The Void - Book I

I - Save Me

God, this is torturous. The same routine day in and day out. I needed something extraordinary to happen, some excitement, anything!

My name is Deirdra Lockhart, and I'm drowning. Drowning in the nothingness that is my life. I've lived in the same small town my whole life. I was born here, and I'm convinced I will die here too. My parents were even born and raised here, they went to all of the same schools, were best friends until high school when something in them decided they should give dating a shot, and there they were 28 years later. They got married as soon as they turned eighteen, and boy were my grandparents pissed. My dad's parents? Not so much. My mother's parents wanted her to go to college and follow in the family legal footsteps and become a lawyer, something my mother had no interest in.

When my parents married, they bought a piece of land and built a spacious three bedroom house a five-minute walk away from downtown Thomasville, and have lived here ever since. I have to hand it to them though, our house is beautiful. My mother, Elaine, made sure our house stayed up to date. We always had the latest appliances, our grass was the greenest, and by looking at the outside of this house you would ever guess that it was almost thirty years old.

But enough about that, back to my uneventful, extremely boring life.

I turned eighteen two weeks ago, and I had grand plans to go out and explore the country. I had been working part-time at one of the boutiques downtown since my freshman year and had saved up enough cash to travel for at least a year. I wanted to visit all forty-eight of the contiguous United States, then go to Alaska and Hawaii. So that's exactly what I was going to do.

Today is Saturday, July 18th, the day my journey across the US starts. My bags are all packed and the butterflies in my stomach are going haywire! "Deirdra, come downstairs for breakfast honey." My mother shouted up the stairs. Taking one final look at my bedroom, I grabbed my bags and headed downstairs, today was going to be a great day.

Once I reached the table, there was a full spread. Toast, eggs, cinnamon buns, avocado to go on the toast, bacon, pancakes, waffles... If you could think of breakfast food, it was there. "Mom, why did you make so much food? There is no way the three of us are going to eat all of this!" With a laugh and a shake of her head, she turned to face me and my heart clenched at the sight. Her eyes were rimmed red and her face was puffy and splotchy; she had been crying.

"Mom, please don't cry. I will FaceTime you every night and I will come back to visit often, I promise. This year is going to fly by and I will be home before you know it!" I said the words, but I was not convinced. I hoped I would find the perfect town and maybe even the perfect man during my travels and decide to settle down there. I absolutely did not want to spend one more day in this town, or I would go crazy. And I knew she knew it too.

My father suddenly popped up behind me, effectively scaring me, and gave me a huge hug from behind. "You know, your mom and I are really going to miss you, bug. But we will find something fun to do ourselves. You going on this trip brought to my attention that vacationing to Florida once a year really is not enough adventure." I turned around to face him, a questioning look on my face and a mischievous glint in his eye. "What are you talking about, Mikael?" My mom asked from behind me.

He let go of me and walked over to my mother, holding something behind his back. I was just as confused as my mom is, so obviously, this is the first we were both hearing of this. "I'm talking about this, baby!" My dad said excitedly, as he handed her the paper from behind his back. It must have been quite the surprise because my mother let out an ear piercing shriek and wrapped my dad up in a bone crushing hug. "Well, is anyone going to tell me what the great news is?" I heard the dreaded voice of my ex-boyfriend say from the doorway. "Taylor. What are you doing here?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as calm and polite as possible.