Chapter One

I had that dream again. The one where I stood in a field of snow, where mountains surrounded me and I sat along the banks of a quiet little pond. I could see across the pond, hidden from the old willows that lined the banks was the faint cry of a banshee. The water was still as if it was made purely of glass. Dancing along the edge was the soft lights, almost like fireflies dancing along the top.

There came a shadow that embraced me, and although it felt as if I should be afraid of who or what that came behind me, I wasn't. I was calm, and I kept looking out along the water. Their cold hand rested gently on my shoulder and I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes I no longer was sitting along the banks of a peaceful pond; but in the middle of a battlefield. I could see the pale man walking towards me, his eyes were glowing gold. His mouth moved as if he was speaking to me, but I heard nothing but the faint sound of beeping that grew louder as he grew closer. Oh, god. That bloody beeping, can someone please shut it off?

"Miriam." I opened my eyes and blinked slowly. My eyes adjusted to the lighting in my room. My room. I was no longer in the middle of a battlefield but I was nestled safely in my bed, laying on my side. "Miriam." Someone had opened my closet door, again. The light was off and nothing was thrown out of the closet, just the door was slightly opened. I found it odd, I always close the door right before I lay down at night, and yet every morning I find it open. I think my house is haunted. I reached over turning off the alarm as tiny arms reached over, holding me tightly.

"Good morning, Gracie." I laid on my back, looking at my kid sister who had snuck into my bed the fourth time this week. Her big warm chocolate eyes looked into mine, she gave me a half tired smile. "Another nightmare?" I asked her. She nodded, her thick brown curls were bouncing in her face. They needed brushing, and yet they held their shape almost perfectly.

My bedroom door opened, and standing the doorway in her pink polka dot robe was my mother. Her hair was pulled back from her face, something she did the moment her feet touched the floor in the morning, she had dark circles around her eyes and she looked as if she was crying. "Good. You're awake." Gracie slipped off the bed, to run to mom for a morning hug right as I slowly sat up, the blue and white quilt my grandmother made me when I was almost born sat on my lap. Blue and white, because in Mom's ultrasound I was supposed to be a boy. "I need you to watch the twins when you get back from school."

"I have plans this afternoon." She raised an eyebrow. "I'm having to tutor someone for English class." That's right, I get to tutor Mark Collins. The most popular guy in school. He was so dreamy, with his perfect smile and beautiful green eyes that you could count all his long eyelashes. Today is going to be the day that he notices me and I'm hoping that he will ask me to prom this year.

"Can't you cancel." She gave me a sad look as she combed Gracie's hair with her fingers. " I really need you to watch them, Miriam." I sighed and slowly got out of bed, I hate that. It's always when I have plans when Allen decides to bail on the girls leaving me to watch them. "Grace go wake up Karli." Gracie looked back at me and smiled before running off down the hall to wake her twin up for school. "It's your job as a big sister to watch them when I need you to."

Allen's their father, it's his responsibility too. I sighed as I scratched the side of my neck. "Fine." I gave her a soft smile. Although I would love to refuse her, I couldn't. She works two jobs to support all of us, I can't refuse her. That would make me a horrible daughter. "But you'll owe." My junior year of highschool and I lost my chance of getting a prom date for my first prom. All well, I thought. There's always next year. Mom raised an eyebrow at me and pressed her lips tightly. "You have to help me pick a dress out for prom tuesday, I don't want to go with Allen. He's terrible to shop with." I said quickly.

"Alright," she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with her right hand. "That's fine, I'll leave you so you can get ready for school." I stood in the middle of my room as she walked away, bringing the bedroom door to a close. I could hear running and shouting down the hall as the twins were getting ready for school too. I looked sadly at the outfit that I picked out laying on the top of my dresser. I had gone through all my clothes friday when Mrs. Burns told me that I was going to tutor Mark. I wanted to look cute for him, so finally he would notice me and finally ask me. I sighed and picked up a navy blue t-shirt that littered my bedroom floor, and made sure to do the smell test.

I slipped it over my head and paired it with my good jeans. A pair of Miss Me jeans that seem to take me forever for me to convince mom to buy me those at the start of the year instead of the freaking wrangler she normally buys me. I quickly finished getting dressed, and I went to open the curtains as I usually did when I finished getting ready. My room was on the second floor, right in the middle of the house. My windows faced out, giving me the view of the front yard, there was no grass only the rocks and the trees so my view wasn't pretty. But it did have an okay view of the forest that lined the yard and the mile long driveway.

It was dreary outside, raindrops were sliding down the windowpane. I saw soft blue lights spread out across the yard in an almost perfect line into the tree line. I blinked my eyes, and the lights were still there, flickering ever so softly. I rubbed my eyes hard until I saw spots and I could still see them. I knew I must not be crazy, I thought it was strange that they would be there. Maybe Allen put lights there? I shrugged and turned to walk out of my room for breakfast. When I got to the kitchen, Allen was there. Reading the newspaper as Mom stood over the stove cooking eggs in the skillet. Gracie was sitting on the floor, petting the cat by the backdoor and her identical twin, Karli, was sitting at the table looking at the tablet. The twins saw me as I walked in, and smiled at me. Mom nodded to me in her usual style, but Allen never noticed me.

