Confused? Baffled? Worried? Angry? None of them worked. They were all too limiting. Too small. None encapsulated everything I was experiencing.Hundreds of thoughts ran through my head, but I couldn’t focus on any of them. I knew that birds probably chirped and breezes rustled leaves in the trees, yet I heard nothing and felt less. The smell of familiar fields no longer tickled the inside of my nose. My legs moved on their own accord.I made it back to the curve in the road near the small hill and tall oaks before my head cleared. I stopped in the middle of the road, unsettled. I was alone for the first time in years, caught in a place I had hoped would bring me joy. It hadn’t brought me anything yet but more pain.Denu Creek felt as foreign to me as Genesha once did.A growing sense of unease crawled up my spine. Now was not the time to grow careless—regardless of how my life had just been turned upside down. I needed to think.Taking a deep breath, I decided quickly that my gut reaction to return to town was still the best strategy.
