A/N:

Date 4-2-17

Hey everyone! So here's the beginning of my story, the place it all began.

The chapters in this story will not be all the same length. I can already tell :)

Word Count: 3747

---------------------------------------------

Prologue: The Flashback

I'd known for a while that I wasn't a regular kid, but until today I hadn't known to what extent my irregularity was. I figured it out when I was eleven years old, and I was forced into a situation that made me question my whole life.

5 years ago...

Little eleven year old me stood with my little sister Lucile (we call her Lucy) in the living room, staring up at our mom with big smiles. "Remember, be back before dark. Come home when the streetlights are on." Mom was firm in instructing us. We nodded and replied, "We promise."

I scrambled out the door before Lucy did out of excitement. I loved going on walks with only Lucy as company. Our older brother Jake, who's two years older than me, was upstairs watching TV. He would always rather stay inside than go outside.

I calculated that we had around 40 minutes before dark. That meant I could take the long route. I told Lucy so, and she was just as excited as I was. We really were nature people. Hurrying along our safe little neighborhood, we crossed a couple of streets to enter the neighborhood next to ours. It didn't take too long because we were practically sprinting.

Slowing down to a fast walk, I had an idea. I thought it over for less than a minute, my decision made. "Lucy, do you want to go to the street across from here?" Her eyes widened in worry, although her tone conveyed excitement. "We've never been over there alone though." I turned my head to hide my grin and went for a casual shrug. "I've been there enough with mom to know the way around."

Lucy nodded, seeming relieved that I'd come up with something logical. Lucy never did something she wasn't supposed to unless there was logic behind it. She was a smart little kid. Apparently so was I, because I hesitated before we took off. "Are you sure you want to? I don't want us to get in trouble and you be mad at me cuz it was my idea." Lucy, suddenly unworried, nodded once.

As we ran to our newest destination, I realized we both carried a trait in us that held determination. Adrenaline coursed through our bodies as we turned the corner to the next street. Here was what me and Lucy called "the Other Land." This was different from our street because the houses were much farther apart. Me and Lucy barely had a yard, while the house we were approaching had the largest yard we'd ever seen in our town.

The sun was setting, making the trees behind the last house on the street appear darker. The trees cast their shadows across the yard, making it seem as if the trees were looming over us. I had to admit it creeped me out the closer we got, so I pulled my shoulders back to stop myself from cowering in the slightest way. I was reminded that it was getting darker by the second.

I've never really liked the dark. I just don't feel secure knowing I can't see everything around me clearly. Most people call me paranoid because of it, but I've never really cared what people thought of me. I care about what I think, and I don't think I'm paranoid, I'm just cautious. Which is why I was definitely not extending my walk to include the woods.

"Let's turn around up at that house, okay?" I suggested to Lucy while pointing so she'd know what house I meant. The house looked plainly ordinary, just like other houses in the neighborhood. It was a small one story house with bushes sitting neatly in a row under the windows.

Lucy only nodded her head. She wasn't the most talkative. That was okay because I wasn't much better. I found myself admiring the house from afar. I've always liked how isolated the house is, with no one to tell you to be quite when you are trying to play as a kid should. We still had at least a few minutes before we reached the house, since we were walking leisurely.

I stumbled on air suddenly and almost fell. Luckily, Lucy grabbed my arm to steady me. She gave me a look but didn't comment. Lucy wasn't into rubbing embarrassment in people's faces. But I wasn't embarrassed, I was shocked. I felt something in the air, but I couldn't say what it could be. Something about the lonely house and the trees with their shadows. It felt ominous all of a sudden. Lucy didn't notice, so I assumed I was imagining things.

As soon as we reached the house, I turned around to go. But Lucy stood still, staring at the house. I paused a moment to see if Lucy would follow me. When I realized she wasn't going to, I asked her, "Are you wondering who lives here?" Lucy turned her back to the house with a frown. "No. No one lives here. It's for sale."

Lucy pointed to a sign on the lawn by the bushes that I hadn't seen. "Oh." I simply said. I just wasn't very vigilant that day. In my defense, it was getting darker out. "Lucy, we should go now. We don't wanna be late. Mom will be sad and Dad will be angry." Mom was always sad when we did something wrong; she hated punishing us.

