The Risen: Remnants
Excerpt © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.  Once upon a time, there was a perfect girl, with a perfect life, in a perfect world. Once upon a time, that was me. Now nothing is perfect and the fairy tales are finally back to the truth of their origins as "warning tales" for children.   I will throw it all away for love; a love that will be the death of me. In fact, if you are reading this, some person that I have yet to meet, I am most likely already dead. The only way a set of eyes other than my own will rest upon these words is if my eyes are closed to never open again. The way the world is headed, I hope they close soon. I hope they close for good and not to just reopen again later in a lighter shade and foreign to those that once knew me.   This isn't just my story that I write. It's all of ours; all of us that are still trying to survive. Those still trying to pick up the very little that is left for us. Those of us just trying to carry on. Even when we feel utterly alone we are all connected. Now, in this no longer perfect world, we are either trying to survive or we are already dead.   If by some slim chance that I am still alive should you read this, I hope I find you. I hope we meet and we can share your stories - not your stories of today, but your stories of yesterdays. I crave to hear your stories of blue skies and laughter. I want to hear a story of another time when our families were whole and our friends were close. A time before those same people became things we had to destroy and fear.   As I write this my daughter, Genny, and I are hiding in our home. The neighborhood has become a dangerous place. Things that shouldn't be possible now surround us. I don't understand any of it. I only pray that we survive each day. I pray that my daughter, who relies on me completely, never has to watch me die.Elizabeth Clark