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PROLOGUE

“She slept olves without fear,

for the wolves knew a lion was a them”

~ RM Drake

DONATELLA

One day the ill dith the laoat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatted steer together; a child would lead them all… That is what the church told rew older, hter the wolves, skin the laoats Have the calf for ether The child would grow and rule over them all

All of nature, not just human nature, abided by one law… Rule or be ruled Which meant to solidify one’s position of dos, whether man or beast, because man was a beast

People were not people

People were animals

Beasts on two feet

Fearsome creatures…and yet so many lived in a perpetual state of fear of themselves and other people Why? …Rule or be ruled… Many people like to believe they are thecontrols them But in reality, fear and the need to survive ruled over everything in their lives Why did people get ht to survive loneliness Why work in jobs they hate? They fear poverty People even offer a fraction of their freedoovernance, in order to be protected from those who’d tried to rule over them

Everything in the end ca or short life, the grim reaper punishes everyone’s efforts with death

So, there are two truths

A person will do anything to survive, but will never survive because death will come When I realized this, when I realized that death was the ultimate ruler, I decided since I cannot be death I would becoer of death until death came for me

My mother used to say everyone is ruthless, they just don’t know it I say, it doesn’tas I’ as I am not ruled

“We’ll be there in fourthe secret hatch for the backseat of the Range Rover beside me where a small black box waited for me It looked like a lunch box…because it was a lunch box, the red metal Mulan box I used as child and spray painted black when I was teenager

“We don’t have to do this,” Toby added, his brown eyesmy hesitation for doubt