rafaeal-50281505 @rafaeal-50281505
A warm breeze rustled through the grass as I walked home from school that afternoon. It was a typical summer day in suburban America and everything seemed ordinary - or so it would seem.
It had been only a few weeks since my eighteenth birthday, but the years leading up to it were filled with memories of a life that wasn't mine to control. My parents' constant arguing, my mother's emotional abuse, and my father's lack of involvement in our lives created an unstable environment for me to grow up in.
But on this particular day, I decided that something needed to change. So after class ended early due to inclement weather, I made the bold decision to skip school and head home with a friend named Alex who lived nearby. We walked through backyards and across lawns until we reached her front door - but little did we know what lay ahead as we entered into darkness.