"Hey Allen." Nothing, he kept looking at his newspaper. So I cleared my throat. "Hey Allen," he still didn't acknowledge me. I sighed and scraped the table chair. Causing an awful sound against the linoleum. Mom glared at me as Allen gave me a startled look as he sat his newspaper down on the table.

"Jesus, Miriam, you scared the shit out of me." He laughed nervously as he gripped the front of his shirt. The twins looked so much like him that it was scary, but you could see some of Mom in them too, but not much. But me? I don't look like my mom, and my dad from what I can remember doesn't look like me either. He left when I was nine, left me for his secretary and moved away from the small town of my birth all the way to the Big Apple.

"Did you put lights in the front yard?" I asked him as I poured myself a glass of orange juice.

"No," he shook his head as Mom sat a plate of bacon and three soft yolk eggs in front of him. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." I mumbled as I took a poptart from the cabinet and started munching on it. My mom and step-dad gave me an odd look. "I was just imagining things." I stared at the kitchen clock, watching the time till we had to make our dash to the bus stop.

"Could have been fireflies." Allen mumbled as he started eating the same breakfast that I have seen him eat everyday from the last seven years. Fireflies? In April?

"Come on girls." I sat the rest of my poptart down, I'll finish it when I get back from school. I grabbed the three of ours lunches from the fridge and my sisters grabbed their book bags. Mom kissed them on the forehead and we were off running down the driveway to the bus stop at the end. Since our town was small enough, high schoolers and elementary students rode the same bus to school. But the sad part of it is, I was the only junior that rode my bus. Everyone else has a car, well I do too. But it's sitting under a trap in Allen's garage with a blown head gasket, Allen is supposed to be putting a new motor in it since my birthday last June.. But it still hasn't happened.

~~~~~~~~~~

School went by quickly, Mrs. Burns was mad at me for cancelling my tutor session. And Mike as per usual didn't even know I existed. Not long after we walked through the front door Mom and Allen left us, leaving me in charge of my sisters. I never mind babysitting my sisters, but it always annoyed me when Mom and Allen did things like this. I even told them about my plan to tutor Mark on, of course Allen forgot that I even existed.

"Miriam!" Grace happily reached up and tightly wrapped her arms around my waist. Knocking the breath out of me. Purple and green colors stained her hands from when she was coloring with the washable markers out in the front room. "We want pizza, Miriam." I could hear Karli on the other side of the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, she was trying not to giggle.

I pressed my lips together and looked down at my younger sister. I smiled and gently sat the knife down on the counter, pushing it away from the edge so she couldn't accidentally bump into it and hurt herself. Not that she would, she knows better to stay away from knives, she learned the hard way when she was three and the long jagged scar on the palm of her right hand proves it. I picked her up and lifted her onto the counter, her brown eyes peered deeply into mine, she had a look that was so adorable, that it could almost make me do or give anything that she wanted. Almost being the keyword. "So sorry, girlfriend." I ruffled her curly hair, and then adjusted her shirt. "But mom had insisted that we have chicken nuggets with ketchup and sliced carrots for the side. Did you hear that Karli?" There came a groan from behind the wall. Gracie frowned as usual but only to then smile again at the mention of the word carrots. She possessed a strong love for them, for a poor example, if there was a pile of cookies or carrots on a table, she would probably go for the carrots. Well, I wouldn't be too surprised if she chose the cookies too. While Gracie loved carrots, her twin absolutely hated them, which I honestly found strange.

"Well can we at least watch some cartoons?" Karli asked me, she was holding the dvr remote in her hand. Since the girls were only seven, Mom didn't want the girls to mess with the tv, in case they found some of Allens dirty shows saved. Even though he wasn't supposed to leave those on the dvr, but that was a fight she gave up on a long time ago. Karli was watching me, I looked over at the clock. Mom doesn't want the girls to watch tv after 6:30, and it was ten minutes past.

"Sure, but don't sit so close to the screen." I smiled and helped her twin jump down, in each hand I grabbed their plates. Mom and Allen weren't supposed to be home till real late anyways. And she said that I was in charge, so I saw no problem with letting the girls watch tv past normal times. And we weren't supposed to eat in the living room either, but what Mom didn't know didn't hurt her. "What do you guys want to watch?" I asked them as I sat their plates on the coffee table and Karli handed me the remote.

"Scooby!" Karli said as she started pushing the carrots off her plate, ignoring the sideways glance I was giving her.

"What about you, Grace?" She put her carrot stick down and shrugged her shoulders.

"Scooby is fine." I scrolled down the list of tv shows that Mom and Allen had saved on the dvr until I found Scooby-doo. I clicked on an episode that was unwatched, 'Bedlam in the Bigtop.' I pressed play and left the tv remote in between the girls before returning to the kitchen to clean up. I could hear the TV in the kitchen when I left the room but it was a soft murmur and now it was louder, proof that one of the girls had turned it up. I dropped the knife on the floor. "Crap," I gasped as I bent over to pick it up off the floor. I heard a banging noise that seemed as if it came from the other room. "Hey what are you guys doing?" They didn't answer, I sat the knife in the sink to ask them again what they had done. But when I looked out in the living room they were eating and watching tv. And then I heard it again, this time it seemed as if it was coming on the back porch. I swallowed hard, it made my skin crawl. We lived out in the middle of nowhere, what in the world could it be beside a wild animal.

