PROLOGUE

     

   

There are some days when you think you have everything planned out. Days you feel are going to be one of the happiest days of your life. Days when you're supposed to have everything under control. But it doesn't always happen that way. You think it's going to be perfect, only you are not a fortune teller, so no! you don't really know what is going to happen or what could happen.

Tragedies happen all the time, and the thing about them is that you never see it coming. It just shows up and bites like a bitch.

It was meant to be just us girls, in Ming's luxurious living room siting and talking about everything on anything, from cutting home baked cakes and my friends screaming at the top of their lungs, some giddy birthday wishes and gossiping about hot men. But the smooth, calm and peaceful demeanor did not seem to last long as the darkness of the day engulfed us all.

And that's when It started.

The lights went out, and the sound that followed after had my heart racing a thousand miles per second. Just a few seconds earlier, my best friend Ming had to run off on some emergency family situation involving her grandmother, leaving me with Faye, now both crawled up in a small corner underneath  Ming's dressing table in her bedroom, hoping dearly that whatever was out there would not be able to find us.

With each growl, each snarl my heart skipped a million beats and Faye clung on to my arms very tightly I could feel her fingers dig deep into my flesh but I kept my lips sealed. Holding in the pain, shutting out the burn that stretched my arms in her iron like grip and bore it as much as I could to avoid drawing attention to ourselves.

I could feel her legs vibrate uncontrollably beside mine, she was afraid... but so was I.

The distinctive heavy footsteps kept growing louder and louder until I felt like there was a presence behind me. We both felt it.

At this point I could feel the hot tears leaking down my eyes. The feeling was scary in the deadliest way but yet I had no clue whatever this creature hunting the comfort of our home was.

I held my breath... wondering... wondering what kind of a creature could have the footsteps of a roaring volcano and the shadow and snarl of something unlike I had ever seen or heard before.

The darkness surrounding me, spreading it's ugly wings like a pillar of foundation on my shadow. I was week to the knees, mentally, physically and emotionally and if I am being honest?

I had been nearly this close to pissing my pants when it stopped.

The sounds, the snarls, the footsteps, the dark consuming aura. It all just disappeared like it never was there. That did not calm the whizzing thunder within my veins but for the first time in hours that night I let out a deep breath. Trying to breathe deeply and as slowly as I could with my eyes shut so tightly it literally hurt.

We paused for a few minutes. Quiet and calm, not uttering a single sound that the only you could hear was the passing of the lost wind searching for a good direction to flap it's wings outside the window. Searching for that peace and calm of the midnight rush. That same peace and calm I desperately craved at the moment.

"What was that? " Faye finally spoke up. Her voice soft, shallow and breaking at every word. I could see the freight all around her. From the faint moonlight settling down shallowly on her facial features, I could at least make out the slight and barely controlled quivering of her lips and the paleness of her delicate skin. Her grip that had made my arm bleed unaware to her lightened just a little bit as she started to get herself. "What the hell is that?"

"I- I have no idea." I tried blinking a few times to clear my vision. Trying not to trip as I slowly rose up to my feet.

"Do you think it's gone?" She asked, composing her self a little more and looking cautiously around to be sure.

"I don't know."

"What if this isn't real?" She suddenly blurted " what if this is just a figment of our imaginations?"

" Faye..." I internally groaned, shutting my eyes tightly and tried to think with the swinging jungle vines that was now my brain. "This isn't the time for assumptions..." my voice a very low whisper "we.... I have no idea what the hell that was but.... "

Before I got to finish my statement she was already up and on her feet, making her way to the exit of the room and the rhythm of my beating heart pick up in panic. "Faye!"

"I'm going in. I have to see for myself."

But that was a mistake. I did not need her to be brave right then. I needed her to be my best friend and hide with me under the covers of a wooden table. I needed her to be the scared young lady that clung on to my arms for dear life merely seconds ago and not some huntress of unknown creatures in the mist of the night.

But I could not stop her, because before a single word could get to fall out of my lips she had already disappeared behind the other side of heavily polished French wooden doors and into the wings of something unknown to the both of us.

Without thinking through my actions, I immediately jumped and followed behind my best friend try to stop her from exposing herself but I was too late.

Because within the blink of an eye. Faye was lying there, on the ground with fresh blood dripping from her head followed by a splinting scream that burst through my lungs.

My heart stopped for a moment and I rushed to her, grabbing her hands in mine and the other inspecting the gash on her head which was now decorated with her blood.

I shook, unable to speak and just sat there raining down hot liquid from my eyes when I heard it.... Again.

That sound. The one i thought was gone for good was just behind me and i was certain that whatever it was, was responsible for Faye's unconscious body on my arms.

I froze. Refusing to turn around and take a look at the creature that had taken a day from so many smiles and kisses to the one of pure horror on my face. But that's just inevitable. It was like I was not in control of what i was doing anymore. Very slowly i turned around to see,  a sight that i would do anything to take back for whatever days i had left to spend on planet earth.

The glowing moonlight reflecting from the open living room window didn't do much to help identify my predator, but still i was able to grasp a good look at it. Maybe it was the feeling of terror weighing down my chest but once i did i could not look away.

Right before me, a creature i have never seen in my entire life. The skin as black as darkness itself, claws that dig effortlessly onto the ground, eyes as thick as blood and the soul of the devil himself.

My tongue got caught in my throat as I found myself unable to utter a single word.

And the last thing that I saw, before all that darkness had consumed me, before everything turned into a deep hole of nothingness and a raging fire. Was the spread of bone wings, torn at the end, like the world had rejected it's ever existence. And i was just a host to fill up that nothingness derived into a whole pit of darkness.