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PROLOGUE: ❝ if you want blood❞
𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁
IT was early. So early, that the sky was still black as pitch and dotted with minuscule stars. The street lights were on, as the sun had not even begun to touch the horizon. A small neighborhood sat quietly in the dark, the residents of such houses still nestled in their beds, asleep. Their homes all looked the same from the street: tidy, with trimmed lawns and white picket fences, everything bathed in silver under the moon.
A tall, two story house sat at the end of the street. All the lights were out, except for one. In the upstairs master bedroom, came the faint glow of a late-night television program.
Sarah and James Hill laid side by side in their bed, though their backs faced each other like they were still fighting in their sleep. The pair made a lovely couple...but only when they could agree on something for once. The argument was something lost to the night now, as neither one of them would remember it in the morning. Beside the bed, an alarm clock read 2:56 AM in blaring, red letters. Sarah didn't get up for work for several more hours, but just as the last number turned from 6 to 7, she was awake. Her eyes snapped open, the way they would had someone yelled in her ear or shaken her awake, neither of which had occurred. Sarah stared at a dark bedroom ceiling, then at the tauntingly bright alarm clock at her side.
2:57 AM. Great.
She rolled over and closed her eyes again, expecting to be able to slip back to sleep at such an early hour. But, she didn't. In fact, she was suddenly aware of how awake she was. At the foot end of the bed, on top of the dresser, a the TV was still on. A nature documentary about lions was playing, but the volume was turned down, so Sarah couldn't make out what was being said. She could only catch glimpses of the subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
[ As daylight fades and turns to dusk, the grassland comes to life once more. Some animals seek shelter from the night, while others find opportunity in the darkness, such as this pride of lions. They are hungry, and must hunt and eat soon. They follow... ]
