"Where am I?" The small child, Violet whispered to herself. She glanced around; the night was like black satin, and cold. The kind of cold that didn't just make you shiver; the kind that reached all the way to your soul and made you freeze. All she could see was night. It seemed to swell and bend around her, it was alive in itself. Seeming to breathe; eating at her life. There was a soft noise off to the left. Turning quickly she looked into the deep abyss. Something was amiss. Looking towards the direct of the noise she called, "Hello?"

The silhouette of a man appeared in the shadows. The shadows swelled with a new fury now; excited with the new life force. "Good evening my dear child," A sinister smile was on the man's empty face as he spoke to her, "The time is almost upon us. One day you will be ready to join me. Join me in the everlasting darkness that is your true home."

He strolled towards her, unhindered by the beings pulling at his arms and legs, trying to drag him away. Violet realized the shadows themselves weren't alive, but there were creatures, apparitions moving within the shadows. She felt a churning deep in her stomach, the instinct to run was hammering throughout her body, yet she was unable to move an inch.

His face was still enveloped in shadows, except for his teeth gleaming in the small amount of light there was. "Who... who are you?" The small, shaken girl questioned, tears in her eyes.

"I am your biggest fears. I am the shadows in the darkest of nights. I am your darkest nightmares sweet child of mine, and we will meet soon. You will find me no matter how desperately you try to avoid it. The time will come that you will have to face your fears," he leaned down, now face to face with her; she screamed seeing his eyes were scratched out, seemingly endless pools of misery, "or death will take you in its grasps."

The wisp of a girl woke up screaming, tears spilling out of her eyes and down her face. She stumbled into her parent's room, crying out for them. "Momma! Daddy! Wake up!" Violet reached out for her mother's hand, only find it freezing cold. A chill ran down the girl's spine. "Momma…" The tears came with a new power. Somehow, her child-like mind understood exactly what happened. Her body was racked with wails of pure misery.

Her parents were dead.

Scuffed up sneakers and a deadly drop were all I could see as I stared downward. Smoke was rising into the air, swirling around with my brown and red un-cut hair. An all-but-spent cigarette was held between my flat black nails. I took the last puff off it, feeling the familiar burn of the smoke filling up my lungs. A smirk rose on my lips, realizing I could fall to my death at any moment yet knowing I wouldn't.

"Those will kill you, you know. They don't call'em cancer sticks without reason." A familiar voice sounded from behind me.

"You know, I really don't fucking care X, right?" A smile spread across my face as I replied. Xavier was my best friend. Tall, dark skin, black laughing eyes, he was amazing. He was one of the few bright spots in my otherwise difficult life.

"Hey, easy chica, I was just saying. Mind if I bum one off you?" Standing up off the ledge, I pulled one out for him We sat in silence as he smoked.

"Did you hear about Marco?" He asked softly.

Marco was a friend of ours, more Marcos then mine. The night before he had died in a shooting. "Yeah, it blows, but I mean, it's not like we didn't see it coming. He's been getting involved with some sketchy stuff." I replied.

"I guess so, but man, it sucks." I watched his mouth blow out the smoke from his last puff on his cig. He mashed it between his foot and the gravel. "Come on, let's go, it's getting dark out." Wrapping his hand around mine X dragged me back into the apartment. It wasn't anything special; two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. It was home though.

I gave a small smile to Jamie, her tall, blonde, blue eyed self; Whispering a quiet, "thank you," for cooking dinner as I passed by. Walking into the living room, I plopped onto the couch next to Noah making out with whats-her-face of the week. I started making gagging noises until he smacked me and told me to shut the hell up. Laughing I snatched the remote out from under his butt and flipped through our channels.

This was our broken down little family. Jamie, or Jasmine, was the mother of us all. Being 21 she seemed to think that made her in-charge, which was all right with the rest of us. She worked most of the day, along with Noah, to keep our apartment. Noah was like the rebelling teenager; or at least that's how he pretended to be, even kept up the style with the leather jacket and dyed black faux-hawk. Turning 19 in two months made him the second oldest. He was moody and jumped from girl to girl, but he was loyal as a dog when it came to his friends. I loved him to death, but God forbid he ever heard me say that. That left me and X. Lucky bastard was about to 18 while I had just turned 17. He was my favorite, but don't tell the others. We were the first two, banding the rest of us together. He rescued me off the streets when I was 14. We've been a team for three years and counting.

