When We Were 8

One icy day when they are eight years old, eight girls become lifelong friends when they stand up to some bullies who try to kill a dog named Lucy. In appreciation, Mike Orinston, Lucy’s owner, gives the girls his cabin at the river. At the cabin the girls learn archery, camping skills, and murder.

The first victims are the scum of society and die because of unfortunate events. The girls rationalize their heinous actions as always being accidents. As the girls grow older, their victims are those individuals who insult or harm them and others.

Guilt begins to separate the girls, and after high school graduation, they go in different directions, escaping what they have been groomed to do. By themselves, the young women are harmless; only together are they dangerous. Eight years later, the grown women are required, according to Mike’s will, to return to the cabin to spend a week together. The accidents begin once more, as they uncover truths and excavate secrets.

As old grievances return and responsibility shifts, some of the women find that they will have to fight to survive, but the price to stay alive may be too high. Nothing is the same as…when they were eight.