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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡauou8QT9RF
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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. 1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzffgZXj82E
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This is why I'm glad I left, glad I'm alone.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlXQnZWQlAy
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbjex7WTrTZ
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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. 1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ801JagiIdM
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIjvj1NIbRj
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJqOpMaFI1C
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ueXo2Da76
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡttQySsZeMk
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeBJR6bppMk
This would happen every single year.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8OTzeqeEOd
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhEmQ3viKDm
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTXUHc3bTB
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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0aGDnbiVZE
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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. 1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW4YHmi98xk
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Not one... but two. 1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76cEUoo2nn
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Balls of fire.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHu0hfCObil
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As eyes.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeT7IZvg6L4
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On... a bull.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhTVC0lt8us
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A huge, black bull, by far bigger than any bull I've ever seen.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuBb6AmmdRf
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What.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1fH2r2KgV
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The.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnp2Aa45nOA
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Hell.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJNnt84xnk
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Please tell me that this isn't what I think it is.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHoaFyA4CK
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ63QfxHXB8I
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjb2bQ3nq90
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5YXyjN82K
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Did I just see...1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡslZVKKPiio
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No.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrDngFuMKCF
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But the eyes...1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ97wmGLtcIt
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Did I just see a blasted *rolling calf?1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzgXI4S0WcI
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYZkZPhFz5R
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I pinch myself hard enough to confirm that I am indeed awake, then I look up again.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVmMMNzIkVA
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Still there.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Tfwbv7h01
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBGz7WucEm
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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.1013Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWlT5COHg9k
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