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You're at this place filled with a bunch of people who want to better their lives, but they need the
help of others if they want even the smallest chance to succeed. At this place they tell you their
stories, and then they tell you their dreams. You are sitting there, a tourist among people who you
do not belong around, but these people, they intrigue you. They show you what it means to rise
when you are down. They show you that even the bloodiest battles with your mind can in fact be
won.

Now you see a girl named Jane Doe get up to speak. You call her Jane because you don't know her
name or who she is. If you had known about Joe at this moment in time, you might make a joke and
call her Jae, and they would go hand in hand. Jane stands up there, and she tells you her story. She
doesn't tell you about the rape yet because it's too personal, but she will later on when she's ready.
For now, she tells you about how she sat in her bathtub, about how she wanted to commit suicide,
a word used more than just for classification purposes.

Then she tells you about how she dialed her grandmother's phone number, how it would be her last
cry for help. That if her grandmother didn't pick up, then she was going to do it. She tells you about
how her grandmother's home phone doesn't have an answering machine or caller identification, so
she lets it ring for a long time, but no one ever picks up. She tells you about how ending that call
meant killing any kind of hope she had left, and after so many rings, how she kills the call.

Then Jane tells you about how a few seconds after killing the call, her grandmother is knocking at
her door, visiting because she wants to play a board game. She tells you about how for the first
time in her life, at that moment when she opens the door for her grandmother, that everything in
her life is finally enough. The drugs and the lies to herself fell short for relieving the pain when
compared to the rescue of her grandmother. That image in the doorway that would make well for a
cherished painting and memory.

After the entire session is complete, Jane bumps into you, and being moved by her story, you talk
to her. You find out her name is Julia and that she is desperately trying to change. This idea
interests you, but you are not interested in her, and that is what ultimately causes your relationship
to end.

I remember Lynne telling me that black roses are not natural, that they are created by botanists by
manipulating the rose's genes. She also tells me that while a black rose may symbolize death, it can
also symbolize rebirth. An end and a new beginning. But what sticks out the most to me is how
they can represent the darkness of human nature.

After I get to know Julia, she tells me about how she was raped, and how her life spiraled out of
control. She tells me how it wasn't just the rape, but that it was the rape that sent her over the edge,
and that makes me assume that she had a terrible childhood, but I never find out if I was right or
wrong about that.

After some time, she wanted to be more than just friends, she wanted someone she could go to
when she needed, but after Maria I knew I wasn't what she was looking for. After I admitted to
myself that I only liked her because I was interested in picking her brain, I kind of disappeared, and
I haven't seen her until now. I'm guessing I didn't fully remember what happened between her and