Reasonable doubt.

  As she said the words, as they played out their story, as the pieces worked and fit awkwardly together, that's all I could think.

  Reasonable doubt. I don't believe her.

  Things are and things aren't.

  There is no in-between. There is no space for partial truths.

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  There is simply the truth and everything that isn't.

  I wanted to believe her. To think that she of all people wouldn't betray me.

  In a world that was once a fantasy and at first, felt like one….she of all people wouldn't give in to the flow of insanity that rushed and swallowed, that pulled and consumed.

  I couldn't know for sure.

  Well, that's a lie. Since I had a doubt, that meant I also had no truth.

  "It's okay."

  "Really?"

  "No, not really. But one day it will be."

  "Wait, what are you going to do?"

  "Don't know yet."

  I started to walk away from the outskirts of the central city.

  At my back, I heard her wails, her pleas, her false promises.

  I didn't turn back.

  I walked forward and into the wild.

  End of Prologue.