Lucy walked over to me so we could leave. If we ran most of the way home, we'd make it home right before the streetlights turned on. I had been walking enough to know how long it took to get home, and how long until the streetlights came on.

As we turned to go, I saw movement at the side of the house. A silhouette of a tall person standing in the shadows. I knew it was an adult because almost all adults are taller than me. The bad feeling in the air was stronger, so I whispered urgently to Lucy. "Let's run home now!" I could tell by the surprised expression on Lucy's face that she knew something was up.

Before we could even take one step, a voice called out from the darkness. "Alicia Marie, we have been looking for you." Shivers ran down my spine, fear creeping through me, making my breath come fast. I quickly reached for Lucy's hand and squeezed it for reassurance. If it was for me or for her, I couldn't tell.

"H-how do you know my name?" I asked barely above a whisper. The man didn't answer, instead he stepped away from the wall closer to me and Lucy. I pushed her backwards and told her to run, that I would take care of this. But the man I did not recognize clicked his tongue in disapproval. He was suddenly right in front of us. How did he-? The man attempted to grab my arm.

I moved out of the way at the last second and saw that Lucy was too terrified to move. "You will not run away Lucile, you both are coming with me." He demanded, but I would not hear it. I yelled silently to Lucy "Get out of here!" I've tried projecting my thoughts to hers many times this month hoping Lucy would respond, but she never did. This time I think the message went through because her eyes widened farther and her foot moved back as if she was about to turn around and run.

The man reached toward Lucy to stop her. Someone yelled "Don't touch her!" and I realized it was me, but my voice didn't sound right. It had an echo to it that messed with my head. I was only eleven years old, so I did the only thing I could do. I jumped on the man's back.

The man was surprised at being jumped on by a kid, but he regained his sense and tried to throw me off of him. He succeeded on the third try, making me land hard on my back in the grass while the breath rushed out of me. The man turned to see where I landed, and Lucy bravely took the opportunity to kick him right between the legs. Seeing Lucy's leg go up that high, I thought she would be an excellent cheerleader.

The man moaned and leaned over to catch his breath. I decided then was the best time to strike, so I got up and tried kicking him in the stomach. I'd heard that was a weak spot. But I found out my legs weren't long enough for that and I was no cheerleader, so my kick landed a little above his knee. The man groaned and I felt pretty satisfied.

I pulled my leg back again to kick him harder, but he yelled "Backup! I need backup!" I immediately looked around but I wasn't fast enough, because two more men came from somewhere dark inside the woods. They looked the same as the first man, all three wearing black clothing to blend with the night. Since I was closest, the second guy reached for me and the third one grabbed Lucy.

We were dragged toward the house, getting there in an instance. I noted that I was either going crazy or these guys had super speed. We stood by the wall of the house, in front of the woods. Lucy was shocked at how fast the men appeared seemingly out of nowhere, so she didn't struggle. But I sure did! I put up a heck of a fight. The man still didn't release me though. I was proud because even in my first real fight I was super feisty.

The man holding Lucy looked at the first man and said, "Really Snake? You couldn't bring in two little kids without backup?" The man named Snake just sneered at the man holding Lucy.  My eleven year old brain thought he must have anger issues. The man holding me looked at the other two men and gave them a stern look. "Snake, Robin. Stop bickering so we can get this done. Oh and Snake, don't yell into your communicator."

I realized the guy holding me must be the leader. I also noticed the black square attached to Snake's ear. That must be his communicator. The men named Snake and Robin nodded their understanding reluctantly. "Okay Storm." They said in unison. Storm was definitely the leader here. "Alright then, I'll take this kid here and you-" Storm was rudely interrupted  when he loosened his grip slightly when gesturing to me and I slipped one arm free to punch his gut.

That was a terrible decision for me because punching his stomach was like trying to dent a wall. No such luck, plus some aching knuckles. I kicked the man named Storm in the shin with less resistance and was happy to see his knee pop slightly backwards. To my surprise he barely noticed. Storm must be really strong. I hesitated a moment too long because Storm grabbed at me, trying to make sure I didn't get away.

