A Rose Made Of Glass (unfinished)

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

~November 19, 1995~

I heard footsteps coming from down the street, they found me, they couldn't have found me, but they have...

My thoughts start getting jumbled as I race down the dank alley with the only two things left in my life. Where almost the street when the noise behind me gets louder, I push my two daughters, both only 6, in front of me and tell Annabeth to go hide with Amelia, they are the only things I have left I will not let him take them. I can hear the screams of the lives he had already taken vibrating off him like a bitter aroma. Yet, he wanted more lives, lives he couldn't have.

"Charlotte, how long has it been?"He asked causally strolling up behind me with a devilish grin.

"How did you find me?" I ask pondering reasonable explanations.

He was like a disease once he had found you, you are infected with a little piece slowly wearing you down until he was able to come back and kill you. Slowly, and torturously, then moves onto his next victim.

"Your friend Lance, very smart man. He even informed me of a certain rumor, true or untrue." He taunted.

I knew the exact rumor he was talking about, weather it was true or not, I had no clue. The only thing I did know was that I was going to die today, the disease had returned and was prepared to pounce.

"I refuse to answer that under the grounds of the Fifth Amendment." I answer struggling to keep my voice even

"We're not in court." He said smirking.

"Not yet, but once the high court finds out what you've been doing in all your spare time you'll skip the trial and go straight to the morgue." I say.

Suddenly I am pushed onto my knees by an invisible force that I suspect is one of the shadowed souls Julius already took, enslaving it. Then another ghostly figure pulls a book out and throws it on the ground in front of me.

"Read." are his simple instructions.

I flip open the book to the first page and read it aloud:

Rules

1. Do not reveal yourself to mundanes

2. Be calm and keep etiquette when near mundane

3. Fail to complete these regiments may be punishable by death with trail

I close the book and look up at him, already knowing the purpose.

"Do you understand, you have broken the most important rule, I think the court would be interested in you too." He says referring to the day I had told Christopher.

"I don't regret what I did." I said.

"I'm sure Christopher doesn't either, want me to go find him, he should be among my shadows somewhere." He said looking around mockingly.

"He refused to run, he was too proud to run, he stayed, and you killed him!" I said raising my voice.

"I did you all a favor, that mundane had no responsibility in the Frange." He answered dignifying out homeland.

"If you really wanted to do us all a favor you would kill yourself." I say boldly. I knew right then, that I should regret it, but I didn't.

Instead of acting against me, he ignored me and directed his attention toward the doorway where Annabeth and Amelia were hiding, beckoning to them to come closer. When they don't move, a shadow walks over and grabs Annabeth by the arm and drags her over to Julius.

"This one must be Annabeth," he says as he grabs her by the neck bringing her into the air.

"Don't you dare hurt her!" I yelled

"Oh, and why not?" then I watched in pure horror as he lifted her higher in the air, screaming and kicking, snapping her neck in a simple flick of the wrist. She suddenly went quiet and her head draped down to her chest. I started screaming swears at him and crying, he just killed my daughter. Now behind him appeared the weeping shadow of Annabeth, the life he had just taken soaking into his skin and making him younger again.

"Why are you doing this?" I screamed at him, "What could she have done to you? She was

innocent!" I was crying much harder now letting the tears hit the ground. I am about to give up when I remember that he hasn't seen Amelia yet. I see her hiding in the doorway of a house about 20 yards away, I can still see a faint light on in the windows. I am still on the ground, there is no way for me to protect her without endangering her even more.

"Amelia!" I yell "Go inside, go somewhere safe!" I yell, and as I finish the sentence she has already gotten inside the building and is locking the door behind her. "As long as Amelia is alive there is still hope." I tell Julius.

I start singing the same song I've heard since I was born, the same tune my mother sang to me before she died:

Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,

The child will sleep very soon

Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,

The child will sleep oh, so soon.

A white hen

Is in the barn.

It'll make a small egg

For the child who goes to sleep.

Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,

The child will sleep very soon

Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,

The child will sleep oh, so soon.

Everyone is calm

All around

It's the time for all to sleep

Sleep will come soon.

I feel a hard pain go through my heart and close my eyes for the light I was seeing now was too bright, as well as the hope I had in Amelia. The joy in her getting to live, but also the fear of Julius finding her, and destroying the last thing in the world that was mine; I am now a shadow, a minion, a slave, in another life where I can be with the rest of the family Julius has already taken.