Chapter One
Storm clouds continued to brew overhead. What little sun there had been, vanished from the sky and raindrops began to fall. Now that the ceremony was over, people were rushing to their cars. One boy, however, remained standing over the newly dug grave. The cold raindrops mingled in with Xander's tears as he said a final good-bye to his only grandpa. With one final tear, he turned and walked away, leaving a single rose behind.

"Hey! Mom! I think you should see this!" Xander called from the attic where he was sorting through his grandpa's old memories.
Xander, having just turned sixteen and entering his junior year in high school, was tall and rather skinny. His dirty blonde hair lay messily in front of his smokey gray eyes. Back home, he would have been called a heart breaker, but here he knew no one; he was just here to pay his final respects to his grandfather.
"What is it? You know I'm busy enough." His mother, Julia, was extremely stressed out from the shock of finding her father dead, had turned her into a crabby beast.
"I found a weird old board in a locked trunk. It seems that grandpa had left the key on top of it, but still, it's rather mysterious he left it locked huh?
"Wow! That's an ouija board. I haven't seen this since I was a little girl. I wonder why dad left it locked up. Maybe you can talk to his spirit through this thing. Wouldn't that be fun?" She took a slight breath, as if remembering something that had made her happy during this depressing time. "Now, you and I have to get back to work. Since your father, hem, left us, we have to do double the work you know. Call me if you need anything." Swiftly turning, she bustled down the nasty old steps returning to her work in the kitchen.

That evening, Xander decided to take a walk. He had a sudden urge to get out of his grandfather's musty old mansion. He didn't really know where he was going; he was just going where his feet led him. His mind full of hatred for his father; what he did to them.
Three months ago, he'd waken up to the sound of his mother's hysterical sobbing. He went out to see what was wrong when he noticed all of the bruises on his mother's body. She was holding a note in her hand and her eye was already turning black and blue.
"Mom, are you okay? What happened to you? Where's dad?" He had felt a large knot forming in his throat as she looked into his eyes.
"Your father felt the need to umm take a break from life. He left this morning and I tried to stop him. We'll just say he didn't take kindly to that. Honey, I'm so sorry. Please don't cry, things will get better, I promise." Her voice was crackled and he had a hard time understanding her as tears formed in his eyes; yet hatred growing with every new word coming out of his mother's mouth. He sat on the floor next to his mother and together they cried; for how long they didn't know.

"Hey! Look where you're going next time!" A girls' voice cut sharply through his thoughts. Xander was too busy thinking and he wasn't looking at where he was walking. Xander found himself speechless; this girl was beautiful. Somehow he managed an apology through his gawking. With a shy giggle the girl waved it off. "That's okay. By the way, my name's Elizabeth. Elizabeth Newood. What's yours?" Her somewhat timid blue-green eyes sparkled in the setting sun setting off her silky orange hair.
"I'm Xander Brookfield and it's a pleasure to meet you Elizabeth."