Hello again. I hope you guys like this book. If you ever have questions you can either comment or PM me! I won't mind at all.

" There is no light without shadow,
Just as there is no happiness
Without pain. "

- Isabel Allende

----

Claire Ladon loved to read. It was her only escape from reality, especially since she wasn't aloud to watch TV. The way the main protagonist went on a great adventure, met people, made friends, some even found love. But they all had one thing in common; happy endings.

That was the thing she hated about the stories. The way they always had a happy ending. "Such lies." she would always say after she finished reading it. They were all lies.

No ones life could be that adventurous, dangerous, and fun, but somehow still have that happy ending.

So once again she was reading a book. This one was about a lost princess who had to fight her way out of the woods to find her true love. It was stupid, but it was better than what ever the teacher was teaching in class today.

As she was nearing the end of the book, a cough caught her attention.

"Miss. Ladon. Do you find it appropriate to be reading in my class?" Her teacher- Mrs. Vytrie- questioned with a hand on her hip and her eyes on Claire. She was that one teacher in the school who was very and I mean very old school and, well, old. If you were to so much as cough in her class you would get an ear full.

"Wasn't this class called reading 101?" Claire muttered keeping her eyes on her book. She knew she was going to get into trouble for saying that, but she just couldn't help the words that slipped her mouth.

It was a problem.

But the face that her teacher made was completely worth it. "Miss-!"

Saved by the bell, Claire quickly packed her book away safely in her burgundy backpack and made her way out of the class, leaving a fuming teacher behind.

She couldn't help but laugh a little. Oh she was going to be in a lot of trouble, but she just couldn't seem to care at the moment.

She thought about the book on her way to her locker. It was quite long since this book has taken her almost a week to finish, but she couldn't seem to put it down. She was so entranced by the way the princess fought for herself and didn't need no prince to help her. She was her own woman.

If only she had that same courage. Even at this point she would take a prince coming to save her at any moment, just to get away from this wretched place.

She opened her locker and grabbed her books since reading was her last class.

Her collage was very weird. It was basically set up as a high school, but instead of a cafeteria, they had a Café. Sometimes her teachers even reminded her of high-school. The only difference, they don't care if you miss class or not.

Glancing over to the locker next to hers, she was reminded of the person who used to own it.

Her best friend Veronica. She was so stunning with her long brown straight hair, her pretty blue eyes and all her curves in all the right places. Claire and Veronica were inseparable. She was also the most kind person you would ever meet, always drawing the eyes of others, although she was always with a guy. Which no one would mind, but they always treated her wrong and used her kindness against her. That's one reason why she moved, that and the fact her dad got a new job. She didn't even tell Claire. She just up and left. Considering she was her best friend it did sting, but I guess everyone has their reasons.

The last bell went off, signaling that everyone is to leave before they lock up and that's just what she did.

Claire took the bus home. She was a 19 year old collage student that didn't have a car. Her parents said it would give her to much freedom and more chances of her getting into trouble.

She couldn't complain though, since her parents are paying for her collage. But that still didn't help the feeling of loneliness that was stuck at the pit of her stomach, that same feeling that would eat away at you until you became a hermit with no friends and no life.

The bus honked telling her to get on before it left. That she did, stepping onto the bus she noticed there weren't any seats open so she just held onto the handle that was dangling from the ceiling.

While she was waiting, she pulled out her phone noticing she has a message. The message was from her mother asking when she would be home.

She answered simply with ' soon ' and a heart after.

Claire popped in some earbuds listening to music to entertain herself on the way home.

*****

"Im home." She called, entering her small suburban house.

With no reply she set her bag down and headed to the kitchen for a snack. She was hoping there was still some pop tarts left. Preferably the strawberry ones.

"Claire." Called the voice of her father.

She sighed taking a moment, already knowing it wouldn't be a pleasant conversation. Her father loved her sure, but he was very strict and by the tone of his voice, she could already tell this wasnt going to be a fun conversation. Turning to look at him with smile she replied, "yeah?"

He held up her grades that must have came in the mail today. The semester was almost over so they had sent in the final grades sofar, before the end of semester exam.

His face already said what she needed to know.

"An 89 in science?" He questioned with a pointed look.

A little flutter in her heart made her happy for a moment. She hadn't even dreamed of getting a grade that good. She thought she had failed science as it was a hard subject for her. Chemistry she had always had bad luck and somehow something always went wrong and exploded, not that that wasn't fun to watch anyways.

"Isn't that good?" She asked quirking an eyebrow. She already knew the answer, but she didn't understand why he was upset since the grade was better than last semester's.

He slid off his dark rimmed glasses, setting them on the marble counter to his side. His dark hair looked a mess and his hazel eyes were shot.

"You can do better. Isn't that what the studying and tutors were for? If you just studied harder-" He starts mumbling at the end, but she had heard all she needed.

She crossed her arms and put her walls up. She wasn't going to show how much that had hurt her, since she spent all summer with tuders. Tuders that now she is seeing was a waste of time.

He kept mumbling but she was done. She was done letting him berate and scold her. So she grew a backbone and said what she thought for once.

