Fleeing Sanity
Chapter One
Camille Horton slammed her bedroom door shut behind her. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the rain streak the windowpane. Things had been so hard since her mother died. She was so sick of the responsibility her grandmother forced on her. Papa had been gone for ten years, abandoning his three young children. Things had been ok for Mama, Camille, Johnny, and Portia. Sure money was tight, but Mama always seemed to pull then through.
And then Mama got cancer and it killed her. Camille had been made the ward of her strict senile grandmother. Johnny and Portia, the twins were ten and relied on Camille to care for her. Grandmother forced her to do the things she couldn't do. Camille made dinner, washed the floors, dusted, helped her siblings with their homework, and this left Camille with no time to be herself.
Today had been the worst day of all. Grandmother had smacked her for asking if she could have Portia do the dishes for a change because she had a paper to write.
"Angela, they are your children; you should let them study. You were the stupid one who opened her legs to Calvin Morgan."
"But grandmother . . ."
"Get your behind in there and take your punishment like the trumpet you are."
Camille grabbed her coat and wiped the tears from her eyes. She fled out the front door and into the night. She made her way to the park, her only sanctuary. On her way to the willow tree at the edge of the lake, her foot hit a crack in the pathway. Blackness enveloped her, cutting off her scream . . .