Prologue

The young raven haired boy's skin was freezing cold to the touch and the young woman whom had fond him and did the only thing she really could to do to keep him warm. As gently as possible she pulled the boy forward against her chest. The chill radiating through his clothing made her shiver slightly as she wrapped her arms around him, her cheek resting against the side of the boy s hair. "It's okay, Carter." She whispered quietly, carefully tightening the embrace. She could feel Carter instantly relax, melting into her chest and soaking up her warmth.

The adrenaline of it all was wearing off as she sat there, holding her injured and shivering little brother in her arms. She knew they had to move. She knew they had to get to a warm place as quickly as possible. She knew they needed to prepare for the worst possible situation. But at that moment, all she wanted was to sit there pretending that the already chaotic world wasn't t crumbling down around her.

The fire had killed their parents, but it hadn't injured twelve year old Alice and she felt horrid that her brother, who was only six, had been injured. Sighing she looked down at him, his eyes had closed and she frowned. She lightly shook his shoulder and whispered into his ear. "You've gotta stay with me..okay?" He made a sound that sounded like the words 'okay' but she wasn't sure.

The younger brother s eyes were closed, his breathing seeming to get shallower and shallower with each passing minute. Alice sighed as she shook him lightly, he didn't respond and she began to grow worried. "Carter!"

"I ..can't do.. it."

A wave of relief crashed through Alice at Carter's suffering response and she swallowed hard, forcing strength she didn't t feel into her voice. Yes you can, just for a few minutes.

His eyes remained closed and Alice could practically feel him slip into unconsciousness.

Glancing over with horror-struck eyes, she was panicking again. "Carter!"

This time, she got no response.

Carter was out.

Yeah, Carter had survived which was a miracle in itself. But the nightmare was just beginning, Alice could feel it. Would her brother every be the same after this was all done and over with?

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At the age of eight Carter began having nightmares again, Alice, who was fourteen at the time, grew worried. Worried that this time Carter may not snap out of it like he did when he was younger, with tear filled eyes and a shaking hand she took him to the one place where her last hope was.

St. Lucifer's Asylum.

The sign on the old rusted gate gave her chills as she pushed it opened and drug her brother along side, she didn't want to disown him, but the nightmares had started to draw him into madness. She had no other place to turn. *
Janessa White hated this. She walked into the forboding old building and stared at the barred windows. She shuddered and walked through the gate and into the asylum.

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"Miss White!" said the man who was in charge of the place, Mr. Jacobs. "So nice to see you. I'm terribly sorry for your loss."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Jacobs," she said. Her melodic voice barely masked her irritation.

"It's terrible, to lose both of your parents at such a young age."

Janessa's father had died before she was born, and her mother had succumbed to a form of influenza only two months previously. The loss of her mother was still a barely healed wound, and his mention of it ripped her chest open.

"I assume you are here for your sister?"

Janessa winced at the mention of her elder sister. Joanna had started hearing voices that didn't exist when she was twelve (three years younger than Janessa was now). It wouldn't have been a problem, but the voices started to tell her to do things. She had set fire to a house when they finally decided that she needed to be locked up.

That fire still haunted Janessa. She had been five at the time, and she was terrified by the fact that her big sister would start a fire that killed people because some voices told her to. She had carried guilt for months afterward until her mother had finally convinced her that there was nothing she could've done to stop her sister.

She kept track of the only two survivors of that fire: a boy two years younger than she and a girl who was the same age as Joanna. She avoided eye contact with this girl whenever possible, and never went to the asylum if she could help it. She didn't want to risk him recognizing her as having something to do with it. Rumors had it that the fire had driven him to madness.

"I am only here to be sure that she gets treated with the same respect that she got when Mother was still with us," she said curtly. Janessa's family had both wealth and influence, and Joanna was treated like a princess, even in this awful place.

"Yes, but you surely wish to see her? Miss Joanna speaks often of you," Mr. Jacobs said in an attempt to persuade her.

Janessa sighed. Before the fire, she had idolized her big sister. Even now, it was hard to just let that go. "I suppose I have the time," she said.

Mr. Jacobs grinned broadly, grabbed a ring of keys, and led her up a set of stairs.

Janessa stayed as close to the middle of the hall as possible, trying to avoid any of the inmates noticing her.

That didn't stop her from noticing one of them.

Perhaps it was his eyes, she later reflected, that had sparked her interest. They were blue, and they seemed to pierce straight through her own hazel ones. Perhaps it was the fact that, even stuck in this awful place, he still managed to retain a shred of his good looks. Perhaps it was simply because he appeared to be her own age. Either way, it took effort for her to pull her focus away from the boy and back to the subject at hand. She turned at the end of the corridor, and the boy was gone from her sight. As she walked into her sister's cell, she had to try hard to put him out of her mind.

"You must not look at them." Said a young nurse, she looked no older then Carter, she had been his nurse for about a week now and he still wouldn't talk. She guessed it had to do with what he held inside. She had heard of the fire and how his own sister had disowned him at a young age, she couldn't really blame her after all he was helpless and still was haunted by nightmares.

Sighing she pulled at his thin and pale arm, he turned towards her, his eyes pierced her own green ones; she blushed faintly as she ran a hand through her chocolate brown hair. For someone who did not speak he still found away to make her blush, luckily no one knew of that. "0324, I-we think you should be moved into another room."

