The place was a ghost town. Despite its breath-taking locale, Appaloosa Plains had become a shadow of what it once was. The residents of the "sleepy ranching town" had drifted off, leaving behind shells of homes, crumbling remnants of Victorian architecture and empty streets. The city tried to save its existence by offering a funding assistance program for repairs, but the program collapsed when it was discovered that nearly all the buildings were contaminated with asbestos, had unsafe lead piping, needed all-new roofs or their foundations completely redone. Historical building legislation delayed construction work to such an extent that people opted to sell their homes to the government at a loss so they could move away from the red tape and renovation nightmare that their neighborhood trapped in. Now almost no residents were left and there was no city government to speak of. Appaloosa Plains was nothing more than a mess that needed to be cleaned up. Luckily, cleaning up...
Dorothy knew that — from most perspectives — her life was better for having Matthew in it. Visiting his family on Sundays while they were growing up was a life-saver for her; she dreaded being at home. She never got along with her parents. Without Matthew's encouragement, she probably would have given up a long time ago and gone off the rails in one way or another. She used to daydream about running away from home and joining some kind of crime syndicate, working her way up to the top… becoming someone her parents had a real reason to fear, instead of whatever their real reasons for hating her were. Becoming everything opposite of what they wanted her to be. But then she had Matt. Her sweet, clumsy bookworm. He had grown into quite the hopeless romantic, with more love to give than she could have asked for. She couldn't bring herself to tell him that she had evil desires her entire life, but she believed he'd accept her if she did. She almost admitted it to him, onc...