Prologue

*Warning! Dark start, description of death. Skip this chapter if you are a sensitive reader*

-Anastasia-

As the house erupted in chaos, I held my hands over my ears. I had been told I couldn’t scream. I had to be as quiet as the dead. I was so scared, though. My small heart was beating inside of my chest, and I was crying. I bit my lip so I would not make a sound, but small whimpers escaped me anyway. I could hear screams and growls filling the house, and I closed my eyes together. Somehow I believed if I couldn’t see, I wouldn’t hear it. I would be able to shut it all out, but it didn’t happen. I still heard it all. I still heard them crying for help and the people screaming and begging.

“Please… go away…” I whispered.

I knew I shouldn’t speak, but I just wanted it all to go away. I wanted it all to turn quiet… Mom… I wanted my mom. I wanted her safe arms, and I wanted my dad to come and tell me all was going to be all right. When I had a nightmare, only he could calm me. But neither of them came and time passed… so much time passed. Suddenly, it went dead quiet. I couldn’t understand what happened, but I stopped rocking back and forth and slowly lowered my hands. I looked around the dark closet before I finally took the chance to push open the door and look out. No one was there… or so I thought. Just as I crawled out and moved past my bed, I saw a body… I screamed. I couldn’t help myself. I moved backwards, pressing myself to the wall behind me, and breathing heavily. I just stared at it… It really was a dead body… the woman was a member of my pack. I had never spoken to her, but I had seen her… many times. She had a daughter my age. Where was her daughter? She was looking my way. Her cold and dead eyes just staring at me. Her chest had been torn open and there was blood and… I couldn’t stop myself. All the food in my stomach from dinner came up again, and I puked on the floor. It hurt. It was so violent and uncontrolled. I coughed and coughed, feeling like I was going to choke. It took a while before I could stop, and then I leaned against the wall, shaking and sweaty now. Where was my mom? Where was my dad? And where was my brother? Dean was a few good few years older than me. My mother had had such a hard time birthing him that no one thought she would get another chance, but then she had me. She always called me her little miracle. Her little star…

“Mom…” I cried.

I was scared to leave my spot on the floor… I felt so cold, but I needed to find her. I needed to find them all.

“Mom!”

I didn’t think anymore about if the lycans had left yet. I just knew I needed to find my mom. I pushed myself up, and my small legs were shaking, but they were able to carry me as I walked out of the room. I had only taken a step out of my bedroom before I stopped… I wanted to scream, but nothing but a small pained whimper left me, as I watched the massacre which had been left in my home. There were bodies… parts of bodies… and blood on the walls. It covered it all, and they were all… dead.

“Mom… dad…”

I cried, and began looking through the house, trying to avoid looking too much at all the death surrounding me.

“Mom! Dad!”

I ran down the hallway. Down to where his office was. I jumped inside the open doors, but neither was there. I ran away from the room, and into their bedroom and there she was…

“Mom?”

She was lying on the bed, her dress torn and barely covering her. It was so red now… her dress had been white.

“Mom!”

I jumped on the bed, crawling towards her and turning her. She had her face turned away from me. When I rolled her my way, she was completely limp. She didn’t move, and her eyes just stared into nothing.

“Mom? Mom!”

I shook her as the tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Please… no! NO! NO! NO!”

My cries turned into screams as I continued to shake my mom, just wanting her to come back to me. I needed her. I needed her! I didn’t know what to do without her. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I was all alone.

“Mom! PLEASE!” I shouted and shouted. “PLEASE! NO! Please don’t leave me! Mom! Wake up! MOM!”

Soon I had no more screams left in me, and I just hugged her as I began to rock back and forth away, crying and crying. I didn’t know what else to do than just sit there, holding her, and hoping it was all a bad dream. That none of it had really happened. I would wake soon. I would!

“It’s going to be okay,” I cried. “We will all be okay again… You will come back to me.”

I stroked her hair and clung to her like my life depended on it.

“You will be okay. We are all okay,” I whispered.

I buried my nose in her hair, and while her body was getting cold, it still smelled like her. She still smelled like lilies.

“Please… I need you…”

Suddenly, another powerful scent hit my nose, and I sat up straighter. I looked over my shoulder and saw smoke coming inside the room. I jumped off the bed and ran into the hallway, and that was when I saw the big flames that had caught onto one side of the house. I jumped into the bedroom again and went to my mom. I grabbed her arm, trying to pull her with me, but I was too weak. Too small.

“Mom! Please! We need to go!”

I could only move her inch by inch, but I couldn’t leave her. I refused to leave her here!

“Please! Mom!”

The smoke got thicker, the flames stronger. Would I die here?