forward a bit, listening to the sound of running water from the bathroom sink, and when she heard footsteps approaching, she quickly grabbed the remote and switched the channel over to one of her early morning children's programs. Her uncle didn't like her watching the news, anyway.

Mark came into the living room, holding his right hand to his head. He stood near the entrance when he spotted his niece sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"How long have you been up for?" The detective asked.

"I just woke up", Sally answered him. "I went to see if you were awake, but you were still sleeping."

"Not anymore", Mark grumbled, then he walked over to turn off the television before going over to pick up his niece from the couch, carrying her over to the dining table next to the kitchen. He sat her down in a chair, then went to the fridge to take out a carton of eggs. There were only two eggs left, so Mark decided to forgo breakfast and made a mental note of picking up a few groceries after work.

"Did you sleep well last night, Uncle Mark?" Sally asked.

"Hmm." Mark wasn't in the mood to talk, but didn't want the girl to think that he was ignoring her on purpose.

"The weatherman said it's supposed to rain today", Sally mentioned, trying to get him to talk more, ignorant of her uncle's uninterested manner as he got started on fixing her a plate of scrambled eggs, then made himself a cup of coffee to help wake himself up and hopefully get rid of the throbbing pain in his head that seemed to be spreading throughout his brain. He almost expected to have an aneurysm.

"Eat up", said Mark, setting the plate in front of Sally, who started eating right away. Sitting down in a chair next to her, Mark kept one hand on his coffee mug, while he closed his eyes and rubbed his temple with his free hand, trying in vain to relieve his massive headache.

"Is your head hurting?" Sally asked.

"Yeah, but I'm all right", Mark lied, removing his hand from his head and looking at the little girl sitting to his left. "If I ignore it, it'll go away."

"Maybe you should take an aspirin."

"We don't have any aspirin."

Hearing this, Sally pushed back her chair and stood up to wrap her arms around her uncle, hugging him. "I'm sorry you're not having a very good morning, Uncle Mark", she said, sympathically.

Mark wrapped his left arm around his niece, returning the favor by hugging her back out of necessity. "It's not your fault", he admitted. "I did this to myself. I heard some bad news yesterday about this...this bad man and I took my anger out by doing the wrong thing." Mark wanted to use a stronger word, but couldn't bring himself to do it in front of the child.

"Did the bad man hurt somebody?" Sally wondered.

Mark nodded. "Yeah, you could say that, but let me tell you something. If I ever see that animal back on the street again, I'll kill him. Where is he going to end up?"

"In a dark room somewhere no one will ever find him?"

"And why is that?"

"Because he doesn't deserve to live for what he did."

"That's right. And who do you and I tell this to?"

"Nobody."

"Why is that?"

"Because then you would end up in jail and I'd never see you again."

Mark showed a hint of a smile on his face and placed a hand on top of Sally's head, ruffling her hair and making her giggle. "You're a smart kid, Sal. Now, finish your breakfast. You're gonna be late for the bus."

"Okay."

Sally released her uncle and returned to her seat. Once she finished eating, she went back to her room to get dressed and waited by the door for Mark, who helped his niece put on her jacket so she wouldn't get wet outside, then he handed Sally her backpack and grabbed an umbrella before they both headed out the door and went to the elevator at the end of the hall. One of them was out of order, so they took the second one.

Once they were outside the building, Mark opened the umbrella and told Sally to stay close to him while they stood on the curb, waiting for the school bus to arrive. The last thing the detective wanted was for someone to come passing by and try to grab her. Having failed to protect Angelina, Mark's biggest fear now was having the last closest thing to a living relative be taken away from him. If anything ever happened to his niece, Mark wouldn't know what to do. He nearly panicked when Sally scraped her knee on a playground once, though she said it didn't hurt. As far as he was concerned, she was the only thing keeping him alive and preventing him from swallowing a bullet. If it weren't for her, Mark probably would have hitched a ride on the death train a long time ago.

"Ride's here", said the voice of Sally.

Mark blinked and looked down at his niece. "What?"

"The bus is here", Sally told him.

Mark stared forward and saw that she was right, for a yellow bus had parked in front of the building. The door was opened, waiting for his niece to come onboard.

"All right, be good today", said Mark. "I have some work I need to do at the police station, so I won't be home until after dark. You got your key?"

"Mm-hmm. It's in my backpack", Sally confirmed.

"All right, see you later."

"Bye, Uncle Mark."

Sally walked up to the bus and got on, and soon as the door closed, Mark stepped back and watched as the bus drove away. There was a part of him that almost didn't want her to leave home that morning, but his niece had to go to school, while he had to go to work at the police department.

Meanwhile, Sally went towards the back and sat near the window, watching the raindrops splatter on the glass as it started turning foggy, to which she drew a picture of a heart with an arrow through it with her finger.