• CHAPTER 1

    By the time you read this I will already be dead.
    I'm sorry I never told you how I felt in person, but my guess is the way you reacted with that first sentance is exactly what I feared you would do if I said anyhting.
    I have made my choice. The reason for my decision is because;
    A; My life sucks.
    B; The world sucks
    C; you never did anything to help.
    And D; you were too slow to notice anyone's problems but your own.
    Thus, I have just thrown myself off the Galdaio Bridge. I would say don't bother looking for my body but I'm dead so I don't care what you do. But good luck.
    Once again, sorry for being a burden. Get on with your life, and let me rest in peace.
    Amen and all that stuff.

    I stared down at the letter I had just written clutched tightly in my hands. I knew once I lied this on my desk and snuck out, there would be no going back. I had been preparing for this day for about three months now, it just felt odd that it was finally happening.
    My parents had raised me as an only child in their huge golden mansion on the top of the hill looking down across the Pinesberry town. Full of stuck up, rich nosed snobs. I had hated it since the first day I went to kindergarten. This wasn't me, I didn't like being dressed up every morning and pampered every night. I know thousands of girls would give up anything for what had. Well, they could have it. I was done. I was leaving. I had to find a new life. Maybe something I would be satisfied with.
    A swallowed a lump in my throat and pulled my long white blond hair back into a braid that ran halfway down my back. Pushing my bangs form my face, I folded the letter and wrote; From; Lucy on the top. That was the last time I was ever going to write down that name. I wasn't going to be Lucy any more. Lucy would soon be dead. I would just have to change it to something else.
    I had to move quickly now, I could hear my mother laughing loudly with her friends at the party going on downstairs. i knew soon she would be coming up to make sure I really wasn't going to come down to join them. She usually asked me that about five or six times before I finally agreed. But not this time. This time i quickly pulled on a tight jacket around my regular white blouse and tied a second one around my waist. I then pulled up a loose floorboard from under my bed and pulled out a tin can of all the savings I had hidden there over the past few months and dumped it's contents into my jacket's pocket.
    I inhaled the deep intense of autumn pumpkins and leaves my mother always had burning and whispered goodbye to the old house. Then, tying my sneakers good and tight, I silently pushed open the window, and crawled out onto the ledge overlooking the vast, paint green lawn two stories below me.
    I slid the screen closed again, praying it wouldn't squeak, then turned carefully on my heals and made a flying leap for the tree growing a few yard out in front of me. Clinging to those branched was painful enough, but sliding down them and nearly tearing away half the skin on your palms was even worse. I bit down hard on my tongue to keep from screaming and slowly inched my way through the limbs of the old oak and carefully calculating my landing.
    As it turned out, I ended up with my feet slipping out from under me and landing hard on my stomach on the grass with a grunt of surprise. I lied there for a moment cursing all my luck then got up on my hands and knees and cawed through the wet lawn under the window where no one would see me. The night was cold and crickets filled the air with the sound of chirping. An owl cried out in the distance, soon followed by the low mournful howl of a coyote. It was a beautiful night, I congratulated myself on choosing it.
    Once i had finally snuck around to the garage, I grabbed my bicycle and hopped on as quickly as I could, pushing off the cement I sped down the driveway and away from my home. The chilly wind in my face was fantastic and caused tears to spill from my eyes and dried out my lips. I smiled in the darkness and curved down the road that snaked down the hill and into town. I rode through the villages seeing very few people, some who waved at me, recognizing my face. I waved pack, swerving around the horses and carriages in the road and out past the inn towards a group of trees that marked where the golf coarse began. But in order to get there, you had to go over a large bridge that curved over the huge, swift, and deadly river known as the Watery Grave whenever people referred to it. That was my destination.
    I rode silently through the trees, peddling as fast as I could, but the tires still made a loud huffing crunch on all the yellow leaves that littered the ground. It felt like an eternity before the bridge was finally in sight. I hit the breaks, skidding to a stop, and walked my bike to the last tree that stretched out over the river before walking onto the bridge. I leaned by bike up against it and waited for an old black automobile to drive past, it's headlights nearly blinding me, the tired clinking softly as it went from wood back to pavement and moved on. I walked swiftly to the middle of the bridge and leaved over the edge, watching the water rush past benieth me, turning a foamy white under the glare of the moon. It's monstrous sound of the water splashing the rocks nearly drowning out all other signs. I swallowed and untied the jacket around my waist. Puting a rock in each pocket to weigh it down.
    "Goodbye, Lucy." I said. "Rest in peace and please don't let anyone ever find out where I'm headed to."
    With that, I released my grip on the jean fabric and the jacket fell down, down, down. Rippling in the wind, before smacking the water and going under. I didn't see the splash, the water was moving too fast, I didn't hear it either. But that was all I needed to do. Pulling up my hood, I Turned and walked away. Lucy was now supposedly dead. But Alice's life had begun. That was the moment I had decided to name myself Alice.
    The irony of that, I would find out later.