All of us were missing parents. They vanished, were drunks, or were dead; just how it was, no getting passed it. There were no sob stories in this family, because this is all we had now, all we needed, our family. We were each other's anchors. Keeping us tethered to reality as we took it in one day at a time.

"Dinner is served." Jamie walked out, somehow, carrying five plates cradled in her arms. We all jumped up to grab our share of the food. Homemade mac n' cheese, best food in the world. We all sat around the living room, laughing and joking, just being generally happy. Well, Noah being as non-moody as he can be anyway. This is how things should be, calm, peaceful, happy.

"Momma! Daddy! Wake up!" Violet reached out for her mother's hand, only find it freezing cold. A chill ran down the girl's spine. "Momma…" The tears came with a new power. Somehow, her child-like mind understood exactly what happened. Her body was racked with wails of pure misery.

She heard someone knocking at the front door, but it barely registered in her mind at the moment. Her parents were dead. Her parents were dead. Her parents were dead. That's all that she could really think of.

"Oh my God." Violet heard the gasp from the door, but again, it didn't faze her. She distinctively heard someone on the phone, then the police coming and taking her away, but she just stayed curled up in her little ball of pain. It hurt to breathe, knowing she was utterly alone. Even as a child Violet knew she didn't have any family. She was alone.

I stood up and glanced around. It was dark and oddly familiar, everything drummed with life, even if that life was cold like the dead. Everything seemed to sway to its own beat, and I found myself moving with it. Taking light steps as I danced through the void. There were figures in the shadow, the faded in and out, like ghosts. One moment I could see them and the next they had vanished. They were leading me some place, I could tell how eager they were as I moved. Pushing me forward. Onward into the great abyss it seemed.

There was a bright light and my eyes had to momentarily adjust before I realized where they had led me. It was a park about two miles away from my home. The trees looked like giants in the dark on the night; Looming over me, trying to run me off. They seemed to say, "Run, run far away or we will crush you."

"Ahh, so I see my little friends brought you here." I spun, almost falling, to the voice. It was the man from my dreams all those years ago; the one that killed my parents. I know it was him, it had to be. "I'm glad they brought you here themselves, didn't want to have to leave a mess behind like that last time I visited you." His voice was like velvet, but I knew not to listen to it.

I wanted to scream at him. To rip him into a thousand little pieces; make him feel like I did. In that moment, I relieved that night. The night my parents died. Tears swam into my eyes and spilled down my face, but I was paralyzed and didn't even have the energy to wipe them away.

"Peace child. You're family's death was an unfortunate… accident. It won't happen again. It caused you so much pain I could hardly live with myself." Spoke that velvet voice, laced with sympathy. It threw me. He sounded honestly hurt. I couldn't let him get to me, but before another word could escape my mouth, he spoke.

"Enough of this. You will meet me here within two days or I will be forced to act. You belong to me, never forget that." That was the last I heard, because the next thing I knew Xavier was shaking me awake.

"Violet, Violet wake up! Please Violet, it's just a dream, I'm here, you'll be okay, I swear." All I knew was my eyes were burning, and my limbs were aching, and X was shaking the crap out of me. I couldn't remember anything. I wanted to say "I'm okay." But all that came out was a gasp and tears flooded out of my eyes and down my face. He pulled me against his chest, whispering sweet things and telling me it'll be all right. He smelled like cigarettes and cinnamon. Rocking my back and forth, comforting me making sure I was all right. We stayed like that until I fell asleep.

I woke up to hands running through my hair, my eyes still burned but at least I could move around. I glanced up to smiling black eyes. I never noticed they had flecks of gold in them. My eyes slid over to the clock. It was 4:37 a.m.

"Morning sunshine, not your best morning is it?" Xavier said with a twinkle in his eye. I sat up quickly and glanced in the mirror. I looked like shit. God how could he stand to look at me? Those eyes met mine and he whispered, "You look beautiful," then pulled me down into a kiss.

