PROLOGUE

                            PROLOGUE

Kehlani flipped he eyes open and jerked her body off the bed with utmost alacrity and urgency. Her heart thumped loudly. Too loud she was scared it would throb out of her chest which may have been why she rubbed in with her palm in a circular motion.

Another bad dream. These days she had constant dreams of weird creatures chasing her in a dense forest or when she was fighting off a weird creature at night. It got scarier and scarier by the night and even more vivid too.

She chose to believe that it was because it was that time of the year. Maybe it was a way of grief which her brain had mustered. Scientists must have blabbered things about that too so

"Not again." She muttered bitterly.

Shivers went through her spine as the morning wind stole across her window curtains and brushing against her body like sharp knives. This made her immediately consult her duvet in solace. Urghhhh she hated this weather too much.

Kehlani hated cold mornings. Not just any cold morning, but cold mornings where she had a truckload of work piled at the corner and begging for her attention. Fair enough, a lot of things had been going on lately, so much so that she couldn't bear to hide away in her minimalistic apartment for much longer. 

She looked at her bedside table through the opening of her duvet and sitting quietly was a picture frame.

It was a picture of a young shy girl in red rimmed glassss with an arm swung over a mid sixty-ish woman who was smiling widely to the camera. It was her and her Nana.

Nana. 

Kehlani breath hitched as she stretched her hand out to knock the picture down . It tumbled over and down to her rug where it lay face flat. Her anxiety did not reduce though, her chest still felt rather tight.

It was that time of the year.

She could swear that she was not a Masochist if she never always put that triggering picture on her her bedside table  knowing fully well that every single time she awoke to it, her heart squeezed a little tighter. At the rate she was going she might as well just suffocate herself.

Nana was her surviving family. She had grown being an orphan who lost her parents at quite an early age and her Nana was the only one who had taken her into her wings and groomed her into whatever she was today. It had always been her and her grandmother against the world and it was totally fine by her;she could not ask for anything better. Her Nana was a ball of sunshine, she was the energetic singer and the charmer. She was the one who made all Kehlani's woolen sweaters and vests and Kehlani cherished every single one of them. This weather was just a blatant reminder that she wouldn't get a new batch of woolen socks, sweaters, beanies and P*******t worthy vests, exclusively made by Nana.

It had been this time last year that Nana had died, she slept and never woke up again. Nana had predicted it, always talking of her best burial designs, how she wanted her coffin to look like, the guest list and every other cringe thing there was to talk about for someone so old and a step the grave... Well at least she died in her most desired way. Nana wanted a quiet and painless death, she always rambled about it when she began to lose her memories slowly. 

Kehlani sniffed and used the back of her hand to wipe her face clumsily. She never got over Nana's death. She never really did and she always wondered if she would ever get over it.

Just as she uncoiled from her duvet to pick up the framed picture lying unattended to on the rug, her phone buzzed loudly,

"Incoming call, Editor Ray." A Robotic voice rang through the room.

"Urghhhh, not now!" Kehlani groaned as she stretched her hand down from her bed to get a hold of the picture frame but her hand could not quite reach it to her very frustration.

"Incoming call, Editor Ray" The robotic feminine voice declared.

"Oh bullocks sake" She hissed but focused her entire body to picking up the photo frame. With one thrust of her body down the bed, her hand could finally grab the picture frame.

Gotcha.

She balanced her body before sitting up erection her bed and then she placed the frame neatly back on the bedside stool.

"Incoming call, Editor—"

"Really," she hissed under her breath. She dragged her phone from the bedside stool and  swiped to the green call sign to answer the phone call.

"Kehlani, hola, I know you did not pick my calls on purpose!" A bubbly voice came from the other side of the phone almost getting her deaf in the process.

"Hey Ray." She sighed. Kehlani hayed this woman as much as she liked her and it all balled down to the obvious fact that Ray was an embodiment of sanguine which did not quite flow with her own personality at all. Ray really was a ray of happiness and energy, something she couldn't relate to even if she wanted to.

"I'm driving down to your apartment right now, we've got a very nice deal." Ray snorted. "I am bringing your favorite coffee, you obviously woke on the wrong side of your bed. Bye."

"Now?!" Kehlani cried out as if she only just woke up fully.

"Uh-huh, bye-bye." The call disconnected right  on her ear. 

"Oh God no!" Kehlani cried out. This was the worst timing. 

Ray was her editor. She had been her editor for the past six months since her previous editor had resigned and so far, Ray did her job really good, so good that Kehlani would rather put up with her ray of blinding brightness than let the woman go. 

