Luellen Temperence fled from her small hometown of Duckett, Louisiana at the age of sixteen. She is haunted by the memories of her best friend Tessie's drowning at Hangman's Bay six years prior, for which she was wrongfully blamed.

Now thirty, Luellen lives paycheck to paycheck working at a small casino in Atlanta, Georgia. Her comfortable life is shattered however, when she receives a letter from her mother begging her to come home, telling Luellen there is something she needs to know right away. Luellen reluctantly returns home, sharing an emotional reunion with her mother and facing the townsfolk, and the boy who got away that she had left behind. But as the twentieth anniversary of Tessie's death looms ahead, Luellen still fights with a long buried secret. Something she never told anyone. Something that has made her feel extreme guilt for twenty years.

As Luellen reconnects with her past, the memories of that horrific night flood back to her. The questions she so desperately wanted answered, gnaw at her. Can she be forgiven? Most importantly, can she forgive herself?

*Originally published in The Write Launch oline literary magazine (September 2019).

*Quarter-finalist in Screencraft's Cinematic Short Story Contest (January 2020).

**CONTENT WARNING: This story contains subjects that may be sensitive to readers such as child sexual abuse and child death. Please read at your own discretion.

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