A/N The first part of this prologue is kinda boring, but it's necessary. It's the backstory for the main character. I promise though, if you even make it to chapter 2, it will get a lot better.629Please respect copyright.PENANAROrj30vV77
629Please respect copyright.PENANAMXNd0ZWxEN
629Please respect copyright.PENANAJpCFGk7xZT
***629Please respect copyright.PENANAg1pjupWKvm
629Please respect copyright.PENANAJbrXAR3hv6
629Please respect copyright.PENANAvbKBHVmTpT
I love living alone. It's one of the only pros that comes with living in the foster system for eighteen years; you get to be left alone, and I have to admit, I quite like it that way. Once I got out of the house of my foster mother, I found myself a job, and an apartment. She's a bitch, who disliked me, but not nearly as much as I despised her. She's one of those people who seemingly performs acts of great kindness, but only does so to keep up appearances. 629Please respect copyright.PENANAWukURnQ6rJ
629Please respect copyright.PENANATFqa3jlx7p
629Please respect copyright.PENANAYzpKz2pxYB
This is why I'm glad I left, glad I'm alone.629Please respect copyright.PENANAA5trFhZ1U2
629Please respect copyright.PENANAUipzM1JdFE
629Please respect copyright.PENANAsTzIxU6E1u
There are many benefits that come with living in isolation. I don't have to interact with anyone else intimately on a daily basis. I don't have do deal with disagreements, confrontations. I don't have to compromise. I don't have to support anyone else; just my African Grey Parrot, Silver, and myself.629Please respect copyright.PENANAjFOCbM3tAQ
629Please respect copyright.PENANACcbT5XuXM7
629Please respect copyright.PENANAQutp5o9jBd
However, living by yourself also means that you have no help, i.e. you have to do all of your chores on your own. I look at this as yet another symbol of my independence, albeit a huge inconvenience at times. 629Please respect copyright.PENANAOFU9GjO5GA
629Please respect copyright.PENANAnTRhqKZcEd
629Please respect copyright.PENANASjnIqve7JF
629Please respect copyright.PENANAqUAktRLtEi
629Please respect copyright.PENANAmNcIBWpbaa
Once I got out of that bitch's house, I did interviews for a job at Burger King, the cashier at the local supermarket, and a waitress. I got accepted for all three. Things have always kind of worked out for me; ever since I was a child, I always seemed to get what I wished for. Firstly, getting accepted into a foster home; although the bitch never adopted me, most children in the foster system in Jamaica never see outside of a children's home.629Please respect copyright.PENANAUhpTjKsAfq
When I was six years old, I wished for a foster parent to take me in. I didn't want to stay at the home, fighting the other children for food and toys anymore; even then, I liked being alone. I wanted to live only with one other person - I disliked company - and I didn't want to be adopted; the idea that I'd have another human being tied to me for the rest of their/my life because they'd legally taken up the title of 'parent' disgusted me. The next day, I found out that a woman by the name of Ms. Williamson was interested in taking in a foster child, about the age of six. She came in and spoke to me, and even then, I sensed something off about her. She just seemed wrong; I knew that I wouldn't like her.629Please respect copyright.PENANAcvtXAwgYSx
However, she decided that I was 'the one', and I decided that if I had to put up with a two-faced demon for the next twelve years of my life to get out of this hell hole, I wouldn't complain.629Please respect copyright.PENANArDmsNUsErN
This wasn't the last time that this happened to me; Williamson knew nothing about me, but every birthday, I got exactly what I wanted.629Please respect copyright.PENANAfRW77iGsTu
For my fifteenth birthday, she got me a full sized violin made of Brazilian wood, as well as a beginner's guide to learning it, although I had never shared with her, or anybody else, for that matter, my obsession with wanting to learn how to play the instrument. For my seventeenth, she grudgingly gave me a female African Grey parrot (again, exactly what I wanted), which I named Silver, although she herself hates birds.629Please respect copyright.PENANAaKCNnJD5bZ
This would happen every single year.629Please respect copyright.PENANArufxs9ClYm
My luck wouldn't stop there, either. I always got the test grades that I wanted, yet I've never studied a day in my life. As a result, I have a scholarship to go to University and do a degree in anatomy. Again, something ideal - a degree that I can use in a lab - because I hate interacting with people.629Please respect copyright.PENANAe3LxPKdIgw
That last statement brings me back to my loneliness. I live alone in my studio apartment, with Silver, and work as a waitress in a nearby restaurant on the weekends. I go to school on week days, and somehow, I manage to do all of this without exhausting myself.629Please respect copyright.PENANA6bwsdTi8IF
As I pick up my garbage and haul it outside, I wonder to myself if being alone is really better than living with someone else. It would really be more convenient, and honestly, I don't think that I can do this all on my own.629Please respect copyright.PENANAv5VIPrpI1a
629Please respect copyright.PENANAJ7ou2JelM4
