Page 1 of Rip Ryder's Second Chance

Prologue

High School Graduation Day

“As easy as butter.” Those words are repeating in my head on a haunting loop.

I came awake with a start, a heaviness in my head, my chest, and my legs were stiff. Bound by invisible chains. The cold bitter night air seeped into my bones where I lay in the damp grass. I blink, trying to get my bearings, but everything remains fuzzy.

A pain rips through my temples. Then fear.

Bits of my memory slowly surface.

High school graduation.

A party.

Waiting on Rip.

Then it all became a blur.

I try pushing myself up from the damp, foliage bed but a burning sensation awakens in my chest. It takes every ounce of energy I have to come to a semi-sitting position, feeling like I might be sick. I’m a boat rocking on unsettled seas.

That’s when I realize my dress—the pretty red one with the frilly hem that I bought for graduation—is torn. The soft material is fluttering high on my hips. In the blue-purple haze of the moonlight filtering through the tall pines, I see a scratch and a bruise on my thigh.

What happened?

I can’t remember.

My purse is next to me and I reach for it, wincing as more waves of pain and nausea assault my body. I want to cry but I’m too tired to do anything but exert my energy on simply moving. I tremble, trying to get my numb fingers to work as I pull my cell phone out and start to dial a familiar number…

I pause.

Who do I call?

Worry rippled through me. A tug of war.

I couldn’t bear for just anyone to see me like this.

But see me like what? I can’t remember what had happened.

With shaking hands, I finally dial a number.

“Where are you? We’ve all been looking everywhere for you,” came the gruff voice that vibrated down the line.

“I-I…don’t know.” Rolling to my knees, I wobble to my sandaled feet and stumble to the edge of the trees. I recognize the tall, craggy mountain backdrop. “Snowbleed Mountain. Can you pick me up?”

“You wrote this?”

Noelle Evelyn turned from where she was staring through the window of her office to the seventeen-year-old girl sitting on the other side of the desk. Her skin was washed out making the dark circles under her pale eyes appear starker. “Yes, I did. I was only a few months older than you.” Noelle watched the girl close the diary and stare at the cover. “I’ve never let anyone read that passage but you.”

“Why me?” She crossed her arms over her waist, looking so small, so frightened. Too young to be given an unhealthy dose of the evils of life.

“Because I want you to know that you’re not alone. I understand you’re scared, confused, worried, but you are strong enough to tell your parents what happened that night. After all, you were brave enough to tell me.”

Her listless eyes came up, misted with unshed tears. “What if they don’t believe me? What if they think it’s my fault?”

Noelle sat back in the chair and her gaze naturally fell on the diary she’d started after her own brush with the devil. “You were drugged, Marley. Have you heard the term “date rape drug’?” With her tense nod, Noelle continued, “These substances make it easy for a perpetrator to commit sexual assault. It can happen to anyone, any gender, anywhere.”

“So, you were drugged too?” Some light came to Marley’s eyes as she clung to the fact that someone understood what she’d gone through.

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