The Deal Shaker (Book V)

Chapter One - The Runaway Bride

                                                                                 Chapter One

                                                                         The Runaway Bride

I'VE MADE MANY MISTAKES IN MY LIFE.

There was a time in my life when all I was doing was making mistake after mistake. I've been arrested more times than I can count, and I have done things I hope no one knows about. Sometimes I think everything I have done wrong in my life has chosen the precise punishment for me. Life decided to fight back at me for all of my wrong doings, and it decided to do it this year to me. I'm not even going to say life is unfair anymore, because maybe it is fair sometimes. Sometimes good people do have good things happen to them, and sometimes the bad people are punished.

I am being punished.

Ever since I discovered everything Matthew had done behind my back, I have wondered if it was just life's way of evening things out. While I was out hotwiring cars, Matthew was blood trafficking me, my mom, my sister, and half of the dark streets of Wonderland. I once lied and mistreated the sweetest and most dependable guy I knew, and I costed him his life for my deceit. I spent months brooding while Matthew planned a whole act of trickery by making me believe my sister was going to be killed by the worst man in Wonderland, Cedric. My sister, the one who I had sobered up for in the first place and was supposed to save years before I actually had. I was tricked into marrying the most dangerous and powerful vampire in history and spent nearly two years with him as his wife.

I tried to fight karma or whatever was fighting me. I tried to fix my wrong doings. When I sobered up, I stopped getting involved with the people who drug me down in the first place. I went to AA/NA meetings and spilled my guts to the guy who eventually became the sweet boyfriend I got killed. I tried to earn money in a dangerous way to pay him back, and the deal I made ultimately paid me back in a brutal way. And when I tried to fight the man whose web of lies caused me the agony I'm sure I deserved, I ended up getting my house and car burned to the ground, a gash across my stomach, and the constant need to look over my shoulder in fear he would find me.

You see, life does have a way of getting you back, it just takes some time.

Back nearly two years ago, I attended a party with Matthew at which my future was read by a woman named Adeline. She told me something red would cause me great agony, and this was going to be unavoidable. I laughed at her because I didn't think I could experience agony when I truly have experienced it all of my life. But when the time came, and it did come, the agony I experienced was almost unbearable. The red book I found revealed the truth and exposed Matthew's lies. I supposed I'll have to high-five Adeline the next time I see her for getting that one correct.

Adeline also saw something else in my future. She saw something else red crossing my path and bringing me friendship. It was a red person I have apparently crossed paths with before. Red person. That statement right there sounds like something a mother would read to their toddler at night or maybe a fortune found in some crappy fortune cookie. Unfortunately, Adeline wasn't quite on point with that statement. The red friend I was to get I was supposed to find during a time when we needed each other the most. The friend I was supposed to have didn't come to me during a time I desperately needed them. If I was going to get a friend during a desperate situation, I would have had my friend at least a month or two ago.

I guess life has decided I needed a bit more of suffering.

After escaping Matthew and being on the run for many days, I have finally decided to seek help. It didn't matter to me anymore. Friend or no friend, I'm still going to suffer. If all of this has proven anything, it is how crappy people are and I should just be alone.