0342 It pained her to say that. He had a name, she knew that and he too knew it, but sadly he was one of those who was given a number. She was told it so the person would not feel any connection to a family, it made her feel bad for the boy.

"Stay here, I need to find Mr. Jacobs."

James made no notion that he heard her, she knew he did though, and sat down on the small bed. She walked out of the room and locked the door-not because she didn't trust him-but because it was so he knew not to leave.

Emma Andrews, the young nurse, hurried to where Mr. Jacobs had went and lightly grabbed onto his arm, she smiled at the girl with him and then spoke softly. "0342, needs his new room, and I do not have the key."

Janessa walked cautiously into Joanna's cell.

"Hello, Joanna," she said as she walked in. She felt out of place in the room; even though Joanna was supposedly being treated better than the other prisoners, her dress and hair were both grimy with dirt. However, something flickered in the woman's eyes.

"Is that my little Janessa?" she asked no one in particular (well, she was probably speaking to someone, but only she was aware of them). "My, look at how tall and beautiful she's gotten." Joanna circled her like a vulture.

Janessa felt incredibly uncomfortable in her black silk gown and corset as her sister continued to circle her. Her sleek brown waves were pinned out of her eyes, and they hung to the middle of her back. Joanna's hair was cropped short so that it looked almost like a man's haircut; Janessa suspected that her hair, which had once been so lovely, had been sold to a wig-maker.

"We must do something to welcome her, mustn't we?" Joanna was saying as she walked. "But what? Perhaps introduce her to..."

But Janessa never found out who she was going to be introduced to. At that instant, a nurse walked into the cell and said, "0342 needs his new room, and I do not have the key."

Mr. Jacobs smiled at the young nurse and handed her his key ring. "Come, Janessa. We must leave her in peace."

Janessa looked at her sister sadly, but the woman seemed to be in her own world, gesticulating at the air and speaking very persuasively to the empty space before her. "Yes, Mr. Jacobs," she said.

Mr. Jacobs led her and the nurse over to one of the cell's they'd passed. "Grab 0342 out of there and we'll bring him to his new cell." Janessa made to leave, but Mr. Jacobs grabbed her arm. "This will be a good education for you, Miss White," he said to her. "Stay."

Janessa couldn't refuse.

Emma smiled as her fingers gripped the cold key, she looked at Joanna and frowned slightly as she shook her head. It was as if to say 'what a shame..' she however said nothing. Instead she walked out of the cell and down the hall until she reached Carter's room.

She unlocked it and looked at him for a moment, he looked up and into her eyes, she quickly walked into the room and grabbed him by the arm. There was more force to it this time as she lead him out of the room and turned to look at Mr. Jacobs.

"Here he is." She said, her voice was soft, but at the same time harsh. Carter looked up at Mr. Jacobs with hate filled eyes, he had never liked the man. He then let his eyes wonder towards Janessa, but Emma slapped him across the face as if to say. 'Stop that!'

Janessa stared at the boy that they yanked out of the cell. It was the same boy whose eye she had caught earlier. As she looked at him, she realized why.

There are certain faces a person never forgets. Usually the faces are of someone of importance to them, like a parent or a best friend. There are times, however, that a face is associated with a trauma, and the two are forever linked in the person's memory.

He was the boy. The same boy that she had watched lose consciousness in his sister's arms. The boy whose life Joanna had ruined. She felt positively ill.

"Carter," she said. The sound came out more like a hum than a name. "Carter, on behalf of my sister and my entire family, I am so terribly sorry..."

She wasn't able to get a full apology out before she was struck across the face. Her cheek stinging, she looked up to see Mr. Jacob's hand raised as though he had just slapped someone. She easily put two and two together, and she stared at him, completely and utterly bewildered.

"We never use names here," he growled angrily. "Never."

Carter looked down, he couldn't even look at the girl, he felt nothing from the small slap across the face but he knew she did from hers. Emma nudged Mr. Jacobs lightly as she motioned to Carter. "We should get it over with, 0342 still needs his blood drawn for the hour."

Carter was given one meal a day, and had his blood drawn every three hours, it was something that made him sick when he was younger, but now it was normal. She looked down at the key in her other hand.

24 Was the number that was inscribed onto it, she smiled knowing it'd be a windowless, that way he couldn't draw. Just because he didn't talk didn't mean he couldn't communicate, he did so with drawings on the wall, they started out happy, but as time bore on they grew darker. She couldn't risk him being punished so a new room was the answer.

Angry and frustrated, Janessa decided to leave the asylum, but so help her, she would be back tomorrow. She needed time to calm down and think rationally; she wouldn't do anyone any good if she was angry with Mr. Jacobs and his actions.

"Excuse me," she said softly before making her escape.

She was relieved to get out of the musty old building and back into the sunlight. She took a deep heaving breath and walked back to her house, lost in thought.

Emma took Carter to his new room, she made sure he was fine before locking the door. She sighed and walked down the hallway, he was going to find a way to somehow get his emotions out, even if that meant her helping him.

"Cater, I'm sorry.." She whispered to herself as she walked away from the room.

.:.A/N: So, what do you think of the prologue? Do you think this story will go very far? Love it, hate it? Please R&R! Chapter one will follow more into what the summary was mentioning, but for right now I had to put this up. You'll see why later! PS. I have a skeloton key with the number twenty-four on it, hence the room number and title. .:.