So, this was the secret from my 2018 story pack ( https://www.furaffinity.net/view/29960429/ ). It was solved in record time, which I honestly didn't expect considering the last time I did any puzzle like that I got a lot of people complaining that they couldn't figure it out. 

I'm writing a novel. It's called "Perfect Lives". This is part of the first chapter.
I don't know when it will be finished. I don't know if I could ever call it "finished". But I'll be working on it for a while.

I've been looking for a way to turn all the pain and hardship I've felt over the past year or so into something, and...I think I've found it.

Thank you all.

I don't really know where to begin with all of this.

I guess it would be prudent to start with me rushing back to my apartment in the pouring rain Monday evening. I think that's a really good metaphor to sum all of this up. Trying your best to get back to normal, and having the sky open up and take a piss right on your best efforts. Sprinting under the occasional cover of foliage, grocery bags in hand as I tried to fumble with my keys in the other. I almost slammed right into the front door while I was looking down at them.

Conquer the door. Open up my mailbox. Medical bills. It's always medical bills. I'm too young to have this many of them. I could probably wallpaper my entire room with the collection I have now. It would be a better use of the paper in lieu of them piling up in some closet somewhere, collecting dust for years upon years.Then it was the next door. My tail almost got stuck in it - again. At least it didn't rip off a clump of hair like last time. Last time. Coming back to my apartment in the burning, unwelcoming ire of twilight, having only seen the sun for 2 hours prior. I did it again.

I told myself I would be better. I wouldn't sleep for 16 hours a day anymore. I'd stop waking up at 7 p.m. everyday. I told myself that every week. it's a lot easier to tell yourself those things to make yourself feel better than it is to actually change for the better. Maybe one day I would actually listen to myself. today was not that day.

Get up to my apartment on the 7th floor. Roommate left a note for me. Cooper - Quick leaving your fucking underwear on the bathroom floor. God damn it. Another thing that I meant to do that I forgot about. This is like the 5th time at this point; I just know he's going to be pissed about this stuff the next time he sees me. I wasted all my clemency points already, and it was only October. At least the note reminded me to pick them up. Toss them in the hamper, they immediately fall on the floor instead. Forgot to do laundry today. Again. 

Try to pick them up. Interrupted by someone knocking on the door - I forgot Damian was coming over today. Again. As I rushed to open the door, I caught a glimpse of myself in my mirror. My antlers still hadn't grown back in. Cutting them off three months ago in a fit of self-deprecating rage was not the best idea in hindsight, and it was a mistake I would have to live with for a while. But I couldn't dwell on it. 

“Hey Cooper...whoa! I didn't know deer could swim!” He joked as I let him into my apartment. I gave him the look that instantly shut him up. The alligator was a good friend, but he really tried too hard to make people feel better by joking around. It didn't really help me. he did make a good point though; I was dripping wet right in the kitchen and I didn't even know it. At this point I had forgotten it was even raining in the first place. 

“Shit. It's been one of those days…” I grumbled as I continued to drip water in the kitchen, not exactly wanting to strip naked in front of my friend. We were close, but not like that. “Just...give me a minute-” I said as I ran into my room and grabbed some fresh clothes, before sprinting in the bathroom and peeling off the soaked rags I had and leaving them to dry in the shower. My underwear was going to be in the bathroom again, but I really didn't care. I promised that I would remember this time.

Damian was messing around on his phone when I stepped back into the kitchen. “Thank God, a few minutes later and I would have smelled like a wet dog for a week.” I said as I took the chair next to him, pulling out my own phone before looking up from it abruptly. “You do realize I have a couch, right?”

“Oh. Yeah. Well, I wasn't really planning to stay. I just came to see if you wanted to come to my party tonight. You didn't really answer my texts, so I kind of had to go to the source.”

“Ah, fuck. Yeah, I really just haven't had the time to respond. But I guess I'm down.” Damian was a nice guy, but he hosted some pretty wild parties…

I just needed something to make me feel alive again. A little hedonism, partying, something to just take me away from all of this, if even for a moment. I know it won’t fix things. I know it’s just a bandage that comes off all too easily…

But I don’t want to bleed out.

PERFECT LIVES

Coming to you soon.