Where Rose Writes Very True Stories

I’m just venting.

When I was 20 (2006), living in a gated community in Vegas, a man captured me at the pool. Being a gated community, no one really used the locker rooms. That’s where he kept me for hours and beat, tortured, and raped me. He was going to kill me, and I nearly died. I was rescued by the most courageous and selfless woman.

In one day, I experienced polar opposites of what humanity is capable of: that man was completely evil.

But the woman who rescued me… she was a legit angel. She heard me scream. She stood outside the door and refused to leave until he came out. She was unbelievably brave. The second he unlocked the door and left, she rushed in and untied me. She got me dressed and wrapped me in a towel. She practically carried me up to my apartment. In everything she did to help me, she would give me choices, giving me back my power. She treated me with dignity, kindness, love and compassion. She wept for me. She stayed with me for hours, helping me. She was so worried about me—me, who was a stranger to her.

I wish I knew her name. I haven’t even been able to admit that what happened to me was real until very recently. One of my favorite characters in Whispers of Monsters is based on this angel-woman. I named her Barbie.

The guy who did that to me is dead.

One does not have to be a serial killer to be a demon. ANYONE who sees people as objects is a demon because they’re treating people as things to be used and discarded—they’re just a watered-down version of the guy that tortured me.

What sickens me is when these people pretend to be angelic like the woman who saved me. They have NO RIGHT to that honor. They’ll put on a good show, but had they been standing at the door when I let out that last scream, guaranteed they would’ve walked away and I’d be dead. They’re cowards.

My heart aches for anyone who has suffered at the hands of these despicable people.

But please don’t let them steal your future.

I bawled during Kung Fu Panda 2 the other day because of this line: “Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn’t make you who you are. It is the rest of your story—who you choose to BE.”

I want to be like Barbie.

📚🌹