Gone Forever - Brielle Kin (books suggested by bill gates TXT) 📗

I woke up to the sound of rain drops pouring on the roof.
What time is it? I thought. I looked out the window that showed it was still dark outside. My eyes met the face of the clock which read three o’clock. It’s only three o’clock. I doubt I’ll get anymore sleep. I decided to get up and get dressed. I headed to the kitchen after I was dressed so I could grab some breakfast. Well, mind as well get some fresh air before we’re sent off to school. I thought stepping outside into the black, fall morning. I decided to run to the woods where I had my little hideout. No one ever goes into the woods any more after they heard about the boy who suddenly vanished into it. I of course don’t believe in such foolishness. Even if the story is true, I would be glad to vanish and never come back. No one ever notices I’m gone anyway. I’m pretty sure they don’t care about me at all. If you were cared for and loved, would your father just abandon you? Would you not have any friends? Father left when I was young and mom could really care less about how I feel. She tries to help me but I just push her away. I don’t need her or anyone else. I’ve learned to take care of myself. My mother tries to support the family but always fails at doing it. With mother always failing to support the family, I always end up taking matters into my own hands. It’s always hard to support the family when all my mother does is fight with what I’m doing. I just ignore her and try not to pay any attention. It works sometimes, but mostly mother just starts yelling at me and we get into a fight. My little sister, Mandy, would run to her room in tears because she doesn’t like it when mother yells at me. I blame all the arguing between mother and I on Father but it’s partially my fought. Everyone says I have an anger issue but I really could care less what they think. I was never a really angry child but I guess it all started because of the situation with my father.
I remember the day my temper began like it was yesterday. It was a sunny summer day two years ago when I was fourteen. Mother sent me off to go get the mail from the post office like she does every other day. A letter came for us that day in a fancy envelope. No one in our town ever gets fancy envelopes unless it’s something really important. The letter was addressed to my mother, Mandy and I. At the moment I saw who it was addressed from, I knew my face had turned white. Knowing it had to be important I rushed home as quickly as my legs could carry me. I busted through the door like a mad person wanting to kill someone in this house. I was so anxious to see what was inside the envelope. My mother was sitting at the kitchen table when I burst through the door. She just looked at me with a puzzled face. She came over to me and tried to calm me down because at that point, I was breathing heavily. As she was trying to calm me down, she noticed the fancy envelope I held in my hand. I could tell she wanted me to give it to her by the way she was staring at it. As I gave her the letter, her face went pale like mine was when I first saw the envelope. All the calmness in her voice that tried to calm me down disappeared. I saw her rip the letter open and her face just explained it all. Her eyes were swelling up with tears, her hand holding her mouth, her gentle rocking back and forth, and her small cry of “no”; something was on the table so I decided to look at it. I wasn't a nosy kid but when a fancy letter is just sitting there right in front of me, I just had to look. I picked up the paper and started reading it. What I read made me feel hurt and angry. My father, who left us starving, had died. I knew I shouldn't have been happy but I was. He left my family when I was nine, Mandy five. My mom loved him so much that she begged him not to go. My father pushed us away when we begged him to stay. He said it was for the best if he went away. He abandoned us that night all alone in the dark. My mother cried for days. I knew what was going on but didn't want to show it. Now, here I was reading a letter that said my father had been shot and died immediately. I was so angry that when I stood up, my chair fell to the ground with a great thud. My mother heard the thud and rushed out to see if everything was okay. I just stood there looking at her with the letter in my hand. She was looking at me back. Then tears started swelling up in my eyes and I couldn't control it. My mother rushed to my side and held me close. The anger, the pain, and hurting I was feeling started showing through. I had to get out of there. No one has ever seen me like this and no one ever will. I push away from my mother’s arms and just look at her. Then I bolt off towards the door. I just had to get away. Get away to someplace that I knew I could pour my feelings out. That place was the woods. Yes the woods. Just the sound of it going through my mind made me feel more relaxed. I could hear my mother calling out to me. Saying, "Kate! Kate! Come back!" I know she said more but I forced myself to drain out the screams from my mother’s voice.
Every night since that day I would wake up to the sound of Mandy screaming in her sleep. Mom had told Mandy a couple of days after we got the letter. Mandy was young when father left but she still remembers him like he never left. When Mandy screamed, I knew she had a nightmare about father. I would then hear my mother footsteps rushing down the hall trying to comfort Mandy. I always wondered why I never had nightmares about father. Besides, I've known him longer than Mandy. Maybe it was because I was so angry at him for leaving his loved ones behind. If he even did love us.
All these thoughts go zooming through my mind as I’m sitting in the forest floor. Living here would be great, I thought, I could live my own life. Not worry what people think of me. I never had any friends anyway. I did have one friend named Paige but her family moved while we were in the fifth grade. I have never heard anything about them since. Of course I’ve seen and talked to a couple kids my age in town, but never really became close friends with them. They all went to a different school than me which was a good thing. The people at my school make me feel like an outcast. They make me feel unwanted. At school, every girl has either red or blonde hair and is just beautiful. All the boys are attracted to them. Then there’s me, the only one with long, brown hair and brown eyes. I’m glad the boys aren’t attracted to me because I swore I would never get married because of how my father treated my mother. I just never want to deal with that situation again. The pain my mother had to go through was too much even for me.
As the sun started to rise I figured that it was about time for me to go home. It’s always hard to leave this place because for once I feel wanted and alive! I have had a lot of memories here that remind me of certain things. I was just about ready to stand up when all of a sudden I hear something scurry behind a bush. I jump up from my sitting position and peer behind the bush where the sound came from. Nothing. It’s probably just some animal, I thought. But then I see a pair of footprints. The footprints only a human could make!

The sight of the footprints puts a shocked expression on my face. Never in my life have I seen human footprints in this part of the woods. Especially after that story was told about the boy who vanished. I always assumed I was alone. It didn’t really dawn on me that someone could use the woods as a place of relaxation like me if they dared to come here. I figured that this was my own private place and no one knew that it existed. But then the sight of those footprints made me reconsider. The thought that this place was private was a stupid thing to think of. I mean, this place is located in the west side of our town. There are two parts of the woods but no one should know about this part. But still, what are the odds of someone not finding this place like I did? As much as I want to investigate this disturbing situation, I have to get back home and get ready for school. The agony of leaving this place, knowing that someone has discovered my world, was building anger up inside of me. I can’t do anything right now because of school. School. It always seems like something to do with the government gets in the way of letting me have a normal life. It’s like they know how to torcher me. I’ve considered running away several times but never had the guts to do it. Now is one of those times where I want to go, run away and never come back. Although leaving this place was torcher, I manage to get back to my house. When I walked through the door, my mother was there sitting at the table with my food. It’s like she was expecting my arrival.
“Katelyn Cove, where in the world have you been?” she said not looking up from her newspaper.
“Umm… I just decided to go outside and get some fresh air. I couldn’t sleep this morning and decided getting fresh air was the best thing to do,” I said half way lying and half way telling the truth. As I walked over to gobble down my breakfast, I