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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwGknlofiFO
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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. 1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYeWEx4192q
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This is why I'm glad I left, glad I'm alone.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMtshZSXCw8
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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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBiVwofVv8
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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. 1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69jqA055sK
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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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Yc7smpOEp
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhWexSXy3DL
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTaIUNmdI5X
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ20bnH5y2p3
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9VTfH7Ar1U
This would happen every single year.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpySdJJX2mm
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5W7TJVhNz
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPgDAQhsFg
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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRxaTm6kFX
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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. 1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNxcnMFJAh6
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Not one... but two. 1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInWF60grvz
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Balls of fire.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqoIqS2e3x
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As eyes.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7AfH9BSh5
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On... a bull.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2rEI802z5S
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A huge, black bull, by far bigger than any bull I've ever seen.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOdxdz3oVer
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What.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZa40cjMll
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The.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTm5tmsDAU
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Hell.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqjfZqv0iZt
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Please tell me that this isn't what I think it is.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTyz5yPsdJ
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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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrWqAnBn6wZ
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As if he can smell the fear - and the trace of urine - on me, me makes a grunting noise, as if he's laughing.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPtigUw7p39
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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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5udCYcXev
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Did I just see...1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vx85pwVV6
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No.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6UclFOy89
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But the eyes...1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEO1onAprT
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Did I just see a blasted *rolling calf?1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlmZuv3T5OS
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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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTU43WX7HIo
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I pinch myself hard enough to confirm that I am indeed awake, then I look up again.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbE2bimpnj
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Still there.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJgwYIup00A
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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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm0ZYoXPPdO
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*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.1052Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2LYp3cUENS
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