Into The Valley of Darkness

[Graybread]

Into The Valley of Darkness

A closed thread between MzVickie and myself.

Please read along as Katie Reynolds descends into the shadowy world of drug addiction and the mental depression and physical obsessions associated with it.

Please PM with any comments to this story.



Katie Reynolds was from a small Indiana town, not much over 30,000, in the heart of corn growing country. Not overly pretty and a little on the chunky side due to her propensity for chocolate and fast food. Intelligent and hard working, she tended to be very naïve to the real world around her. She had worked very hard at the national chain bookstore in her hometown, since her graduation from high school three years ago. Her store manager had come to her one day as informed her that an assistant manager’s position had opened in the ‘City’, and would she be interested in taking the position. She had earned the opportunity due to her hard work and understanding of the business. She would have to move to the City of course to take the position.

She was very excited about the promotion and the chance to get out of the hometown. She talked it over with her parents and they agreed it was indeed a good opportunity but had apprehensions about life in the City, but as long as she was careful, they would let her go. She informed her manager that she would take the position, and arrangements were made for an apartment. She had been to the City many times in the past, shopping and museum trips from school, but today it seemed different…..

 

[MzVickie]

Katie

There was a haze in the sky, and the sun was low in the west, the skyscrapers casting a shadow across the Fairfax Ave, shrouding the street in darkness. As Katie’s father drove toward her new apartment, she looked up at the tall buildings, a shudder ran through her.

“It looks like a…..a valley of darkness,” she commented feeling uneasy.

“Want to turn around and go back?”

“No,” she said sitting back in the seat.

They arrived at her furnished apartment and unpacked her clothes and other personal items from the trunk and backseat.

“You want me to help you get settled? I could spend the night.”

“No Dad, I have all weekend to put things away.”

“Well, if you’re sure.”

“Yes Dad, I’m a big girl now.”

She headed him toward the door, excited to be on her own, in her own place, in her own world.

“Well you get your phone hooked up first thing Monday and call your mother.”

“I will Dad, Bye,” she said pushing him out the door and closing it.

She was excited to be on her own. She felt her life was just beginning and the opportunities that awaited in the City. She hummed to herself as she began to put her things away forgetting the feelings she had had earlier.

 

[Graybread]

Katie fell into a routine over the next six months. The job as assistant manager was challenging but nothing that she couldn’t handle. She had worked many long hours but the rewards were worth it. She had made new friends mostly at work and her hometown boyfriend had come to visit every weekend, up until the last couple of months. She had worried that he had found someone else and the suspicion was confirmed on his last visit.

“You are just too far away,” he had lied.

The breakup didn’t bother her to much, it had not been a serious relationship to begin with. She would miss the sex though.

She had started going out with a female co-worker, to the local clubs and occasional party. She liked Susan, but wondered about her choice of friends sometimes. There was something about them, they didn’t seem the best of people, in her opinion. Susan had taken her to a party, in the seedier part of town one Friday night after work. It was here she met Tyrell, a young black man, with a weave and an abundance of cheap gold jewelry.