Chapter 45
I stepped inside Anne’s house feeling completely different, more so than when I met the beast within. The girl in me was gone. In one day everything had changed. I had been here before. It was a painful truth I should have learned from before because now I had lost them both.
I had lost because I had kept so much to myself and didn’t speak the truth sooner. Love had given me so much but it had also taken so much away. Love made happiness but it also brought pain. I realized that love has the power to connect but only because it has the power to devastate. I had waited too long and kept too much to myself.
I only had myself to blame.
I folded Anne’s shawl and left it on the bannister as I made slow, burdened steps upstairs. As I walked towards my room I looked at Anne’s. Her door was closed. She was spending the night with Jericho. Pandora was gone, too. She was with them. I was alone. I always ended up alone.
I sat on my bed, picked up a throw pillow, and laid down on my side. That’s when they fell with abandon and I did not stop them. They would accompany me during the night and whenever I needed them to. So much lay ahead of me but it seemed like the steps to forever were so far away. All I could wonder is where would those steps take me? And who would they take me to? Everything had changed. One decision had done that. And then another...
I closed my eyes and wept. My future was waiting for me and with resolve I was prepared to meet it.
Author Profile
Donna Lynn Hope is an amateur writer who wrote this story for anyone who feels alone and is searching for belonging. You can contact her at [email protected].
There is something fascinatingly awkward about an author photo. I’m drawn to those glossy shots in the back of books, mostly because the subjects never look happy to be there.
- Pamela Ribon