She Follows the Birds to Freedom

To All Of The Characters

To all of the characters
that I will someday write,
This one is for you.

I just want you to know
that no matter what happens to you,
it is not because of anything you did.
Yet.
There are just some characters I feel
can handle such a responsibility
more than others,
Names that have broader shoulders
and harder hearts,
for it is a difficult thing to carry a story through to the end.
There are others who will feel a bit left out, maybe often times forgotten.
I apologize in advance
because I know, first hand,
how if feels to be on the outside looking in.
Just know that you are my inspiration
to keep me writing
because I am you,
the one always left out, forgotten, spoken over. You represent the reason that I write,
The fight I have to be heard,
and there is something
inherently special about that.
You will face everything that I wish I could,
but the only difference is that
you will come out triumphant....maybe.
Battles with demons, and dragons,
and thoughts, and addictions,
Whole wars over love and country
riven with revenge and money,
All fought with the knowledge that
someone's story may end there.
And to the characters that die in those battles, know that you will be missed
and that your death was not an easy decision
to make...unless of course it was...
but there will never be another one like you.

And if perhaps you ever wonder who I am,
and why I am leading you down this path,
or dragging you to a certain death,
or making you to fall in love with someone,
or perhaps writing horrible pain
into your story, just know this,
it is because I am writing not just your story, but everyone's.
And you are a small part of such a big narrative, so much so,
that you cannot see past the lines I write.
But I ask you to trust me,
and know that I am leading you
(well some of you)
to an ending that will leave you
and everyone reading satisfied.
I hope you know how much I love
each and everyone of you,
not just because I imagined you
into a fictional existence,
but because you are a representation of everything I was, am, and ever hope to be.
So wear your names proudly,
live your lives loudly,
and shine forth from the pages I write.

Yours truly,
September Kemp❤️