Chapter 1: The Quiet Before
Part of the ongoing book manuscript
There's a moment before everything falls apart when you can feel it coming. Not clearly—not like a weather forecast you can prepare for. But there's a tremor, a shift, a sense that the ground you've been standing on isn't quite as solid as you thought.
I didn't recognize it then. I was too busy running toward the thing I thought would save me—the substance that promised relief, the escape that promised freedom. I didn't understand that freedom and escape are not the same thing.
Read the companion journal entry →