She picked the picture frame on the bedside stool and kissed it.  "Nana, happy death anniversary."

She shivered at her words but Nana would have wanted to hear that instead. She dragged her self to her bathroom to have a shower and ready herself to be blinded by the ray of light heading towards her apartment like a damn tornado.

Kehlani's room was quite spacious, really spacious. It screamed Melancholy. Two wide and huge aesthetic shelves stood tall at a corner of the room, both shelves filled with books neatly stacked. One would notice if they moved closer that some of the books on the top shelves of both book shelves had her name inscribed by the side.

On the top of the shelves were awards, ranging from public speaking to bestseller to poetry awards.

On the other side of the room was a table with a game chair. The wall which the table leaned on had so many sticker notes neatly arranged which scrawly writings like 'chapter one',  'plot summary', 'characterization and whatnot' and different other things scribbled around. And on the table was a stack of papers arranged neatly and a brown journal opened upside down. This was where all he work took place. She was a writer, she had decided seven years ago to take her writing hobby quite serious and fast forward years later she had become a bestseller whose name rang bells in the minds of bibliophiles .

Kehlani who was headed to the bathroom retraced her footsteps to her work table when she caught the sight of her brown journal.

She immediately sat down and turned the book up. The page which was visible had a rough sketch of an animal, it was incomplete so one could not possible know what animal it could possibly be. This particular animal plagued her dreams, she had been able to see it fully in her dream last night. It was a Wolf.

She picked her pen and further completed the sketch. Her hand moved really fast yet delicately as she did not wish to forget the picture in her mind from the earlier dream.

After she had completed the sketch she surveyed it carefully.

Perfect. It looked just exactly like what she had seen in her dreams. She scribbled at the blank part of the open book, 

This creature saved me once more from bad guys who wanted to attack me in my dreams, I finally caught it's eyes, so dark. I'm scared.

She closed the book tightly as if to trap her fears within the thick walls of the book cover. She then proceeded into the bathroom for a shower.

***

Kehlani had barely donned a comfy pajamas and her favorite woolen sweater when she heard her doorbell chime loudly.

She immediately picked her a hair band and sauntered out of her bedroom to get the door. On her way she tied her hair into a rather messy bun but she couldn't care less.

She peeped through her door hole to see a figure quite familiar.

She ventured to then open her door, "Ray." She snorted playfully and stepped aside.

"And look who woke on the wrong side of her bed this morning?" A young woman in a body fitted black gown, shiny red bottoms and matte lipstick smiled brightly at her at once when the door swung open.

In her right hand was a nice leather bag and on the other a cup of coffee. She let herself in while Kehlani close the door behind her like it was some routine.

"You know I always wake up at the wrong side of the bed." Kehlani huffed.

"True, that one." Ray strutted into the lounge like she owned the place. She had a commanding yet relaxing air around her, and maybe the boss-lady choice of dressing she usually donned on must have added to it.

"You know today is off for me, It's my Nana's day." Kehlani took the coffee from Ray who had already dropped her bag and relaxed on one of the sofas.

"I know, but the news just couldn't wait." Ray beamed.

"Remember the fantasy fiction you proposed to the board? They agreed. They want to feature it, well after I did a little convincing of course." Ray winked.

"Of course they should." Kehlani muttered above her coffee before taking a big sip. Urghh! The wonder of coffee was something that could not be explained in words. 

"Kelly, you know that this is a gamble on my part and that of the board? we all know that your books are more romance inclined than any other thing. Happy endings Christmas getaways, Hot CEO or Cowboy and horny teenagers. This is going to be a total flip. We don't know how it's going work but they are ready to blindly bank on your previous success after I have put my own lifeline in the line for this bargain. They are biting it but I need to have your words that you won't disappoint?"

Ray said a lot in just one go and she was not breathless at all, Kehlani wondered how that was possible... Not the point— 

Right. Assurance. She needed to assure Ray.

"I am serious, it will be good. I am even going on a sabbatical for the purpose of this project that way the results are most effective. I have a story right here." Kehlani tapped her head with her free hand. Liar. Big liar! She did want to write a fantasy novel but that was just in the spur of the moment. A story? She did not have one but she was going to do her magic. She had wanted to write a Fantasy novel to break away from her writer's block or rather the huge boredom she had developed from writing too much romance. 

Well maybe the strange creature lurking in her dreams may have also inspired he rash decision but was she going to tell Ray? No. She was going to write Fantasy gor sure. Maybe about a Werewolf? She wasn't sure but it was time to do her research.