Amanda lit up a cigarette and leaned against a rock in the forest. Her forest. This was the place where she had run whenever it got to be too much- her parents, school, people, humanity. Listening to the breaking of glass and screaming of profanities was only pleasant for so long.

At one time she’d come here with a children’s book; as the years passed, she’d started bringing an iPod and cigarettes.

Today, Amanda sat in her forest, 21 and lost. The place didn’t hold the same magic for her that it once did. Instead, it was like a place with worn-out trails, and trees that looked a little unhealthy. Hard to imagine that she’d spent so many hours here as a kid.

It still had some kind of gothic attraction, she supposed. She could see coming here again, once it was all over. But no; there was a wrapper on the ground near her foot.

It was the end of an era.