The Forest That Merrill Grew

When a young mortician's personal life and mental health are more taboo and disturbing than his occupation, the law is short to follow. Our story, told through the first-person perspective of a young and unreliable protagonist and narrator, Merrill Crowley, 27, foregoes one life-altering tragedy after another. Existing in a cold and merciless world that abandoned him, and one whose God constantly torments and ignores him when he desperately seeks refuge, a new and different salvation finds him, not in the way he expected, but not before digging himself into a hole he can't climb back out of; physically and psychologically. Accompanying him in avoiding the law, who is hot on his tail, his consciousness takes shape in the form of a just as witty and vivid character, his imaginary friend and doppelganger, Ritz. Nearly escaping the law, and drowning from numerous mental health issues, the struggle to keep his secrets small seem to pile up on him. But with the motivation of a new-found purpose, striving to be one with his personal salvation exceeds that of self-annihilation. Will he reach his personal heaven before his sins catch up with him, or will he succumb to a delusional sadness that has plagued him from the beginning of his journey?...