Chapter One

Ephrata

I hunkered down low in my seat, glowering violently at the back of the person’s head in front of me. It was a big head, one with black hair rolling down its shoulders. I supposed it was alright. But that wasn’t the cause of my glare. The reason was rather who owned the head: some cousin twice removed or the like that I had never met until five minutes prior who had greeted me at the airport was the source. The minute I arrived in Ephrata, a small Pennsylvanian town in Lancaster County, I knew I wasn’t going to get along with my cousin.

It wasn’t his personality or even his frown upon seeing me in the main terminal of the Philadelphia Airport. It was just his...aura or something. Something about him just told me to turn tail and get back on the plane to go back to Memphis where I belonged. There was nothing for me there anymore, not after my parents were murdered. I had sunk into depression so deep that none of my friends could stand to be around me anymore, and my boyfriend gave up on me after just two weeks. None of it mattered, none of it hurt. All the pain from my parents’ deaths covered the pain from my closest friends’ desertion, I suppose. No, there was nothing left for me there. Just traitors and more bouncing from home to home.

I suppose that’s how I ended up in my Aunt Kelly’s house that day, with Big Head and the empty car. The scenery’s beauty escaped me as I stared blankly out the window into space.

“Enjoying Ephrata, Lilyanna?” God, how lame can you get? Lilyanna. Sounds like the name an old English grandma would give her hairless pet lap dog.

“My name is Lily.” Hostility dripped from my voice, and I really didn’t care. I had told him the first time he had called me Lilyanna. Now he was just doing it to make me mad.

“Fine. Lily then. Are you enjoying Ephrata?”

“It’s fine enough, I suppose, for a town not even on the map.” I was pissed and saw no reason to hide it.

“We’re small, yes, but I see no reason that you couldn’t have a good time here.”

“You mean besides the fact that I’m living in a house with my aunt while my parents are cold in their graves?”

There was silence in the car and Big-headed-I-already-forgot-what-his-name-is looked rather uncomfortable. Hah. He should be. I rapped my head on the glass and stared blankly into the windshield while contemplating all the ways I could possibly kill myself with the small piece of ribbon in my hands.

The car pulled up the house not that much later. Overall, it was a nice house. Wood siding with stone accents glared out at me, and I got the strong impression that it might be haunted. My aunt walked out of a wooden mahogany door and greeted me with open arms. “Lily! My dear girl! I’m so glad you decided to come stay with me and Frederick.”

Oh, so that was Big Head’s name. Makes more sense than my nickname for him.

“I’m happy to be here.” I think.

“Your bedroom is downstairs on the far right. Do make yourself at home. If you wish the room to be painted, we can paint it. I’m afraid that the previous owner’s daughter was a little bit of a...disturbed girl.” I like the girl already.

I stepped through the glass doors, which assured me that I would get no privacy in this house, and found that I agreed with my aunt. The girl had been a bit disturbed. And not in a bad way. The room was painted a dark purple with black borders. In the center of the room was a large black bed with lights attached to the headboard. Overall, I loved the new room. The girl knew exactly how I felt. I fell down on the thick futon mattress and stared at the off-white drop ceiling. Closing my eyes, I dropped off to sleep and didn’t wake until late the next day to the sound of a dog’s bark loud and in my ear.

“What the hell!?” I screamed and literally jumped out of bed, taking covers and pillow with me.

My aunt ran into the room with Frederick on her heels. She snickered when she saw me on the floor and the hound from hell on my bed, panting and looking extremely proud of himself. “I see you’ve met Sly.”

“If you mean the little demon who just tried to explode my eardrum, then yes. I have met Sly.”

It appeared to be a German Shepard with a tawny stomach and black back, but that may have just been a disguise for his inner ogre. He lunged at my face with his long, pink tongue and I just barely leaned back in time to avoid an unwanted facial wash. I looked at him in disgust and stood up. My grimy, day-old clothing stuck to my body due to the sweat produced from the overheated room. One would think a room half underground would be cooler than this one was. One would be wrong.

“Well, get cleaned up and changed. Breakfast will be ready in fifteen minutes and then I’m taking you shopping for new linens and school stuff.” Aunt Kelly called while walking down the hall away from me.

“I don’t need new bed stuff! I brought my old stuff!” I yelled down the hallway.

She walked back and leaned against the doorway. “Well then, that’s settled. I’ll still take you shopping.” She still head onto the doorway with one hand while walking away before doubling back. “Oh, and Lilyanna?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t swear. You’re better than that.” She disappeared from sight.

