Prologue

She woke suddenly, but not knowing why. There was no loud noise, no imminent danger, no threat to her life. She was not sweating, and her heart was not racing. But, for a moment, as she was waking up, it felt as though her heart skipped a beat. Massaging her temples, the girl closed her eyes and fought a surge of uncertainty and inexplicable fear that something was amiss. She lay back down, quelling a wave of nausea.

--:--

He screamed.

In a huge house all alone, a boy was in torment.

On and on he screamed, pain flooding him, pain from anything and everything. It consumed him, driving him mad. He clutched his hair, eyes wide, clinging desperately to what little sanity remained. As the horrible images infiltrated his mind once more, his eyes rolled back.

He was lost.

Blinded by chaos, he grabbed whatever he could reach, throwing it across the room.

He threw faster, harder. The sound of wood pounding and splintering filled the air, but he could not hear it. All he heard were their terrified screams. Shards of shattered wood exploded in the air around him, piercing his skin, but he could not see, he could not feel.

Finally, in his madness he ran into a something hard, stopping his frenzy abruptly. The impact sent his unconscious body flying backward, bouncing off the floor and tumbling to a halt a few yards away. He lay there several hours.

.

When he came to, he lay on a bed of splinters amidst the result of his destruction. For a moment he gazed blankly about the room, seeing yet not seeing. The distant sound of people and carriages confused him more. The house was several miles away from the nearest village, located on the other side of the forest. No one lived anywhere near the house, nor traveled by it.

Cognizant that propriety dictated he see who the people were and ask if they were lost, he rose and walked numbly down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the front door. Standing a ways out from the porch, he saw specks against the backdrop of the forest, growing steadily larger as they approached. He walked toward them, absently noting some sort of procession. He stopped.

They were dressed all in black, bearing long, shiny black boxes.

But they were headed toward the house…

The boy’s eyes glazed over, his mouth slack. The only sound was his heavy breathing.

Then, he bolted.

The members of the procession spotted him, recognized him, called out to him, but it was too late.

He ran into the forest.

An hour or so later, the funeral was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream. The priest fell silent, and the people shivered. The scream was followed by an unearthly howl.

And then,

Silence.

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I’m baaaaaaaaaack! Yeesh, sorry I took so long… I’m going back through the chapters I’ve already written now, just making sure everything runs smoothly, so expect edited versions of chapters. Revisions should be small and relatively insignificant (except to you grammar fanatics out there; they might make your day). Chapter 8, however…Let’s just say I’m VERY AWARE that object lists are not very exciting for the general population, so I will be making a large effort to make it not seem “list-y.” When I get to chapter 10, I will be editing and then writing, so it may take a little longer.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! I love you all!

REMINDER: The separators (--:--) signify a change in character perspective, meaning a different character is now speaking. The period (.) is a separator that just shows that time has passed (i.e. between events). The words in bold at the beginning of the chapter will be any content warnings. The words in bold at the end of the chapter are my Author Notes. The “Glossary” (only for some chapters) contains words that I made up for the purpose of this story, to give it an otherworldly feel.

Seriah Black