After a year and 9 months, 43 chapters, and thousands upon thousands of words, Evelyn and Caleb's story has come to an end.
Excuse me while I shed a few tears :')
This story came to me one night in a dream, and while I pondered over it, Evelyn's words and voice from the prologue started speaking to me, pretty much demanding to be heard. I knew I had to write them down without really having a plot or storyline yet, but from there, this story seemed to tell itself. It's one that I thought of in fragments, honestly. I thought of the major plot points all out of order, scrapped some ideas, and made some new ones. Suddenly, it became a puzzle of developing the characters from point A to B to C, etc. It was emotionally taxing to write at times, leading to me taking breaks from it, which is why I took so long.
Despite all this, I kept telling myself I would finish it someday.
And finally, I can say that that day is today :D
When I set out to write this, I knew this wasn't going to be a typical story where everything is black and white. I wanted to challenge myself to do something much more with it. A major theme I played with was morality. I think that choices and actions are so interesting to look at from a moral perspective, especially after I took an entire class in it. I took this course the summer I started writing this, so it had a heavy influence on it. What really makes something good or bad? What happens if your beliefs go against the norm? Does this make you an inherently bad person? Can you go against what you believe as right for someone you love? These are all things I kept in mind, and I hope I did it justice in writing this story. The entire conflict of this story was rooted in this.
This is why the horror of it often took a backseat to the emotions and relationships that Evelyn made. Though this book was a horror, it was a romance at its heart. Evelyn wasn't here to talk about how she survived the Village. Her story was about her and Caleb.
Though there are some things I would change, particularly with consistency or trying to do too much, I can say that I'm happy with the product.
I hope you are, too.
I can't thank you all, my readers, enough for all the support you've given me. This story received some amazing feedback and support. You all always managed to put a smile on my face. I should especially thank the ones who stuck through my periods of disappearing. You all rock and helped motivate me to see this story through :D
Who knows where Evelyn and Caleb's story would be without all of you? But now it's time to do that really hard thing of letting them go. There won't be any sequels or anything, so this is the end of the road, but I'm happy with the ending. It's everything I wanted it to be.
Thank you all once again for your support :)
Take care,
Gabs
PS: Joy was based on my pretty little pitty up top. Her name is Blue, but she is still a great joy in my life :)
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Captive{ated}
Mystery / Thriller"First you captivated me... then you held me captive." Evelyn was like most college-aged girls working a part-time job when she met Caleb, who came in to her life when she wanted him least but needed him most. He captivated her. By the end of summer...