"Well I thought I did pretty good." She stated with an exasperated sigh. Okay, so it wasn't the most brave thing to say, but he was still her father. She couldnt exactly tell him off completely.

He snapped his attention back to her and scoffed. "Do better next time."

Do better next time?

Her eyes widened. How could he expect her to do more than she already was. She didn't have time for friends because she was always studying. Not that anyone would want to be friends with her anyways, considering she's the 'Loner'.

Luckily her mother just in time walked into the room to find her husband and daughter staring at each other, the air uncomfortably thick with tension- you could probably cut it with a knife.

Her brown hair was pulled neatly into a bun and she was still wearing her work clothes, undoubtedly wrinkled as she came back from work not to long ago.

"Okay, get out. I'm making dinner and I don't want you two at eachothers throats as I'm trying to cook dinner." She says shoving me out towards the stairs and my father towards the living room. Where he always is.

"Gladly." Claire huffs making her way upstairs as fast as she could causing the steps to creak in her wrath. Staying there would only cause more trouble. She glanced at a family photo on her way up, it was a nice photo of her, her mom, and her dad. They looked happy, a time in her life when everything was perfect, where they were family. Something they hadn't been in awhile.

She reaches her room slamming the door behind her with her foot and takes her favorite band shirt off followed by her jeans.

Grabbing a clean white T-Shirt and some black jeggings she pulled them on wanting to be in more comfortable clothes. She had worn her normal clothes in gym class because she was already late and didn't have time to change, making her clothes uncomfortably sweaty.

Today was too exhausting, she wished it would be over already.

Only moments later did she hear the yells of her parents. Their shouts full of anger.

Claire rolled her eyes. This wasn't the first time they fought and it wouldn't be the last. She knew they were fighting about her, she could hear her dad yelling about how she doesn't do anything but lay around - which was very untrue. Her mother would quickly counter it with how Claire is always studying, but she knew her father would never listen. He was too stubborn. Every fight was the same.

Each one ending with Claire's heart broken more and more.

She finally had enough.

Grabbing black leather jacket and her phone, she made her way downstairs as quickly and as quietly as she could. She carefully placed her steps, trying to miss the creaky wooden floor panels, the ones that would give her away immediately.

She had to get out of here, even of it was only for a few hours.

As she was reaching the door she suddenly felt a little guilty. If she left without saying anything she would only worry her mother. So before she stepped outside and started her walk, she left her mom a note. It just said how she went for a walk and would be home in the next few hours.

That should give her awhile before she had to come home.

Unfortunately it was already starting to get dark, so she has to be careful.

No alleys.

That was one thing she had learned from books. The girl would always go down an alley to get raped or murdered. Either way, not a situation she wanted to be in.

For now, she did feel a bit free. Alone, and free. Finally away from school and her constricting parents. She stopped walking for a moment and sucked in a breathe. The crisp air was fresh and cool against her skin. A complete opposite from the dark street she walked upon.

As it got a bit colder she started to get a little chilly so she pulled her nice leather jacket closer to herself to keep some warmth in. There was no way she would be catching a cold as her parents would only have more to bicker about.

She thought about how messed up their family was, if you could call it that. She really couldn't remember if it had always been that way or not, it was just something she had grown accustomed to.

Suddenly she heard a loud noise. One similar to a trashcan being tossed over. She jumped at the noise, looking in the direction she heard it from.

She didn't see anything but the shadows protruding from the large building and shops.

But one caught her attention. A shop called Fred's was nothing suspicious, just the shadows it was creating.

They were shifting. Almost imitating the little ripples in water if you were to touch it.

They only got bigger and bigger as Claires curiosity grew with it.

Am I high or something? Was her only logical accusation. Surely this was something that could happen to a high person. Certainly no one sane would see this, right?

Out of no where a person emerged from those ripples.

Claire gasped as she saw a man, probably around her age, come from them.

He wasn't bad looking at all, in fact she thought he was pretty cute. His dark red hair accented his pretty blue eyes. From here she couldn't tell, but he looked pretty tall. Probably about six foot.

After him, a woman also came from those shadows. She looked almost related to the man before as she too had red hair, only hers was more of a strawberry red that reached her mid back and she had forest green eyes. She too looked rather tall.

Claire was in complete shock, she almost didn't realize another man came from the shadows. Almost.

He had to have been 6'3 because he was tall. He was absolutely gorgeous though, with his cropped black hair and blue eyes.

Claire was practically gaping. How could a group of people look this good? It should be a crime. Then again, she could still be high and dreaming this up.

Once more she couldn't really see their faces because of how dark it was and because she wasn't that close in proximity, but she didn't have to be close to know that these people were very dangerous.

She quickly shook herself from the shock and reminded herself of what she just witnessed.

"Who are you and what the hell is going on?!" She shouted after seeing something that should be impossible. Probably not the best thing to do in this situation but hey, she wasn't good at thinking in situations like these. What they just did was something that only exists in stories or fiction.

People just emerged from the shadows like they just went through a door, except there wasn't one.

All three of their heads snapped to hers in a panic.

"Shit."