Notice: My desire is to create a story that you will enjoy, and as such, any comments/tips/suggestions you may have would be most welcome. :)
Prologue
Under the vast ocean of stars, a single scream cut through the still air like a knife. It bled away into sobs before it crescendoed again into an awful, piteous howl, fit to rent the sky in two. Within the dark house a window lit up, a question shouted, a frenzied race of footsteps. Then a cry of shock, a wail of disbelief, and immediately the two voices were breaking down together, entwined by their sudden grief. The minutes stretched on, with no one to hear the crying but the neighborhood of trees that flanked the house, the road, and the countryside.
Eventually someone choked back a sob, made a decision. They argued with one another, but within moments the front door opened with a bang, and out stumbled a young woman, dressed only in a silky night robe. Her bare feet flew across the wood floor of the porch and somehow made it down the steps without falling, then she was rushing out into the night, her arms cradling something close to her breast.
Her husband staggered into the doorway, one hand gripping the threshold tight as he hollered after the woman. “Katy! Katy no! There’s no point!”
“There is!” she threw back without stopping. She tried to run fast, but was hampered by the gravel and rocks of the dirt road, tripping her, digging cruelly into the soles of her feet, but she barely felt the pain. All that mattered was the one thing she was holding, the one thing in the world she was desperate to keep. “I won’t let go of this one, Tom, not this time!”
“Katy, wait!”
But Katy wasn’t waiting for anyone. All too rapidly she was swallowed by the darkness.
Tom cursed, then blundered back into the house. The garage door groaned open, and a car hurled out of the drive and sped haphazardly down the road. Tom’s vision was so blurred by tears he nearly careened straight into Katy when he came upon her, but she only just noticed the car when it pulled up beside her and the door was thrown open.
As soon as she had spilled into the seat Tom was off, intending to head back home, to convince Katy there was nothing they could do, but his foot wouldn’t listen to his thoughts; it slammed on the accelerator instead. They were rushing to the one place they swore they would avoid at all cost.
“We can’t, we can’t,” Tom muttered under his breath, eyes glazed as though in a dream. His face was sweating. “Katy, we just can’t. It’s impossible.”
“I’ll die before I give up,” Katy cried, her grip tightening on the small bundle in her arms, blonde curls falling over her bent head. But there was a steely resolve in her voice, and when she looked up Tom saw a crazed fire in her eyes glimmering behind the filmy wetness of tears. It was a gaze he knew not to argue with.
As anxious and hurried as the couple was, once they had arrived at their destination they couldn’t help but give pause. The shutting of their car doors sounded almost explosive in the deadly quiet of the residence. And the trees were thick and crowded here, practically crushing one another for space. Where there wasn’t little dirt and stone pathways, the foliage was dense. The home itself looked no better: a castle tower, crumbling and small, curved and fashioned of weathered stone. Some areas of the wall were black as though charred by fire, but almost all of it was hidden behind lush creeping vines. Compared to the elegant, high-end home they had just left, this one was a complete ruin.
Tom and Katy exchanged a desperate look. Last time they had arrived here, nearly six months ago, they had felt captivated by its dilapidating charm. In broad daylight the little castle was rich with cool shadows and dappled sunlight; now it looked like one massive wall of foreboding blackness hiding under the trees.
