Hey everyone! This is the introduction of my story, "Heartfelt Surrender"! Everything I have written is orginal and I hope you enjoy. Also, I'm looking for a beta, so if anyone is interested please contact me!
Hope you enjoy it!
Summary:
Through a series of strange circumstance, Rea finds that she must join the army to support her struggling family. What starts out as her duty turns into something much more, when she meets the gorgeous and hard-to-please, Lieutenant General Caleb Harver.
Prologue: 860 words
It's not unusual to do stupid spontaneous things in your life. Well, at least that was normal in my family. So when my Dad decided to desert the army and vanish from the face of the planet, I had to do the not so normal thing and take charge of the situation.
I suppose I should explain. Well, to the best of my ability that is…my family was in a fucking mess. Mother was taking a turn for the worst, and with no more financial aid or even medical benefits coming our way, she wasn't going to get better. Father had, like I had just explained, left the army without telling us, and was nowhere to be seen. My siblings were all in a state of ignorant panic, and me? Well, I was feeling just a little bit lost.
But my first concern was the fact that Mother was getting worse. She was dying and she couldn't get better without help. We couldn't survive without Dad. We lived in the middle of nowhere and there was no work for us to do, because we were all too young.
And that's when it dawned to me.
I was sitting in the garden, making a daisy chain of all things, when I glanced up to see Phillip with a toy gun and plastic rapier, pretending to fight a bunch of Shivites. He was jumping and rolling everywhere, shouting orders to his friends and having fun.
It got me thinking about the war. About the Shivites. About Dad. And then, back to our rather hopeless and dismal situation. If only he was back in the army, everything would be ok.
Which made me think a rather absurd thing: If only Phillip was older than me and could go and join the army.
I remember shaking my head violently at the thought of my little brother, ten years my junior, fighting something as scary as a three headed Shivitian eagle-dragon. My little brother being held hostage by a bunch of murderous soldiers about to torture him for information. My dear, sweet, little brother killing another human being just so we can survive.
I had felt relieved when I remembered he was seven, and it would be at least another nine years before he could even think about joining that hell hole. But then it got me thinking about all the good benefits our family once had when Dad was in the army. Like free housing, medical, education, and even toiletries! We had none of that now. Our house was about to be leased off, and Mother was sick, and Phillip, Savannah, and Snow were going to be out of school!
And there was nothing I could do about it, it wasn't like I could go and join the army. I was a girl for crying out loud, it would never happen. Not even if I wanted to join.
I was pretty definite in my decision of never thinking, about even thinking about, joining the army again. But later that night, as if the Gods wanted to remind us of the shit we were in, Mother had to be hospitalized. The last of our gold spent for her recovery.
So the next day I wasn't surprised when I was taking the others for a walk that we ended up coincidentally by the recruitment agency. I don't really know what was going through my mind when I took them all inside and grabbed a recruitment form. I just remember seeing the gentleman in the information stall looking at me strangely, before shrugging and going back to reading his paper, flinching slightly as I took my siblings and slammed the door in defeat.
I couldn't believe I was going to do this. Savannah had urged me not to even fill out the form. She told me it was stupid, and that it would be a waste of time. Who in their right mind would recruit a seventeen year old girl to join the army?
I remember us getting into a fight. I remember telling her, that it was the only chance we had right now. Showing her the part of the form (which was in very small print and barely even legible) that girls could sign up and were given a 'chance'. That you had to be 16 to join, and other than taking a few tests to get in, could receive all the benefits we had before when Dad was in the army.
That even though it was a one in a billion chance thing, it was still a chance I was willing to take.
She had stormed off crying. She knew I wasn't going to change my mind. I figured it couldn't get any worse.
It wasn't like I'd get in anyway.
So with that I filled the form, put it in an envelope, stamped it, and mailed it that same day. Praying for a miracle to happen, like my Dad coming back or my Mum getting better, or us winning the lottery, I walked home hoping something good would happen to us. Even if that meant that my life had to end for it.
Please review and tell me what you think! The first chapter will be where everything fully begins! So please subscribe and stayed tuned for more!
I shall update soon:)
AKJSNA