629Please respect copyright.PENANASXd1aAS7pj
As I manage to throw the bag into the dumpster, I turn to go inside, only to see something red/orange under the mango tree right outside my apartment. I squint in an attempt to see the object properly, before freezing in fright. 629Please respect copyright.PENANAMgIUdaQEmR
629Please respect copyright.PENANAz4GR7z34TJ
629Please respect copyright.PENANAvyvP5J31TN
Not one... but two. 629Please respect copyright.PENANAPsvuNGtLdC
629Please respect copyright.PENANAAs6xY5IyUQ
629Please respect copyright.PENANAgwucqpeZuL
Balls of fire.629Please respect copyright.PENANA2p6CkbaABI
629Please respect copyright.PENANA1lHIHaTuqL
629Please respect copyright.PENANAvIKCgzvGd3
As eyes.629Please respect copyright.PENANA7ntLqSrUXl
629Please respect copyright.PENANAAnbZfH6yjc
629Please respect copyright.PENANAszOip1j2kL
On... a bull.629Please respect copyright.PENANAmsnEo6swDO
629Please respect copyright.PENANAxzMIQdBDzt
629Please respect copyright.PENANA5mloVPDBDq
A huge, black bull, by far bigger than any bull I've ever seen.629Please respect copyright.PENANAUrA3hagw67
629Please respect copyright.PENANAxDz6FLOLK6
629Please respect copyright.PENANAi5Tx6RQjRz
What.629Please respect copyright.PENANAsCxHo59TSq
629Please respect copyright.PENANAWURWO2SnZP
629Please respect copyright.PENANAcOwsNhRTo0
The.629Please respect copyright.PENANA3kF2F6ncrd
629Please respect copyright.PENANAGMZm3ULK98
629Please respect copyright.PENANAbNPzKc4fNm
Hell.629Please respect copyright.PENANATdHD0sboNa
629Please respect copyright.PENANA4jIj0DevhC
629Please respect copyright.PENANAeYtYzaGggN
Please tell me that this isn't what I think it is.629Please respect copyright.PENANAdT8OWaAM5Q
629Please respect copyright.PENANAJnK5JjBgTe
629Please respect copyright.PENANAGknIbN0Ziz
To make matters worse, he's looking right at me, almost as if he's staring me down. I think I just peed a little.629Please respect copyright.PENANAEg4wSReOSP
629Please respect copyright.PENANAAWOViCzDul
629Please respect copyright.PENANAaDEcFxAA49
As if he can smell the fear - and the trace of urine - on me, me makes a grunting noise, as if he's laughing.629Please respect copyright.PENANA3iOLnCEhTb
629Please respect copyright.PENANAAEklrj1vZF
629Please respect copyright.PENANASYYUleFT6x
That's when I decide that I've seen enough, and I run back into my apartment so fast, that I trip over the threshold and fall straight on my face. I scramble up to lock the door, my heart beating so hard fast that my chest hurts.629Please respect copyright.PENANA8ef0oOL8xx
629Please respect copyright.PENANAno57CGlHyi
629Please respect copyright.PENANAB6Lnoul3nu
Did I just see...629Please respect copyright.PENANAQ9XZjGEb74
629Please respect copyright.PENANABEkVRM8FFf
629Please respect copyright.PENANAk7Wfzlc6ZI
No.629Please respect copyright.PENANAoRPdQQRov1
629Please respect copyright.PENANAYYW4LTPpsx
629Please respect copyright.PENANAhmGUGw3ujj
But the eyes...629Please respect copyright.PENANAkGelgLazrp
629Please respect copyright.PENANAbiQrKTswGO
629Please respect copyright.PENANAmS4wIMGMhl
Did I just see a blasted *rolling calf?629Please respect copyright.PENANA1jzvfXTD0i
629Please respect copyright.PENANAzXeHLtcIeJ
629Please respect copyright.PENANAMBhqTrw7yw
Tentatively, I look out my kitchen window, which allows me to see the mango tree - and he's still there. Watching me through the window.629Please respect copyright.PENANAHkJcUKGbfU
629Please respect copyright.PENANA4X5GcAKHUD
629Please respect copyright.PENANA8YpwCCcObp
I pinch myself hard enough to confirm that I am indeed awake, then I look up again.629Please respect copyright.PENANABzYozs950K
629Please respect copyright.PENANASdyzDPYZQ5
629Please respect copyright.PENANAm09Und8tuQ
Still there.629Please respect copyright.PENANAZA4Vh0dnWM
629Please respect copyright.PENANA1lR9eboKST
629Please respect copyright.PENANA7OW0X8sj5b
What's even more interesting, something that I just realised, is that he hasn't moved from under the tree; he didn't chase me.629Please respect copyright.PENANAQ1w7gJKe2O
629Please respect copyright.PENANAg1yqtabvzg
629Please respect copyright.PENANARr17Tbje5D
***629Please respect copyright.PENANAaqzcY7nmIm
629Please respect copyright.PENANAcf3dongHu2
629Please respect copyright.PENANAB7GsYNCKec
*rolling calf: Creature in Jamaican folklore resembling a bull, sometimes said to have blood red eyes, other times said to have balls of fire for eyes and sometimes said to have smoke coming from their nostrils. It is said that rolling calves are the spirits of dishonest/evil people, as well as butchers, trapped in this form, who supposedly kill anyone who crosses their path. Some stories say that they have a particular liking for children. They usually have a bell and/or chains which make noise, allowing others to hear them approach. I have personally heard several stories of people seeing rolling calves, and they seem to have a liking for rural areas. I don't know if the part about evil/dishonest people/butchers is real, but I haven't completely disregarded the people who claim to have seen it/known people who saw it.629Please respect copyright.PENANAHKn8Oik0NJ
629Please respect copyright.PENANAovp5Gq2Ixb
629Please respect copyright.PENANA83gqO8OJ6S