Prologue

I am a little girl, with bright purple eyes and reddish-brown hair; about the age of 3. I’m all alone, and nobody comes for me as I walk in the white snow, bare-footed. Tired, I sit down on the curb when I pass the next fence. As dogs begin to bark at me, my tears let loose. I sob and sob into the night wondering why no one is there to comfort me. Suddenly I am no longer in the light of the moon but in a shadow. Looking up I gaze into the bright blue eyes of a little boy, he smiles at me then reaches his hand out. Trusting him, I grab it and stand up smiling back at him. He starts to run and I run with him. Once I stumble and he stops to pick me up We begin again. I think 10 minutes pass and suddenly we stop in front of a tall man with long black hair and weird teeth that I can’t name. He says something to the boy and the boy seems to plead with him. I guess that he’s begging to keep me, like some pet. The man looks at me with cold eyes then something changes in them, it looks like they show pity for me. I move closer to the boy, scared, and surprisingly he hugs me. I start crying again, and the boy looks worried. He doesn’t know why I’m crying. I guess the man explains to him. I’m crying because I’m happy that I found someone that cares for me. The man looks at me again and nods to the boy, I think telling him he can take me. He smiles and looks at me then plants a kiss on my cheek.

I think two years pass then on the night of my 5th birthday, I’m in the park again, with the boy. He looks at me sadly, a tear going down his cheek, I wipe it away. He plants a kiss on my cheek again. I start to cry, I don’t know why though, then he touches my head and I black out.

When I wake up after blacking out, I have no memory of what happened in the past two years, nor that two years passed.

Then . . . .

I wake up; troubled by that odd dream I’ve been having every night since I was 5 years old. My name is Cecelia Astraea Belladonna Granuaille O’ Malley DuPree, I am now 21 years old. When I was 5 years old, a woman found me and took me to the hospital. I had pneumonia. They told me that when I was 3 years old, my parents were murdered. No one knew that I was alive. I went outside, to the city park and it was snowing. I fell into a coma. The doctors found me and placed me in the hospital. They said that a woman told them to keep me on life-support. Two years later, I woke up and had amnesia. I didn’t remember anything about my life. I walked out the hospital and back to the city park. I blacked out from exhaustion and once again, pneumonia. A month later I was adopted and I now live in England. My adoptive mom said that the reason for my dreams is that my body is trying to figure out what happened during the two years I was in a coma. She died, three years ago of an unexplained cause.

Granuaille is the Irish name for Grace. Grace O' Malley was an Irish female pirate.

Chapter One

I grab my bag, trench coat, ear muffs, some gloves, and then walk out the door. I end up walking around the same park in my dream. Suddenly an out-of-nowhere chill goes up my spine. Goose bumps spread all over my body and I shiver because of them. Rubbing my arms, I look around me; for some reason I’ve been getting the feeling that a dangerous presence has been following me everywhere. I trudge a little faster through the snow, and I feel afraid. As I continue on, a shocking sensation spreads through my figure, making me rigid and still; because of my fear and some other strange power. My eyes grow wide in horror as I begin to fall face-forward into the snow. Right before I slip into unconsciousness, I get a peek at a shadowy figure looming over me, and then my eyelids droop to a close. While this is happening, all I can think of is, ‘Crap!’

--

I roll around in the bed covers, struggling to stay asleep but wakefulness overcomes my needs. Instead of getting up, I roll over onto my side with my eyes open, and I throw my arm over something, getting comfortable enough to stay awake in bed. I close my eyes and breathe in the scent of my pillow”. I snuggle into my pillow more, but it doesn’t bend under my snuggling, it just stays firm and hard. I just think, ‘Firm and hard?’ My eyes open swiftly and I move my head to gaze into an unknown, gorgeous face. Opening widely I know my eyes clearly show my fear and I know he can see it, too. I jump out the bed and look around for a door.

I see it, and make a run for it. As I grab the handle I struggle franticly to twist it and open the door. But as I panic I feel a hand place itself on mine. With eyes that I know show my fear, I look down at it. Suddenly, anger overcomes my fear, which is always better, and I quickly turn around; slapping him across the face with back of my slender hand. I don't even stop to see his reaction, I simply run around him, frantically looking around for a window. It is open and has no screen behind it so I make another run for my escape. I rush to it but before I do, the "FREAKY" man is suddenly in front of me. In his eyes I can see Hell's flames in them, showing his anger.

He grabs me by right shoulder, squeezing it painfully and digging his nails into my skin. The pain makes me cry out. I hear a crack then a pop come from my shoulder. He looks as surprised at the sounds as Iam hurt but then he slaps me with the palm of his hand then the back of it. The back-hander sends me to the floor, and his nails rip away lines of my skin. I sit rolled in a ball, crying with my arms around myself. My other shoulder had cracked and popped just like my right. But as Ilay there I think, 'I can't stop fighting! Not now! I have got to at least try one more time!' I look up at him and can tell that he is even more pissed. It seems that his anger radiates through the room, but no matter how angry he is I still have got to escape! In a sudden movement I am again making a run for my escape, but a step away from the door and in mid-reach of the handle the man is again in front of me. He stops me from going any further by once again, grabbing my right shoulder and again, digging his nails into me. I can feel blood trickling down my skin. But the whole gesture put together just sends more pain through me and also causes me to cringe. I fall to my knees; crying my pain. Tentative, I gaze up into his eyes while tears of anger and fear continue to stream down my red cheeks.

I scream at him, "What do you want with me?! Why am I HERE?! AND why haven't you killed me?!" I barely manage to say this through all my sobs, which are growing ever louder.

He sneers at me, "I'll only tell you that I have become very interested in you, that is my main reason for stealing you from your home. Now, Cecelia." I flinch when he says my name, "I will leave you here for one day, during that time you must fill out this paper. It is kind of like a survey. Though I'm quite sure I already know a lot of things about you." He smiles at that, and it seemed as though that when he would watch me -for I am quite sure he is the thing I always felt watching me- he would always smile at everything I'd do. I shake that thought away for I know he could never possibly feel anything for me, nor could I for him. "Good Night," he kisses me, and I become rigid, "my sweet Belladona." And he leaves me there, sitting still as a stone. Before he leaves, though, he turns around. At the sight of me sitting there, stone-still, he smiles, then quickly hides it, but I see it. "I also want to say, that I am sorry for your injuries. If you no longer try to escape you will not receive such harshness directed towards you." And with that he finally leaves, closing the door lightly behind him.

For a second, I sit there still stunned then my head starts to droop to the floor and as I begin to cry again, my eyes flutter to a close, and I once again, enter troubled sleep.