Michael Hedrick

The game of relationships is a thing, which although puzzling at times, is something that we all have to go through.

Sometimes the very obviousness of this baggage manifests itself through our words or actions towards others and although we know better we let our baggage show through the things we put our energy into.

It starts simply, with a call or text that isn’t returned, then a period of a couple days where nothing happens and you start to worry.

I’m turning 28 in a matter of days. My twenties are almost over.

I can remember a time when I was lost. I wasn’t there. I had sunk into heavy drug use as a way to cope and if I hadn’t outright insulted my closest friends, I had alienated them.

The story opens on the scene of a house party, maybe a college house party, but given the circumstances it’s most likely a high-school party.

Paranoia is defined by Merriam Webster as a mental condition characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self importance.

In the woods, one can breathe. In the woods, there is awareness, a fully conscious idea of what it means to be alive.

We are restless creatures. We struggle to fill our time, either with menial tasks that may or may not have any impact, or with a barrage of entertainment flowing from endless screens into our consciousness.

Here’s the sad part though, as much as I want to help these people, I also vehemently don’t.

I fight to be as normal as I can, to be an equal among the rest of society.

Rob is basically an amalgam of myself, the self I wish I was, and the horror stories I’d heard about my condition. In essence he’s me and the journey he goes on pretty much parallels what I did when I first “broke.”