I took a knife out of the knife block, a simple pairing knife, but I needed a weapon in case it was a burglar. I could hear more noises coming off the back porch, my heart was racing. With a slow hand I unlocked the door and swung it open. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the cat just loicking itself on the porch waiting to be let in. "Stupid cat." I mumbled as he walked in, meowing at me. As I went to close the door, I saw those blue lights again. Only this time they were leading into the old barn that sat behind the house. Strange. I thought. "Hey, I'm going to check something out real quick." I shouted to the girls as I laid the knife back in the box, and grabbed the flashlight from the junk drawer.

I was curious about what those lights could have been, and I followed them. Closer to each light I got to disappear until I was standing to the large wooden door that was partially open, when normally they should be closed. I looked back at the house, it seemed so far away from the dark creepy barn. I heard movement coming from inside the barn, I jumped and flipped the flashlight on. "Just an animal." I told myself, the barn was old. Allen only has his car stuff in the bottom and Mom kept junk in the loft. So the sound could have been anything, from a raccoon to a cat, hell, even a coyote could have gotten in.

I entered the barn, hairs stood up on the back of my neck. The bottom part was dark and spooky, as I made my way through the cars and tools my step-dad had left out, I found myself at the base of the stairs for the loft. When Mom and Allen bought the house and land that it sat on, there was only a ladder. Mom had Allen put in stairs because at the time she was pregnant with the twins. There was a green light coming from the loft, I went to flip the switch for the light up there, but the light bulb fluttered out leaving me basking in the darkness. I went up, my flashlight in hand. It, too, had died out and when I got to the top I stood in the bright green light alone, so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. No sounds. I leaned the broom against the wall and stood in the middle, looking around cautiously. I nearly had a heart attack when my phone rang, I accepted the call and placed the phone to my ear. "Hello?" I replied, my voice shook from being startled.

"Hey there, Miriam." Mom was practically yelling into the phone over the loud background noise and into the phone. She tends to do that on the phone, even when she isn't angry or if it's loud around her. She has bad hearing, she's even deaf in her right ear. She had once told me she was born with bad hearing, she even thought about trying to see if she could get hearing aids. "How is everything going?"

"It's going great. The girls are eating right now." Something rolled across the floor. I jumped as it hit the toe of my shoe, and cautiously I bent down to pick it up. It was an old rusted can of some sort. This is why white people always die in horror movies. I thought to myself and swallowed the lump in my throat down.

"Awesome! It didn't take long as we had planned it to go, so we will be home early. So you can let the girls stay up a bit longer. We brought you girls back some treats." Allen said something low in the background.

"How early will you guys be back?" I asked if another old can rolled across the dusty floor. The hair on the back stood up, as this can come to a halting stop in front of me. I began to walk towards the stairs. The green light seemed to dim and every shadow in the loft seemed to be alive.

"About ten minutes. maybe sooner. We just passed Quickies Gas Station," She said and then sighed. "Is that alright, Miriam? I know you canceled plans today. I'll make it up to you Tuesday."

"Okay Mom."

"We'll talk about it when we get home, I'll see you in a few."

"Yeah okay," I murmured. "It's fine. So I'll see you in a bit. I'll tell the twins that you are on your way." Also that way they can turn the tv off and move into the kitchen to eat like they are supposed to.

"Thank you, sweetie!" I could hear her smiling through the phone. "See you soon!" And then she hung up. With my phone in my hand, I turn to walk back down the stairs to warn the girls when another can came rolling to my feet, this time, I kicked it to the shadow it came from just to watch it roll back to me. I spun and jogged to the stairs. I heard the barn door slam shut, causing me to screech.

"Hey I am in here!" I shouted as I sprinted in the dark towards the door. "Grace! Karli!" I called out to my sisters but heard nothing. Then I heard heavy footsteps above me, I froze cold sweat started to fall down my forehead. Then from behind a cold hand covered my mouth, muffling my screams as I was being dragged back up the stairs to the loft. I fought back, but the person grabbing me was ten times stronger.

"The Seelie King will be proud of our bounty." A deep voice whispered in my ear with a strong accent. I could smell wood smoke and a strong body odor off my capturer. "For sixteen years we have been looking all over for you." We stopped in front of an old mirror that was found in the house, and that's where the source of the green light was coming from. It illuminated the whole area, and I could see my capture in the mirror as clear as day with the light. "You can't escape us this time, Princess."

Us?