I distantly saw Lucy start to struggle while I slapped at Storm's hands. Either I wasn't strong enough, or Storm was too strong. But either way he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me high above the ground onto his shoulder. To a little kid that six feet was pretty high. I freaked and started pounding my fists on his back.

Storm's back was toward the wall, so my face was near the wall. I was in no danger of hitting it though, so I kept struggling to escape and help Lucy. I guess Storm got irritated because suddenly he swung me around and pushed me against the wall, while I was still in the air. I thought it would be hard to pin someone against the wall in midair, but Storm had no trouble.

One of his massive hands held down my stomach, his pinky finger touching the wall on my left side and his thumb on the right side. His other ginormous hand pinned my hands together over my head to keep me from hitting him. Storm's face was so close to mine I could feel his angry breath that smelled of something rotten. I could only see his eyes in the dark, but that was because they were what stood out.

His eyes were glowing a bright red color. In fact, the only color in his eyes was red. Where the white should've been was a light red with darker red veins inside and his pupils were a darker red than that. In conclusion, Storm looked like a vampire. Storm saw the fear in my eyes and I felt his smile through the dark. I expected his teeth to be red too, but they were perfectly white. The kind of white that made you say, wow those teeth are blinding me!

Except his cruel smile took the shine from his teeth. I looked back up at his eyes wondering what in the world was wrong with him. My mom told me about drug addicts, but she always talked about how it would make your skin fall off like a zombie. She never said anything about creepy red vampire eyes. I was so focused on his eyes that I hardly noticed when Storm started talking to me.

He said, "Now if you keep struggling we will have to do this the hard way, which will involve you and Lucile unconscious. Do you want that to happen?" I shook my head and kept silent. I looked at Lucy and heard her think, "Will you get us out of here?" I responded with a slight smile. As fast as my little legs could, I kicked out at Storm. Since he was holding me above the ground, I landed a hard kick in between his legs like Lucy did to Snake earlier.

Storm dropped me unexpectedly and I just barely caught myself by grabbing onto the nearest thing. That just so happened to be Storm's pants. I landed on my feet without breaking anything but I think I felt my ankle twist underneath me. Storm looked down at his grey boxers and growled at me.

I dashed away as quickly as I could, jumping on to the man holding Lucy. I recalled Storm calling him Robin. I was on his back but I didn't know how I got there. Robin was almost as tall as Storm. Lucy took the hint and struggled a lot harder.

I think Snake was yelling "Do something!" But then Snake and Storm were arguing. I put my hands over Robin's face to keep him from seeing where Lucy was. She broke free and looked at me but I yelled, "Go!" She took off. Lucy was only eight but she was a fast little eight year old. I jumped down, landing on my twisted ankle.

I cried out but Lucy didn't seem to hear me. I was super glad when she didn't look back, trusting I'd be behind her sprinting down the sidewalk. I got up and started running away as fast as I could on my hurt ankle, but something pulled me backwards. I guess I mean someone.

I turned and saw Storm had grabbed my hoodie but I lost sight of him because I fell to the ground when he started dragging me to the others. "What about Lucile?" asked Robin. "Forget her, Alicia was our main target." Storm shook me for emphasis. I had been trying to get up but I fell back down when he shook me. Storm was seriously strong!

He pushed me on my back onto the ground and made a fist. Storm then said, "I guess we're doing this the hard way. Oh and don't worry, we'll get Lucile." He smiled devilishly at me and started to swing. I was desperate so I screamed as loud as I could. I heard a growl somewhere near me but couldn't identify where it came from.

This time Lucy heard me and turned...and stared at me with her mouth hanging open and eyes wide. I noticed Storms' fist wasn't coming at my face anymore. I hadn't touched any of them, but all three men were on the ground clutching their heads.

As soon as I stopped screaming the men let go of their ears. Storm recovered first and stood with inhuman speed, grabbing me and pulling me toward him. His teeth were long and sharp like vampire teeth in movies, but his looked awfully real to me.

