Maritza arrived at the park exactly ten minutes before she was meant to be meeting up with Sebastian, her older brother whom she had not seen for a few months. Though they were related, the two had virtually nothing else in common. While Sebastian was irresponsible and almost rash, Maritza tended to over-think and overplan, usually at the expense of her own emotional state. By the time Maritza found a place to plop herself down to wait for the arrival of her brother, she had received three text messages, all from Sebastian, informing her that he had, at the last minute, “found himself unavailable” and was “exceedingly sorry” and hoped to reschedule. Upon reading these messages, Maritza uttered a deep sigh. Her day had begun badly and it seemed to intend on carrying on that way, too. Shrugging off the disappointment, the girl began to dig in to the picnic food she had intended for the meeting.…show more content… It was still light out and she figured she had enough time to make it back before dark if she stuck to her usual route. Sipping at a lemonade pouch she had packed, Maritza began her journey home. It started out like normal: three blocks past the florist, right turn at the only pharmacy in town, avoid all__. But Maritza had miscalculated, she supposed, how much time she had before sunset. It seemed to her like she had only been walking a few short minutes, but the new darkness that settled over the sky told her it had been far longer than that. In response, she sped up her
