The next five years of life were spent bouncing back and forth between family members. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, everyone. None of them really wanted me. I was too much baggage. They had to pay for my meds and listen to my screaming each night. I guess I don't really blame them for giving up on me. 

When I turned eighteen, my great aunt from my mother's side took me in. She let me live with her, knowing that I wouldn't be able to live on my own. When she died, she gave me everything she owned. Including the house that I now sit in, writing this story. 

Looking back, I've put together some theories about what happened. 

In my mind, whoever, or whatever, started that rumor about the epidemic was the same thing that lived, or owned, in that house. I think that the "owner" of that house was in the vehicle that rammed into us. Logically, my parents would have seen a vehicle of that size before it got close enough to hit us. Not to mention that there was nobody in it. I think that maybe whatever owned that house lured people down that road, the only road out of town, with the epidemic rumor, to feed off people's fear. I don't think that it was just my family who went into that house.

I also thought that I was free when the rapids launched me out of the boat and onto the shore. But I wasn't free, not really. The night terrors still plague me and I still have to take medications. I think that maybe there was something more those three strange people wanted from me. I think that maybe I was supposed to stay in that boat and on that river for just a little bit longer. 

However, there are still things that I have no clue about. Like why I was the only one in my family who survived. Why was I the only one, for lack of better words, strong enough to not be influenced by the fear? What were the things that lived in that house? Why was the rest of my family so weak to them? 

I know that the answers to my questions will be left unanswered, at least to me. 

The wind is blowing through the trees now. It's almost peaceful. Peaceful except for the shadows passing over the sun, casting the day in a dim sort of light. The breeze gets stronger and I realize that the shadows covering the sun are also the shadows of death looming before me. 

I sit back and wait for it, writing out these final words as it takes me in it's clutches. 

"Don't ever let them tell you that your fears are fake..." I whisper to nobody.