Prologue

A world where everyone once prospered might become a world where everyone will burn from the fire they set.

It's time to grow up, that is all they would say to me. Growing up is realizing the toys you once couldn't part with lay on the floor untouched, the blanket you would sleep with every night now missing, the freedom you once felt gone. It's time to grow up they would lecture, preaching the words stuffing them down my throat and into my ears. Growing up is when your dreams would turn into old stories you now laugh about sometimes wondering when your creativity left. It is time to grow up, the words carving themselves into my thoughts. Growing up is when your imagination solidifies into fact. Growing up is realizing it is far too late to get back the times of bliss finally realizing that growing up isn't what it is drawn out to be. You need to grow up, the words now escaping my lips, enthralling my thoughts, captivating my mind. Maturity is a high price to pay to grow up. When you look at me and promise the forever that I have been told I wanted it feels as if I should reach for it. Captivated by false promise I don't realize how fast the water was slipping through my hands every grasp at my childhood dripping, falling away into nothing. As the puddle fades and my childhood disappears I realize my only hope is to grow up.