.Prologue.

“You stole my piano.”

Not exactly the words I expected to hear when I opened the front door and found myself met by a startling pair of black eyes that glared at me behind long streaks of ebony hair, all mangled and sticking to her unnaturally pale skin. Her lips, barely rosier than her light skin tone, were pursed in a flat line.

She enunciated every word clearly, as if I was mentally incompetent. “You… stole… my… piano.”

“You… are… in…sane.” was the reply I should have volleyed back at her, but instead my eyes pasted themselves to the hardwood floor as I stepped back, pulling open the door so she could escape from the raging storm.

She did not budge. She did not blink, despite the water droplets that the wild wind was flinging her way. She only waited for a response.

“What do you want me to say?” I suddenly blurted, not taking any care to mask the annoyance evident in my voice.

I cringed as I heard a distant flurry of steps rushing down the stairs. Before I had time to turn around, Mar was standing at my side, aghast at my horribly inhospitable nature.

“Come in before you catch your death!” Mar cried, attempting to grab one of our mysterious guest’s thin wrists. Even with a substantial tug, the stranger refused to give in, remaining anchored in the mud that swirled around her black boots, slowing absorbing her. Her dark eyes remained fixed on mine, even as she addressed Mar.

“I am not leaving until your friend gives me back my piano.”

I felt my temper beginning to rise when I realized that Mar was struggling to suppress a fit of giggles. Ever since she had dyed her hair blond, I could swear it seeped into her brain or something, but then again, nothing ever seemed to spite her.

“Shall I retrieve the grand piano from the ballroom, Aurelie?” Mar asked with a grandiose gesture of her arm, barely able to finish her question without smirking uncontrollably.

“Not. Funny.”

“Lighten up.”

“There’s a freakin’ monsoon going on outside.”

“You’re just making it worse.”

I visibly twitched, causing Mar to shut her mouth and straighten up as she suddenly remembered we were in the presence of company, no matter how unwanted it was.

“My piano?” the girl insisted again. At least, I assumed she was young. I strained to estimate her age from the little I could see under the mess of black hair. Like a broken record, she repeated, “My piano?”

“I’m not deaf.” I coolly replied.

Mar just had to make it worse. “If you were, you wouldn’t have much use for a piano.”

“Stop leading her on like we own one!” I hissed at her. Under normal circumstances, I would not have behaved so rudely, but nothing I said seemed to have any effect on the bizarre little creature impatiently waiting on our doorstep in the pouring rain, which happened to be worsening by the second.

Without a single word, she turned on her heel, walking off into the sheets of darkness and rain, leaving us in a strange void, the howling winds expanding and lashing out to fill it.

I found myself shaking my head back and forth incredulously. In my state of confusion and wonderment, I failed to notice that Ion had caught part of the show from the staircase. I had no idea how long he had been silently presiding over the confrontation, but as he leaned against the shoddy banister he murmured with a little bit too much anticipation, “I wonder if she’ll be back.”

“Of course she will,” Mar chuckled as she tossed her blond curls over her shoulder and pushed the door shut with a playful slam. “She still wants her piano.”