L O S T

Prologue (BEING RE-WRITTEN)

(This story is trash and it deserves to be better. So what else am I gonna do besides edit and revamp the story that I originally loved, starting with the prologue?)

It was the night that Vanitas had messed up. He messed up badly.

He was hot, he was tired, his hand was tired of holding this crown, the family jewel he had stolen. The power coarse through his veins but he was so tired, and he wanted to sleep. He was endlessly running through the streams and the forest passed by in a blue, all blending together until he couldn't tell if he had made any progress outside of the hungry, angry howls behind him.

He couldn't breathe, his chest was tight and his legs threatened to blow out but he fought as hard as he could.

Should he just give up?

He tripped on a loose root and tumbled, falling hard onto the soft dirt as he lost his grip on the crown and hitting the dirt hard. He couldn't move, and he couldn't breathe. The mask on his face blocked his view from the sky above the trees.

Vanitas ripped the cold mask from his face and tossed it aside, exposing his face, steaming in the chilly winter air as he tried to swallow harsh breaths of air. Around him, the soft snow began to pile around him, and things grew quiet. He wasn't sure if he lost those howls or not, but all he could hear was a sweet silence as the snow fell around him, and the vibrating words of the family he loved calling him a killer.

He could never go back.

He was sorely parched, his tongue swollen and his lips cracked. The thin clothes he had on now was no protection from the element, and his gloves were worn through with fire and ash. Vanitas closed his swollen eyes and tried to catch his breath and even his heart. He grasped the stained shirt on his chest. The adrenaline finally wore off, his limbs shook and he felt nothing but dread. The scarf wrapped around his neck had come loose, his cape torn and ruined. His boots were soaked through, his pants were the same. Lying in the cold, he couldn't feel the shock of the murder, and all he could remember was his mother screaming in his ear after she came in at the wrong time.

"I swear," Vanitas whispered, as tears pricked his eyes. "I swear, I didn't kill him."

But he was alone, and he was dead to them.

"I-I didn't..." he muttered, to no avail. "I didn't. I didn't...I didn't."

But no one heard him, and he was alone.

There it was again.

A distant drum of a heart. It was beating like mad, angry with fire. It was distracting, and it wasn't noticeable by others. You had thought you were going crazy by that drummed heartbeat.

Woken up in the middle of the night, with the rain hammering against your window. You sat up from your curled bed, unsure why you have woken up in the first place before you could remember the dream, all coming back to you in a million ways. It was a strange dream, and unsure of yourself you weren't cautious when it came to them. All in all, you hoped that the dream didn't mean what you thought it would mean.

Maybe it was just a ruse, but you swore that all you could fully remember was an ashen boy with long, raven hair and unsettling golden eyes. That much you could remember. There was fear in his eyes, and chills on your body but all he did was stare, and stare, and stare, until you woke up, unamused and afraid.

Whoever he was, he isn't good. No, he had to be the exact opposite, hadn't he? Some sort of chaotic evil? Was he from another world?

Well, whatever he was, you've already forgotten his face.

There was a distant rumble from the forest, the sound of a howling wind rattling the window by your bed. A cold draft settled into your bedroom and under your covers. You shivered and huddled under the blanket, wrapping yourself into a ball, your arms around your knees as you watched the rain fall over the sleepy village you've lived in all your life. The darkness that fell over the streetlights, the sounds of the church bells far away, the smell of the firewood being burnt in the chimneys of your neighbors.

Well, now you're too excited to sleep.