Dear Mom and Dad,
Hello, or should I say goodbye? I’m not entirely sure what I should write in this, so I guess I’m just going to write how this all happened. My life was going great. I had a great family, great grades, and a lot of friends. Everyone I met told me my future was going to be bright, so very bright. I could see it, great college, great job, wife and kids, grow old together.  But for every up there must be a down; and this down will never stop unless I do something. It all started with Grandma’s illness. She became ill and went between the hospital and a nursing home for a few months. I had never experienced death before and to have him torment me for months seemed excessively cruel. As this illness progressed, I felt my plans for the future start to collapse and become darker than it was before. No more family reunions. They would never feel complete without her. But I stayed optimistic, and that was when my best friend, Alex, left me. I was seen talking to Jason, whom Alex despised, so Alex took the rest of my friends away and I sat at lunch, alone. The beacon that was my future continued to dim, as the prospect of having Alex as my best man dissipated into the dark. I kept on going, but that’s when the cuts started appearing. Whenever someone caught a glimpse, they would ask what happened. I always claimed to not know, but I did, obviously. As the blade sliced my skin, for a split second, my future was bright again, I had been punished. Every time I would wake up the next morning, Grandma would still be sick and Alex would still be mad at me. That glimmer of light and of hope I’d felt the night prior would dissolve into the eternal darkness that seemed to be leaching my future away from me. I kept running away from the darkness, though I felt its breath on my back, but that was when you guys decided it was the best time to announce that you would be getting a divorce, as you just weren’t happy with each other anymore. I’ve heard it all from both of you, it’s not my fault, we’ve felt this way for a while, but you guys were happy before I was born, maybe it’ll be better after I’m gone. Back to my story. When you guys told me you were going to get divorced, I felt the darkness begin to catch up with me, nipping at my heels as I tried to keep pushing on. My future was darker than it had ever been, going from a bright, shining beacon, to a dull glow, barely visible. My parents will never come together to see my children; I will always be the kid who’s parents got divorced. Now I’m the kid at school whose grandma is dying, who has no friends, and whose parents are getting divorced. The scars multiply. They simply didn’t fit on my arms anymore, so my thighs and torso are covered with the dull red of cuts. You’ll see soon enough. I honestly have no idea how you guys haven’t noticed, but I guess you guys have had more important things on your mind. That’s when my grades started to drop; my As to Cs, my Bs to Fs, but you didn’t notice. I couldn’t keep them up because I just wasn’t getting enough sleep, as it’s hard to sleep and cry, but you didn’t hear me weep. I’d come into school every morning with bloodshot eyes and tearstained cheeks, but you didn’t look close enough. Nobody at school cared enough to ask why. They won’t notice when I’m gone. Thank you for life, but I have to stop it before the darkness catches up to me. If I don’t, I’ll be consumed and I can’t let that happen. Good bye, I love you. I’ll be with Grandma soon.

David