Everything Changez
The Straight Path: A Novella in Six Parts Part I: The Hollow Fields The chill wind sweeping off the Appalachian ridges found every tear in the canvas tarp and every gap in the abandoned hay shed. Liam, twenty-three, kept his arm tight around Maya, twenty-two, but his comfort was thin, and her comfort was thinner. They had been together since high school, a connection forged in the easy days that now felt like a myth. Now, their life was a tight, desperate orbit around their need for the drug known locally as "crank." The only warmth came from the brief, brittle high. Their rural Virginia town, Red Oak, was beautiful on postcards, but ugly and indifferent to those who lived on its fringes. They had long ago burned every bridge, trading family and futures for the fleeting illusion of energy. Their current prize was a stolen battery, waiting to be traded in the morning—if they could just make it through the night. Part II: The Catalyst of Cold The crisis wasn't the polic...
