Prologue

I laid in the grass, my face buried in the palms of my hands. How could he have said that? I didn’t understand any of it. “Are you concerned about your friend?” I heard a deep male voice say behind me.

I shot up and looked around... but saw no one. “Who said that?” I felt something touch the side of my neck. Like bony fingers caressing against the base of my neck and around my waist. I gulped and tried to step away from him, but it was to no avail. “W-who… are you?”

A cold smile grew on his face, I could just about feel it staring over my shoulder.“I am no one of consequence. I’m simply a friend of Maverick’s.” I couldn’t believe what was being said to me, whether it be the iciness of his voice, or the contents of his message. I felt Iike I knew this man. I recognized his voice. The inflections, the tone.

“I’m terribly sorry about all this, but you are just an obstacle to me.” I was thrown to the ground. I tried to stand, but I was forced back down, feeling a wave of pain and voices flood into my mind. It hurt. What they said hurt. The commotion of it all hurt. Everything hurt. I finally managed to stand and tried to shake whoever was behind me off. Nothing worked. All the voices shouted at me louder and louder, and tears began to fall down my face as I listened to what the voices said.

I looked around and saw the tree that grew in the yard. Without thinking, I ran up

to and into the tree. The voices faded as I hit the ground. Everything felt weird. The weight of the person behind me had left. The world spun as I stood back up, and stumbled around in the grass, managing to keep my balance.

“Amethyst? You okay?” I heard a voice behind me.

I went to turn around, but felt blood running down the side of my face and stayed facing the tree. “I’m fine!” I lied. When I heard him close the front door, I started around the house. I hoped that if I could get to the window of my bedroom, I could get inside unnoticed and take care of whatever wound I’d given myself.

As I rounded the corner, I started to feel really lightheaded and dizzy. I stumbled on my own feet and fell to the ground. Breathing had become extremely difficult, and I wanted to fall asleep. I could feel myself falling asleep. Against my better judgement, I raised my hand to feel the wound on my head. My eyes widened as I felt a gaping hole in my head. My fingers slipped into the dent, feeling the fragments of my skull still stuck inside. My stomach tensed up, and I fell onto my side, closing my eyes, but still breathing. What had I just done to myself? I felt every inch of me growing weaker, my organs shutting off one by one. I opened my eyes trying to grasp onto what sliver of life I had left, but they slowly began to close again.

My breathing was involuntarily slowing down. This was it. I was dying. I closed my eyes a final time as I breathed out. One last breath.