Oh.

Okay.

Yeah, this is good.

Those sweet tasting lips pulled away quietly. "Go to sleep bello, I'll be around when you wake up." X crawled out of my bed, pulling up the blankets to my chin. I passed out instantly. Dreaming of nothing but Xavier kisses and warm cuddles.

That morning I woke up and felt like I had gotten shit faced the night before. My head was spinning and I could barely walk. I wasn't sure what were dreams and what reality was. I remember X kissing me, but that must have been a dream. Trying to remember anything else was impossible; just eating dinner going to bed, and one big vacant space in my head.

I stumbled my way into the kitchen, noisily searching for the coffee and advil. When I finally found it I had woken up the whole house, probably the whole building from all the noise I was making. Within an hour or so I had breakfast cooking and my headache had faded into a dull throb. Putting on my biggest smile I strode into the living room, carrying everyone's plates and plopped down right in X's lap. He was very comfortable after all.

Around noon Noah had to go to work, we were all so disappointed when his play thing and he had to leave. Apparently they had kept X and Jamie up all night with their racket. The rest of us lounged around the house the rest of the day, talking about nothing in particular, just spending time together, like a family should.

By the time Noah got home we had already re-watched half the movies and were bored out of our minds. "Hey, Noah, sugar-bear, how was work?" I yelled from the living room. The door slamming was my answer. The boss had pissed him off again, I just hope he didn't get fired; we couldn't handle that right now.

"Noah, you okay? You didn't get fired, did you?" I stood up quickly reaching for his arm but he yanked it away from my out reaching hand.

"No, I didn't. I kept my cool until I got home. I can't believe that jackass! He keeps blaming everything on. I didn't do anything wrong. It was that good for nothing asshole Colton." Noah screamed. He paced back and form across the floor. Not making eye contact with anyone, I was kind of glad he didn't. I had a feeling he'd burn holes through us.

"I'm sorry, is there-"I began but was cut off.

"No. Just shut the hell up and leave me alone. I don't want to be bothered." Noah stormed back through the kitchen and out the door. I almost chased after him but Jamie grabbed my arm.

'There's no point, let him cool off, he'll be home soon." She reassured me. I nodded and went back to my seat on the couch. She was right. He'd either spend the night at his girlfriends or he'd come home. Hopefully. You never truly know in a neighborhood like ours.

As the sun got closer and closer to the horizon we all became more worried. I volunteered to go looking for me, and X said he'd come with if I wanted him too, but I told him I needed some time to think anyway. My feet tapped against the cement as I walked along the sidewalk. There was still enough daylight to see but I'd have to turn around and go home before soon.

I whipped out a cigarette, lighting it quickly and continuing with my walk. I watched the smoke rise up through the air, seeing it vanish into the sky. Glancing around on occasion to see if Noah is anywhere in sight, he wasn't. My mind seemed to clear almost instantly, just walked in whatever my feet wanted to take me.

Right as my cig was at the bud; I glanced up, seeing trees all around me. I must've walked into the park without realizing it. "You know those will kill you, right?" And it all come flooding back. The dream. The man. The phantoms. The trees. All of it.

"You know, I really don't give a shit." I replied with venom. I turned and gave him a smirk. "Guess you got wanted you wanted, I here, now, tell me, what on earth could you want with me?" He stepped into the light, looking nothing like how I remembered. He has shaggy blonde hair that was almost too his shoulders, bright blue eyes, he looked like an angel.

"You, child, that's all I want. I want you to come with me, join me." He declared a small grin on his face.

"But why? I don't even know you! And if you think I'd going anywhere with you, after what you did, you're insane." I shouted at him. He's nuts, I don't even know the guy! And he killed my parents. And threatened my friends.

"I didn't kill them you know. Your parents that is. It just... happened. It was the people I'm trying to protect you from, they're after you Violet. And they won't stop until they have you." It was like he read my mind. My mouth fell open, I couldn't believe it.

"You said… but… no, it has to be you…" My mouth stumbled over my words.

The handsome devil grabbed and hand and I felt myself started to black out. My knees buckled and my vision faded. Right before I was out, I heard him whisper in my ear, "Here, now you'll see what you truly are."