The Place where Dreams Fade (Book Two of the Forgotten Truths Series)

Prologue

(10 years later...)

  She sighed.

  So much had... Changed.

  She knew she wasn't supposed to think about it— She was told not to.

  Sometimes, it just got too hard. Too hard to —not— think about. Too hard to just forget about everything. The good times, the bad times, and,

The worse.

  Her legs dangled off of the tall windowsill. Her head leaned against it. The soft rain, the type that always showered over Droplet Tribe thumped against the glass. There was a large drop from her window up on the palace.. She trusted it though.

  Music slowly played somewhere across her room. Some tune that she didn't know was almost in sync with the rain. Her head began to bop with it. Music always helped with moods like this one.

  A book sat in her lap. She had read it so many times over, but every time she tried to recall what it said, every word vanished.

  The cover had faded, too. Only a few letters were partially legible. Her older sister had given this to her before she left.

  She still wished that she could've gone with her. That she would come back. That she could vent to her, and tell her that their "friend" was not how she seemed.

  At times, she wished she was still a kid.

  The safety of always having someone look out for you. Whether that be your parents, a guardian, older sister, or a "trusted friend."

  That feeling of freedom; the feeling of being so... Innocent.

  She longed for it, more than ever now.

  Of course, she still kept a smile. She still acted happy. Like that carefree, silly girl 10 years, six months, 3 weeks, and 5 days before that garlic-ranking guard found her and her sister.

  That was the day that their lives were changed forever.

  It sounded like she was blaming the guard, but that guard was only doing her job. She blamed the people in charge. They were the ones that made every decision.

  Now, she worked for one. Her life, and her best friend's, loosely hanged by a few words. A "promise" that could easily be broken.

  Especially by such an unstable person. An unstable person with so much power...

  All of the deaths that had already happened. All of the blood on her hands. It was unforgivable. Yet, she went out every day, and acted so friendly around her. She watched every fight, every splatter of blood, and went along with the act.

  Tributary was the first to die in the arena. It felt set up. However, there was nothing anyone could do.

  She would clap her hands, and cheer for the victor. That's what they all had to do, or else you'd be next to be thrown in there. Whether that was against another "wrong-doer," or getting slaughtered in front of everyone by that "queen."

  However, those deaths didn't hurt as much. They didn't hurt as much as someone you knew. Someone you trusted.

  There were only four people that she could be sure were alive from their little broken part of 7125-B6 group. That was soon to be three, as one of them looked fatally ill. Only three, soon to be two, from their original group that she could fully trust.

  One of those three was her. At times, she wasn't completely sure she could trust herself.

  That she might completely slip away into that act, and never find herself again. That one day, she might send out her best friend to that death pit while she laughed at him. That stung.

  Then, she'd only have whatever was left of herself.

  Only a month after their whole ordeal was over, and already one of them had died, her own sister ran off, with that mountain goat, Moose, and went back to the mountains. She had offered to take her and her friend, but at that time she had said no.

  Too naïve and trusting.

  She still wished that her sister, with that tongue of hers, could've done something good with it. She could've saw through that "trusted friend." She could've just done— She made a fist and clutched a ball of her hair —just done something about this!

  During those 10 years, 3 weeks, and 5 days, she never even bothered to come back. Not even to check up on them, or to say hello.

  Well, now she may as well be dead. It wouldn't change a thing.

  Next, there was Sayuri. Only a few more months after their ordeal, she took her own life. At that time, she was told that Sayuri had only "ran off." A couple years later, that secret was spilled.

  Her death was most likely caused from her trauma with that "Prince Sparrow." Was he even dead yet, or was he just hiding? Just waiting for something to happen to his sister, and corrupt Leaf Tribe like Droplet Tribe was.

  Then, a couple weeks after Edge was crowned, Atlanta suddenly "disappeared." No one really knew how, or why. Some said she ran off to be with Thought. Others thought that she may have bought the Sayuri-lie, but there was no way that could've happened. Those two were so close.

  Her theory, which she couldn't share, or it might happen to her, too, was that Atlanta, in all of her true cheerfulness, had angered Edge and was murdered.

  Now Ji-ho, who was fatally ill, was next on the death-list. Then Edge would really loose it. She trusted Ji-ho more than her own husband. Well, as close as her and that "husband" could get. She didn't get that close to love since Drought's death.

  Of course, over the years she had befriended other people. However, she wasn't as close to any as she was with Rustic. They really had gone through everything together. She could fully trust him— More than that "sister."

  If she lost him, or if Edge fully went insane, she just didn't know what she would do.