J W Baker

Ascending Into Hell J W Baker

How hard are you willing to fight to save the life of your first true love? Melissa Franklin has spent eighteen years under her parent's draconian rules. But her first taste of independence at her freshman orientation weekend ends when she is drugged at a frat party and wakes up in a strange bed. She is sure that she has been raped, but if she tells her parents, they'll never let her leave the house again. Melissa hopes that her summer internship in Detroit will allow her to start fresh without her parents watching her every move. Melissa meets two people in Detroit that will drastically change her life. Bobby Dunham becomes Melissa's first true love, and Richie McNeil, Bobby's best friend, proves that true evil exists on earth in human form. Richie appears to be a nice person to most observers, but he has a dark side. He is a narcissistic sociopath who craves followers. Richie picks Bobby as his latest disciple and he introduces him to drugs and alcohol shortly after Melissa and Bobby begin dating. Richie's dastardly actions and Bobby's substance abuse push Melissa to the brink of insanity and she is forced to break up with Bobby. This accelerates Bobby's descent into addiction and when he reaches his nadir, he realizes that the hell his mother taught him about throughout his childhood would be a step-up from his current life. He decides to rent a cheap hotel room in Detroit to serve as his tomb. Bobby leaves Melissa a voicemail at 7:00pm outlining his plan to end his life, and pleading with her to stop him before he ascends into hell at midnight. Melissa realizes that she still loves Bobby and knows that if they can eliminate Richie from their lives, that they can make the relationship work. She races to the hotel room to save Bobby, but Richie is also on his way, and his intentions are not nearly as pure. Melissa and Richie race to the hotel room, one wants to save Bobby's life and the other wants to end it on his terms.