Forewords…
"If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic".
- Thomas Szasz
My birth certificate tells the government that I´m born the 10th of September 1995, at Mother Teresa's hospital in Queens, New York. It tells that my full name is Hope Espinoza Latimer Peyton; my parents are Joseph Latimer and Mary Espinoza Peyton. But it doesn't tell that hope is not alone. Hope is just a girl, who shares her room with Scarlet Velvetcrush. People tell me that I´m insane, that I´m schizophrenic, but I´m not. Hope and Scarlet are the same person..
So I´m two different persons. There is Hope Espinoza Latimer Peyton, the normal, perfectly happy and light weighted me. I don´t worry about anything, everything is so god damn bright. Hope has a future, a life. She has a reason to put the other foot in front of the other, a reason to smile, laugh and have fun. No one can stand in the way for Hope, her inner strength shine with a power so strong that it blows everybody away. She can fly, dance, sing, there is nothing which she's unable to, she can do anything she feels like. She is a social girl with tons of good friends, who love her more than anything on this planet. She would go through water and fire for them, and they would do the same for her. If she had 1 dollar left in her purse, and her friend was hungry, she would without hesitating, give her friend that single dollar, even though it meant that Hope would starve. Hope Espinoza Latimer Peyton is a generous, friendly, social and happy teenage girl…
But then there is Scarlet Velvetcrush, Hope´s contrast, but yet the same person. Scarlet hate to be, around other people. When a crowd appear in the horizon, an overwhelming panic take over her mind, and instead of seeing humans, she sees vampires, and Scarlet is afraid of vampires so badly that she have hung up several garlics all over her room. Under her pillow, on her door, in her window, in the ceiling, sometimes she even rubs her skin with garlic. Around her neck, a silver cross hangs in a leather string, because she love wearing leather. All the jewelry she own is made of leather, preferably black leather. Actually, every piece of Scarlet's clothing is black, underwear, t-shirts, pants, literally everything is black. Scarlet is also very depressed, and she has tried to commit suicide twice; at her first suicide attempt, Joseph found her, with her wrists cut open in the bathtub. The second time, the car managed to hit the break before he ran her over. And because of her "schizophrenia" and the suicide attempts, both Hope and Scarlet have spent 6 months at the mad-house, and have now returned home with only one thing to do; to remember to take their pills, in order to live a "normal" life.
Joseph and Mary want us to live such a normal life that they have signed me in at a new high school, with "ordinary" people, no one like us. It will be a new beginning for both of us; tomorrow we will start taking our pills, and start at a new school. Calm down the two of you, it will be fine, I promise!
Or will it be? We don´t know…
