Chapter 1

Willow’s POV

After a long summer of gardening, taking care of the pantry in my backyard and writing my alternate universes, it’s finally that time of year again: harvest.

Now I’m by no means a farmer, but I do live off the land, as I have been for the past 3 years. Being here all alone in this acreage with no one but my 3 cats Dottie, Izzy and Lucy and two dogs Charlie and Maya is definitely not easy, but the six of us make it work. They kill the mice, rats, insects and scare off the coyotes, then I’ll give them food, shelter and all the love any pet could hope for. 

With harvest time also means a “holiday” for me as well. During late August and September I’m only focused on harvesting and preserving as much food as I can for the winter. If need be, I could always hit the small supermarket in Cloudry and shop for the bare necessities, but growing everything (almost everything) myself is much better and cost-effective. Thankfully, the publishing of my books have gotten me to the life I have always dreamt of- even written of some sort of fairytale I always wanted to be the main character in.

“C’mon, Luc,” I chime out as I hold open the door for the distracted white kitten who’s playing with her racoon-like tail in the dark of midnight. She lets out a whiny meow in response then begins running towards the house.

A whisk of the cold fall air has me closing the door imeddiately behind her as she enters the cottage. Shivers run down my spine in response and I scurry over to the furnace where all the animals are currently laying about on the furniture and on their beds. 

Before heading off to bed, Im sure to fill up their water dish and give them all a loving pet on their heads. I also lock every door to the outside as well.

My dogs are good at guarding the place, but I know that there's been some recent incidents with my neighbors farm animals lately. Only a few weeks ago, they found a dead cow- blood sucked dry- laying in the paster amongst the other cows. Not even a couple days later two of the kids; a young girl named Casey and a little boy named Tommy, never returned from an evening walk out to check on the animals. No one has found the bodies yet, though, so theres still a lingering hope out there that they're alive.

I sigh as I crawl under the thick quilt, flicking on the lamo beside me as I pull out my latest find at Barnes and Nobels: The Winter Garden by the famous Kristin Hannah. This woman's books are truly amazing. 

Then, after an hour long reading session, I find my eyes beginning to shut against my will, so I set down the book on the bedside table and shut off the lamp. 

~

The next morning...

The first thing I hear is the howling of the dogs as I wake from my ever-so-great sleep. Kidding, it sucked. All I dreamt of last night was finding my only friends - my animals of course- dead, a sucked dry from whatever terrible being has been making it's way through the valley. 

Suddenly, there's the same annoying scratching on my door I hear every morning. "Oh quit, Maya, would ya?"

With a sigh, I roll myself out of bed and practically drag my nearly corpse-like body towards the door. As soon as I twist the handle, Maya, my little black lab squeezes through along with two cats. 

I smile, picking up a fuzzy throw blanket from the bed and wrap it around my bare shoulders. "Good morning to you too," I remark, giving them all a scratch on the head. 

I exit the bedroom and begin making my way towards the kitchen. Without hesitation, I flick on my Keurig and put a coffee pod into the slot. My gaze directs out towards the window, noticing that it is likely going to be a foggy, depressed day today. 

But as I look closer out the window, I notice something. Mr. Wilson-my neighbor who is usually out at this time on his morning walk- is laying still in my back yard.

"Oh my good god," I gasp out. I let the blanket resting on my shoulders drop to the lineloum floor as I rush towards the porch door. 

My stride becomes a sprint in no time as I come apon Mr. Wilson. "Mr. Wilson!" I cry out. When I reach him, I'm stopped immediatley- hesitantly when I see dark blood running out of a bite on his neck. I drop to my knees and place my hand over his heart. 

No beat. No nothing.

To be sure, I place two fingers on his neck and wait pateintly for a pulse- for anything, really. This man doesn't deserve an ending like this, he's too kind and such an amazing person. He brings me free eggs from his chicken coup every Sunday for godsakes!

Hanging my head low and letting my frizzy, curly hair plop in front of my colour-runned face, I wipe the blood from my hands onto my night gown. But before I can even let out a strain of emotion, I can feel strong hands dig roughly into my arms and pull me up to the ground so fast that Im nearly lifted off the ground. 

"Now are you sure that you wanted this one, Maddox?" the person grasping me says daringly. "I had thought maybe we keep this one... For fun, ya know?"

I knew it. I knew there was some horrible person going around and murdering those poor animals. I just didn't know that they would come out in the broad daylight like this.

My eyes shut tightly as I can hear the crunching of footsteps begin to approach me slowly. The hands wrapped around my arms are starting to dig into my skin, leaving tingles of pain all throughout me. 

I feel a cold finger lift my chin gently, then a thumb caressing over my tightened jaw. "You're right, Brother. We will keep her. Wasting a beauty of this kind would do us no good."

The brother chuckles deeply and I am set from my tippy toes to my feet in an instant. I don't dare open my eyes, though. Fear is crawling through me worse than when I had to watch my father skin a deer when I was little. 

One of them sighs. "Open those eyes for me, Princess. Let me see who you are..."

So I do, even though I know shouldn't. When the sun gleams into my eyes, it takes me a few moments to realize that there's a rather beautiful man standing in front of me, croutched down and gazing at me contently. "Who are you?" I mumble, anger bubbling up inside of me. More fear than anything, really. 

He chuckles and stands, his body towering over me like a giant, and suddenly, I feel like an ant about to be crushed. "Maddox," he replies. "My name is Maddox Archfiend. Prince of NitraVille and this is my brother, Samuel." Maddox gestures towards the other man. "He too, is Prince of NitraVille."

My brows furrow in confusion. There is no Kingdom near me; I've never even heard of this "NitraVille". Who are these people. 

I cross my arms tightly against my chest, giving a small glance back towards my little cottage. My animals are now looking out the window, wagging their fluffy tails, awaiting me to open the door to let them out.

Then Charlie and Maya begin to bark, and next thing I know, Maddox is nearly on top of me now, a bright smile with... with long, sharp teeth on display...

"No no no!" I scream, wiggling against his grasp. His head bends down into the crease of my neck and I can feel his wet, bloody lips against my skin. 

He breathes me in deeply and sighs out contently. "You smell delicious, my beautiful Willow."

My entire body freezes when the word, "Willow", leaves his mouth. How on earth does this man know my name?! 

And as I try to question this strange knowledge of his, an ear-piercing scream lets out of me as I feel his sharp fangs dig into the side of my neck...