Prologue

They killed him.

The night that I had gotten out of my shared room to go out and let my hair down and party with the two gorgeous women that I had met the previous night before at the local pub was the day I got a call in the middle of a forest rave that my dad is no more.

No fucking more.

He's gone.

Somebody has killed him and has gotten away with it.

They are still searching the area for the perpetrator.

That was all I could hear on the phone.

My fingers are tightly wound around the metal exterior of the cellphone's slim body as I press my fingers against it till my knuckles are white. All blood is zapped from my face, and I look around myself and let out a loud cry, but nobody hears anything. The music overpowers everything in the surrounding air. Nobody even stares long enough at my face to notice the tears forming on the sides of my eyes. They spill, and I wipe them with the back of my hand. I can't stop myself from wailing. I scream from the top of my lungs, but nobody pays any attention to me since every person here is coked out of their minds.

It doesn't matter if I'm in the middle of a rambunctious dance party since there's ever any place for sadness at these parties that go on all night. I can hear my pulse vibrating with the music, but my heart is too loud in my head. The colours are blinding me as they jump from one neon stick to another. I did not expect this. I wipe at the tears with my shirt's long sleeve.

Someone grabs onto my hand.

"Babe, would you like another beer?" she asks. Her eyes has a blank look, and she has that stupid zoned out smile on her face. "We are going to head out for a bit." She laughs. "They are handing out ecstasy pills in the small tavern out in the back. Would you like to come with me?"

I snatch my hand out of her grip and shake my head.

"No." I take a swig from whatever drug-mixed cocktail I'm nursing against the chest. Nothing else matters right now. The only family I have ever had is now gone, and things will never be good as they were again. My dad was the most important person to me in this world, and I can't believe I didn't have a chance to say goodbye to him while he was alive. "You should go on without me."

"Neville, babe, I want you." She slides her body against mine, and her voice is a luscious whisper against my earlobe. If I wasn't hurting as I am right now, I would have probably found her actions irresistible. "Let's go and have some fun." Her lips lick my outer ear. "You're gonna love it."

I don't understand what comes over me, but I pull myself away from her body and move myself to a safe distance. She looks shocked at my reaction but quickly recovers as she fixes her hair. She juts her lower lip at the loss of contact. Then she takes a step forward again.

"You're missing out, babes." Then she shrugs her shoulder. "What's up with you? Why won't you come with me?"

"I'm not in the mood, Cami." My eyes are prickling with the tears that are threatening to fall. "Can you just leave me alone?" I force myself to keep my voice stable and void of any emotion. "I'm not in the mood to party anymore."

Cami finds it hard to take a hint, and she walks up to my face and slaps my chest with the back of her hand.

"What do you mean, huh?" She almost snarls. This is the first time I have seen a woman that's as stunning as her get furious with me. "Since the moment I have met you, all you have said is how much you wanted to party in Croatia, and now that you're here, you're being a giant asshole, you jerk."

"You can't talk to me like that," I yell over the music. "I just got some news—" I breathe deep to stabilise myself, but her words are testing me. "Look, I don't care about the night and where I am. I don't care about who you are or whatever I'm doing here and I sure as hell don't care about partying, anymore!" I am shaking with anger. "So why don't you walk away right now?"

Cami doesn't say anything, but her fingers curl into a tight fist, and within moments, that fist is colliding with the side of my face. It happens so fast that I don't even get a chance to dodge or take a step back. It just does, and the side of my face throbs like a building set on fire from the inside. She hits like she fucks.

I put a hand over my face and take a few more steps back.

"Argh! What did you do?" I try to press my fingers against the now swollen and bleeding lip and see blood touching my fingers and running over my palm. "Are you out of your mind, Cami?"

"Fuck off, you cunt."

"What's wrong with you, you bitch?”

"Shut the fuck up, you motherfucking piece of a limp dick."

"I can't deal with this anymore."

Cami's friend, Nika, strolls over to her side with her boyfriend, Marko, who she just introduced to us an hour or so ago.

"Is he giving you any trouble, huh?" Marko asks Cami, as Nika holds on to her shoulder. "What's going on?"

"Keep this bitch in check." I start to walk away, but Marko grabs my shoulder and pushes me to the side so aggressively that I almost falter in my steps as I regain my balance. "What's wrong with you, Croatians?"

Before I can say anymore, his fist collides with my shoulder and shooting pain erupts from my collarbone to my fingers. The place of assault tingles, and I can sense my hands going limp from the pain. I fall to the ground, and they take a few more steps back, murmuring to themselves. They collectively sense that they have gone a step too far.

I close my eyes automatically as my vision fills with stars and the inky black night, and before I know it, everything around me falls pitch-black, and I can hear the three of them walking silently away from me.