I thought, "Why not?" and I screamed again right in time as his teeth got to my neck. The others were getting up by then, but they all fell back down once I screamed again. Even Storm let go and fell to the ground. Did my scream have some kind of super power? Even if it didn't, the neighbors had to have heard me. I ran out of breath and got a lungful of air.

Storm looked up and I saw he was about to get up again. I heard Snake yell through his pain, "No Storm! We are supposed to keep them alive!" Storm ignored him and came at me again. His eyes were a darker red than ever, and it was obvious he wasn't going to listen to Snake. I took a deep breath and screamed again.

As I screamed I started running towards Lucy. She was still staring at me. Halfway across the yard I tripped on something. There was only one streetlight near this house to illuminate my surroundings, but I could tell I'd fallen because of a suitcase. I looked up in alarm as I realized what it meant that the streetlights were on. We would be late getting home if we didn't go now.

I looked back at Storm as I paused my screaming to take another breath. He sped forward before I released the next scream, so he got much closer to me. Storm was only standing a few feet away from me. I was feeling faint so I asked Lucy in my mind to start screaming for me. Maybe since I could read minds and she could (just recently) read minds, we both had some sort of power charged scream.

Lucy started screaming, and it actually seemed to work. None of the strange men got up or looked in any less pain. I quickly opened the suitcase and found two needles. Were these meant for us? I decided that I'd use my findings on the crazy guys trying to kidnap me and Lucy.

I hid the needles behind my back and dropped the suitcase just as I noticed Storm trying to stand. I stood shock still, like I was too terrified to move. Lucy had to stop screaming just then, which was perfect timing for me to carry out my quick plan. Storm immediately rushed toward me, not seeing the needles. Storm used his super speed and strength to run over to me and knock me to the ground again. Lucy screamed a regular scream filled with terror that didn't knock people over.

Storm leaned down with his sharp teeth to bite me so I jabbed one needle into his side. I thought I would only use half of the liquid from the needle but it took the full thing to knock him out. I was just happy the liquid knocked him out so I wouldn't have to do it myself. I knew I couldn't have knocked him out.

I told Lucy to run because I had a plan. I yelled my knock out scream and Snake and Robin fell to the ground. I only had one needle left, but it only took half the liquid to knock out Snake. Then I used the rest on Robin. Whatever's in the needles moves fast...

As soon as the men were all unconscious, I grabbed Lucy and we ran down the street. Once we were on our street, I stopped Lucy and made her face me. She looked terrified, just like I felt. At that moment I realized that I never wanted to be alone and vulnerable again. "What are we supposed to say to mom and dad? They won't believe us!"

Lucy's expression hardened and I realized this night would probably change her forever. She wouldn't be the same carefree little girl anymore. "Then we won't tell them." After only a moment hesitation, I nodded. "Shouldn't we call the police on those guys?" Lucy asked me. "No, the neighbors must've heard us screaming and called already. Let's just go home."

Then and there, on the sidewalk outside of my childhood house, me and Lucy swore never to speak of the crazy men who attacked us to anyone. EVER. No one would believe us anyway. Inside the house, mom and dad weren't mad because we came in only a few minutes after the streetlights came on. That was a wonder to me, since the fight had seemed like hours.

Unfortunately, our mom picked up on our disheveled state and asked what happened. I had grass stains on my jeans and one of my shoelaces had come undone. My lungs worked triple time to keep up with my breathing. Lucy's eyes were wide and terrified. So I made up a story about some guys popping out and trying to kidnap us.

Our mom comforted us while our dad sat quietly listening to our hysterics. Lucy and I silently agreed to seem a little more pitiful. After telling the story, my mom said she hadn't heard us screaming, which was odd. She should've heard because we weren't too far away from home. Maybe the police would catch the men who attacked us.

/////////////////

A few months after that crazy night, the men had still not been caught. Our mom grew more and more anxious. Our dad seemed unconcerned. He said it wasn't likely they'd come back for us. He said it was a random attack. But two months after the attack, my whole family moved to a different state.

We moved to Stonemere, Missouri.