prologue

Satan's Rabbithole.

After years of gathering around a camp fire telling stories about it, we finally came face to face.

I stared down at the dark, practically black hole with water from the river gushing into it dangerously. So many myths surrounding this one hole about disappearing children and animals that left behind only a shoe or ripped off collar to be remembered by; sometimes no trace at all... they just knew this was the last place they could have been. This is where I wanted to end it all.

I felt it was my time to go, and I wasn't entirely sure why. Every time I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt empty inside. No emotions. I saw a lifeless girl in the reflection. Nothing was the same after my parents died and I got sent to my aunt in boring-town-Great Falls, South Carolina. She wasn't happy to see me, but she sure was happy to see my survivor's benefit check every month. She called me useless and outrageous, "just like my mother." Whether she cared or not, I just knew that she knew words like that stung. Maybe the reason was that I just had nothing to look forward to anymore. That was probably it. I was numb inside.

It had been a year too long; I was done. With her. With the people in this town who hated me because I was an outsider. With this cruel, cruel world. I often found myself thinking, I was going to end up just like my mother. A happily ever after. How wrong I was...

I was over the abuse.

I was over the misery that was now my life knowing I would never find peace again in this world at least, no thank you to the people holding me down.

It was time to go.

So as I turned around, the water continuing to slosh around my thighs, I tied a note to a thick branch that hovered over the water from a large tree rooted up right next to the river bank. They would find it eventually, they always came looking here. At least I was one of the few who left a real clue behind.

I thought about all the good times I had on this Earth.

I would forever hold on to those memories.

Maybe I could relive them in the afterlife wherever that may be.

"Good bye, Great Falls. You weren't really so 'Great' after all." I said aloud, my voice quiet and shaky.

Maybe I could now finally find my peace again.

This is what I needed.