Chapter One

Good. You didn't run away screaming when you saw that there will be a total lack of romance in this book. You have guts. That means you won't cower in a corner when I am near my death. That would be a bad moment to leave me, just hanging off a cliff or with the sword at chest, you know, the typical ways to die. Then you'll never find out whether I survive...or not. Oh well. Coward's loss, not the knight's, as I always say. What? You want me to explain? Why don't we just get into the story?

----------------------------------------------------------It all began on the night of October 31st, with a full moon. Yep. Halloween. I was only six, out with my thirteen-year-old sister, dressed as a gray wolf with a smiling mouth and happy, human-looking eyes. I was (and still am) insanely obsessed with wolves. I carried a jack-o-lantern bucket for my candy, which was half full. My sister's was less full-only a third. I was grinning and yawning, my sister was groaning, waiting for it to be over.

"Jannice?" I asked in my sweet, innocent voice that meant I  wanted something.

"What is it now, Kate?" she asked, exasperated. Then she sighed.

"My legs are tired...can you carry me?" She groaned, as if I had asked her to do some insane task. Then she grabbed me and hoisted me onto her shoulders. I giggled and clapped my hands. Each time she lifted her foot, she grunted in pain. Then, she stopped and put me down, facing me in such a way that she looked me in the eye.

"Kate. You can't expect me to carry you all the way through your life. There will come a time when I won't be there for you, a time when you'll need to protect yourself. You understand?" she asked me. I nodded. She and our mother had told me many times that I would need to become indwpendent. Of course, being six, I had no idea what that even meant. Ah, the blissful serenity of being a young child.

I was about to ask Jannice to remind me what independent meant when she suddenly screamed and walked backwards. I laughed, thinking it was all a funny joke. Then I shouted out to Jannice, "Race you home! I'll get to eat the sour bear this year!" My parents used to hide a sour gummy bear in the house, leaving it for the first child to come home.

At first, I ran like the wind. Well, as fast as a six-year-old girl can run. Then, about six yards from where I'd last seen Jannice, I stopped, waiting for Jannice to come after me. I looked back, walking a little closer to that spot, and for a minute, I thought I saw a pair of glowing red eyes, but then they dissappeared into the dark forest.

"Jannice? You can come out now!" I called out into the night in a shrill, shaking voice, "Jannice? A-are you over there? J-J-Jannice? Are you c-coming home? Mommy and Daddy will miss you!" Then my six-year-old brain thought she might already be at home, eating the sour bear. I giggled and raced home again, at the same pace.

By the time I got home, I was panting and grinning, waiting to see where my parents had hid the sour bear. I opened the door to a dark, spooky, empty house.

"Mommy? Daddy? Are you in here?" I asked the empty house. My only answer was the wind whistling through the trees outside. I shivered and tried to find a blanket within the areas that still had lights, as the darkness scared me to tears. I reached for a lightswitch after I couldn't find a blanket in the light, and to my horror, it didn't work. No matter how many times I flipped it, it still didn't bring light to the house. I began to cry, tears rolling down my face like big, fat raindrops. I shivered, my teeth chattering. How was I going to stay warm that night? Just as I was about to leave for Felicity's house, I noticed a piece of white computer paper that was laying on the floorboards. Since my parents had already taught me to read at that age, I picked it up and slowly read the message.

You're

next,

kid.

My blood ran cold, my hands trembled, and suddenly the night seemed full of dangerous people who might do horrible things to me. I lost it. I grabbed the piece of paper and ran for Felicity's house, where I thought I would be safe from whoever had written me that note. However, I never showed that note to anyone. Why would they want to see a paper that could ruin their perfect, peaceful life?