I scoffed and flopped backwards onto the bed again. I’d really have to put a lock on that door.

As it turned out, in a town this small, there was no shopping center like the gigantic one my friends hung out in at home. Instead, they had a quaint, little building some twenty minutes away from my aunt’s house. Protesting that I was perfectly capable of driving myself with suitable directions the whole way, I was driven to the mall by Big Head (I had no desire to give up the nickname with how much thought I had put into it) with Aunt Kelly in the front asking me about Memphis.

I tried to block out the more unpleasant feeling stirring within me, like the loss of my friends and the proximity to my parent’s graves, by giving one word answers and staring out the window.

The scenery really was beautiful, despite it being on the highway. The trees were thick and green and you could see for miles, clear to the faint shadows of the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains. The birds were chirping outside, I suppose, but the sound was drowned out by the droning of the wind in my face. The sun gleamed a beautiful orange and pink at the ungodly hour of ten o’clock.

I suppose it really wasn’t early, but I considered it a crime to be up before at least 11:30. Considering the late hours I had been keeping lately in hopes of avoiding the nightmares that followed my parents death simply by being tired to the point of unconsciousness, it really wasn’t that much of a surprise that I woke up later than most people.

When we finally arrived, I was mildly disappointed at the size of it, although I had been expecting it. I was, for lack of a better term, dragged out of the car by Big Head and pulled into the entrance of their mall. Aunt Kelly tried to get me interested in the brilliant pinks and vibrant greens that basically shined off of the shelves, drawing in the more coifed and pampered girls than those such as myself, who avoided those crowds at all costs.

I gravitated toward the one store in the entire place that I knew was a safe haven for the likes of me, the store that dealt in blacks and reds, skulls and crossbones, antique lace and metal zippers. I grabbed a black pleated miniskirt with hidden purple flaps that resembled a darker version of a cheerleaders’. I also picked up a matching purple Asian print halter top. Luckily, I had a matching pair of black and purple Converse’s to match already in my closet. The outfit had the perfect feel for my first day at Ephrata High School. Though I wasn’t sure of the number of people who wore mostly black at the school, I couldn’t really say that I cared.

The center of attention, lately that was me. Mostly because of the whispers that noone wanted to me to hear back home. Rumors that I had somehow been involved in the murder of my parents, rumors that I was pregnant and running away with Kiel, my boyfriend at the time, and my parents didn’t like it, so I killed them off. Here, I would be the one that no one knew who was. Here, I would be fresh meat. I was going to have to prove that I wouldn’t put up with anything, or they would walk all over me.

I sighed. There was no way I was going to be able to fit in. Rumors would already be starting about me. Gossip mills likely would be moving about me even then. Unfortunately, I was about to make it ten times worse by showing up in unconventional clothing. Ha, people are probably expecting another Abercrombie and Fitch clone. I’d show them.

It was about that time that Aunt Kelly appeared behind me, out of nowhere, and looked at me with wide eyes. “What are you doing in here?” Her tone held disgust and astonishment.

“I like it in here.” I put my purchases on the checkout counter and pulled out my wallet, taking three twenties out of the bill pouch.

The teen guy behind the counter looked me up and down once before ringing up the outfit. I smiled at him sweetly, and his jade-colored eyes softened noticeably with approval.

God, he was gorgeous. His black hair hung over one eye and his lean body was clothed in the latest of The Used band tees and tight jeans. Black Converses’ graced his only imperfect feature, his large feet. Overall, he got a ten out of ten on the fashion scale and a ten out of ten on the physical one, despite his huge feet.

I smiled again and wrote my cell phone number on one of the cards sitting on the counter with my favorite black pen and handed it to him with a wink before grabbing my bag and walking out of the store.

My aunt followed me with a strange look on her face, as though she couldn’t imagine flirting with such poor quality such as the guy working behind the counter. I just smiled back at her too, and continued over to the next shop, a book store. I went right to my usual section and picked up as many books as I could carry. Vampire books, werewolf books, demon books, magic books, they all went on to the pile.

The clerk looked at me strangely as they all went onto the desk. I suppose that she was a bit taken aback that they were all romance novels, but that was my choice, so I blew her off.

The trip home was pleasant. It was actually quiet in the car. I pulled out a book and began to read, all the while pretending that the two other people in the car didn’t exist.