Chapter 1

I laughed as my dad chased me through the forest, my new dress bunched beneath my hands as I picked up my skirts and ran. I felt the wind blowing in my face. The sound of birds chirping echoed through the forest like a crowd.

He chuckled and rushed after me. "Come here, my little flower!" His laughter echoed as he trailed behind me.

I laughed wholeheartedly and darted out of the forest and into the open alleyways at the edge of London City.

My dad's voice got swept away in the wind, something about turning back. The last words I heard from him sounded distressed.

I ignored it, laughing like an perosn who drank too much alcohol at a night club. People stared at me awkwardly, but I didn't care. I only smiled and kept moving forwards, tripping slightly as I hid behind a ally way wall breathing heavily.

My nine year old hands brushed my hair to the side lightly as I searched this way and that for my dad. As I continued searching, I could feel my faith beginning to slowly fade like an old memory. I felt my smile fade, and my heart beat ever so much faster. My chest rose and fell with a rising panic.

My blue and white silk dress felt heavy upon my little body, the bodice tightening with every second.

I could barely breathe. My chest was beginning to feel itchy as my breathing was hanging on the edge. A couple of tears began to fall down my face like flower petals. Where was my dad? I wondered. Yet, I still didn't hear him call out my name. "Dad?"

I scrambled out into the street yelling out for my father; people glaring at me in perplexity. (They thought I was a troubled little girl.)

A man, who had a women next to him, her arm gently wrapped around his as he stood straight and manly, gasped and raised her open hand to her mouth, staring at me. Her red silk hat almost dropped as I ran past.

Tears streamed down my face and I could feel shivers running down my body like little ants.

"Dad! Where are you!" I screamed. I turned around.

Nothing.

I began frantically searching all around me, tears continuing to fall down my face. "WHERE ARE YOU DADDY?!! I'M SO ALONE... SO AFRAID! I WANT YOU SO BADLY...!!!"

Still Nothing. Nobody answered.

I ran again, looking back as I did. Tears falling off my face like oil dropplets from a leaky barrel.

I cried as I ran into another ally way and bent to my knees, my dress ripping slightly at the bottom; a part of my white undergarments were now showing. I raised my arms and cried into my hands. I then grabbed my hair and pulled it like wrapping paper off a gift. I looked down at a puddle on the wet concrete ground; my face soggy like wet cotton candy; my eyes looked red like two swollen bee stings.

A light tap on my shoulder made me look up in desperation of my dad finally finding me. My faith had regained until I saw who tapped my shoulder.

A little boy, in a tuxedo, looked at me. "You okay, miss?"

I stared at him, then began wiping my tears away. "I l-lost my daddy..."

"Hm..." his brown eyes scanned mine. He silently knelt and put a hand on my shoulder. "It'll be all right." He gently swept his black hair aside. "My dad will be here soon, he can help you."

I nodded sniffling. "T-thank...you..."

I wiped a couple of tears off my face and then went upon him and hugged him; he flinched. He hugged me back after a second.

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I blinked my eyes open, the faintest of lights from the moon outside my window was the only thing visible in the never ending darkness.

I sat up rubbing my eyes. I stared at the window for a second, only just now realizing I had seen that boy again in my dreams... That same boy wearing the tuxedo.

How odd...

I gently pushed the covers off me and got up; my white gown hanging on my slim form. I brushed my hair gently with my hands and then rubbed my waist. I was eighteen, and should've been married...

But no suitors wanted me. A small and flat chest, white pale skin, dark-brown eyes and brown hair as fine as silk and as smooth as a satin. People look at me like I am a witch, but they knew I wasn't one. I was beautiful in my own image.

My mother and father discarded me, unlike my younger brother who married at the age sixteen and was expecting his first child... I never had an experience like my younger brother... (I always wanted to have a child of my own.)

I walked to the window and stared out into the streets of London. The streets were silent like an abandon western town.

Trees near the street were swaying like flags. The street lights shined bright like powerful beacons causing many insects to come near them.

I could hear the sound of dogs barking somewhere in the city. I continued to think of that little boy in my dreams. Weird, I thought. Me looking out the window made me remember the day of the terrible incident I witnessed... The day I saw my uncle murdered by a vicious creature...

If I dare call it a creature. That was no being of this earth... The creature that came from whatever land or hell.

I sighed and turned away from the window and reached for the lamp on the dresser next to my bed. I placed the lamp in between my legs. I then opened the drawer on the left side of my bed, and pulled out a box of matches. I then scraped the match and put it in the lamp; it lit instantaneously.

I put the flame out in a cup of water set on top of drawer. I decided to take a drink. I could taste the ashes from the match. Tasted like death itself.

I then got up and walked over and gently sat the lamp down next to my desk...

My next task...

Was death.