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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp4TVneSSAo
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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. 936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI8rZDWIfqZ
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This is why I'm glad I left, glad I'm alone.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd2g6vvXR0M
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEM9fHIBn2a
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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. 936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Gl4O4zwyL
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3smpdBaZ4x
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWTXZGLz2HV
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8dLZowaW6Q
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE9CzDMNaM6
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOf3fpSm3z
This would happen every single year.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1j2z3Ns68o
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXP9edaDPuO
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYxTB9as8a
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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF1hm57hklR
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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. 936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dbO2qo85s
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Not one... but two. 936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpTVeJwstN7
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Balls of fire.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw4AkO9dw6d
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As eyes.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYRTsJIMJ8
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On... a bull.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz6qdamqqMR
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A huge, black bull, by far bigger than any bull I've ever seen.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvXDQgmysc
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What.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPkCpp8Luze
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The.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdbuIHZOYWu
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Hell.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBQ4SrJvrR
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Please tell me that this isn't what I think it is.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzDk7wZXLg
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSf8jfpETAo
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsM6TBZfCq
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUENneIp6lU
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Did I just see...936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvhZ1TTtxG
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No.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBme3AOpP1A
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But the eyes...936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqs1SKyr7Wn
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Did I just see a blasted *rolling calf?936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxcr13uk7Ij
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhlfRJ7GGp
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I pinch myself hard enough to confirm that I am indeed awake, then I look up again.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOQv3bjHVxG
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Still there.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Gu8DaUc6J
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHI3Ym77Gi
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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.936Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzm6sfHLPPt
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