Fallen Love

Prologue

River

As a child, I never really had a happy childhood. I constantly moved between foster homes never really belonging anywhere. I tried making friends but learned early on that eventually it won't last. I would either get moved or they would, it was pointless trying to bond with anyone at all, but I could never help myself. I craved attention from anyone that was willing to give it.

At some point, I simply stopped trying, I stopped caring. The light that was once inside me had officially burned out, the darkness and depression had won. Living every day after that was more like a chore, it was tiring. Same routine, all the time.

Get moved, make the mistake of getting close to someone, get moved again, so on and so forth it was all the same until the day everything changed.

I wasn't expecting it when it happened, I was shocked and horrified. One of my foster brothers was hogging the bathroom and I was going to be late to school which wouldn't be good if our foster mom found out and had to wake up just to take me. I was banging on the door while he showered, I simply wanted to do my hair and brush my teeth. Every time I banged on the door, my anger grew, my jaw was clenching and once the fury was there, I couldn't stop what happened next.

I lifted both my arms to bang on the door but this time instead of hitting the wood, once my hands came down, they pushed straight through the surface and I fell through, landing on the cold tiled floor with a thump. I laid there in disbelief, staring at my shaking hands in confusion. I turned my head to look back, seeing half my body missing from my view. I couldn't help it, I screamed.

I tried everything to break free but failed miserably. My foster brother stared at me in shock his face pale from what he was witnessing. He was scared and proceeded to call me a freak, yelling at me to get out of the bathroom but I only sobbed, not understanding anything that was happening. I knew my other foster siblings stood on the other side of the door just as confused as I was.

Eventually, my foster mom woke up from all the noise and started screaming bloody murder at the scene before her. None of us knew what was going on and at some point, the police were called along with the fire company. They cut me out and I was arrested though I didn't know why.

At the time, I didn't question the 'officers' that wore odd uniforms. No one said good-bye as I was shoved in the back of the black SUV with haste. They all simply stared at me, my spirit broken once again. I was being moved only this time I wasn't moved to another foster home, I was taken somewhere much worse, somewhere that changed my entire world and I had absolutely no control over the situation no matter how hard I tried to fight.

The Institute.

The next few years after that was a blur, I fought, I trained, I was beaten, tortured, and told that I was nothing more than a pawn to be played with. I hated my life even more and in a weird turn of events, I would have given anything to go back to the crappy life of being a foster kid but it was too late for that.

In the institute, it was all meaningless, my memories have been altered and everything seemed surreal. I had no hope, no life left to give and nothing made sense anymore, until the day I met her. Someone who smiled every day knowing it would get her in trouble, someone who always looked on the bright side, someone who showed me that life is what you make it.

Brighten up and smile more, she would tell me but I never did though I wanted to. The moment I gave in to her persistent nagging, I knew something bad would happen, and just as I predicted, it did.

It was my fault, I ruined everything. I was the reason she died and I will forever be haunted by it. I betrayed her, my friend, my only reason for waking up each morning. She was the light I saught every day and often we spoke of escaping together but I took away her chance to do so, I ended her life and it's something I could never take back.

For the remainder of my time in captivity, I was lost and then, I was freed. . .

I learned that with my freedom, I was free to be anyone I wanted to be. I didn't have to carry my sadness and depression with me, I can be who I wanted to be. I wanted redemption and the only way I could even begin to get it was to honor the friend I lost so I did exactly what she told me to do every day, forcing myself to brighten up, to smile more and to be everything she was.

Each day I pretended to be happy, shielding the pain of my past with a smile but still longing for something more. I was losing hope for myself, this pain was getting to be too much and I just wanted it to be over. No one suspected my internal battle and they would never. It's been weeks since our most recent mission and though life was starting to get better for us, my emotional turmoil forever remained.

I was ready to call it quits, I just wanted everything to be over but when I was called to greet some newcomers, the last thing I expected was to meet him.

Suddenly, my happiness no longer started to feel fake and for the first time in years, there was hope.

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How do you like the prologue? I'm super excited to write this short about River and Alioth, the two are so cute:)

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