The Halfling (The Aria Fae Series, Book 1)

Prelude-Chapter 1

                                                                                     PRELUDE

Life had been admittedly difficult to live as of late, but that didn't mean I wanted to get shredded to pieces and eaten by a monster.

In fact, I wasn't sure I could think of a worse way to go. So I ran. I ran like the love child of Forest Gump and Bruce Jenner. I ran for my life. It was fitting, I supposed, as I'd started this story out running, that I should end it that way as well.

I was fast, of course, but the beast was faster.

It was gaining on me; I could feel its hot breath against my back. The whole world became the chase, just me and the creature coming after me. Nothing existed outside of that. My mind could go no further than to tell me to move. The factory lights were bright above me, but I was lost in the darkness, perhaps had been for a while, but only now could see so.

My arms and legs pumped, my breath tearing in and out of my lungs. Terrible pain exploded across my back as the beast's sharp claws cut through my jacket and ripped through my skin. I cried out in pain, stumbling, nearly falling, but somehow kept my feet.

To fall now would mean certain death.

I ran, but knew I could not keep it up much longer. I couldn't leave here without her... but it seemed I was unable to save her, and thus, I would likely not leave here at all.

How had things gotten so dire so quickly? How was it that I was going to die before ever seeing eighteen, or graduating from high school... or falling in love for the first time?

And worse, so was she, because I couldn't save her, because I was too weak to save her.

Terrified as I was, I could not run much longer. That left only the option of turning, and facing the beast for a fight.

                                                                                       Chapter 1

                                                                               Ten Days Earlier...

The place was new. A city this time, rather than a small town. I'd needed a change. Had needed to run, I guess, depending on how you looked at it.

The high school was much larger than my last one. Easily five times the students, stuck right in the center of Grant City. The walls were made of stone and the windows offered views of brick and concrete. I hated it instantly, or so I told myself. Realistically, I recognized that it was not the place I was unhappy with.

It was my life in general at the moment. Things had taken a nosedive in a record timeframe, and this was my way of dealing with it. I had run, and found that my issues had tagged along with me.

"Miss Fae?" said the teacher, a mousy woman whose name I hadn't yet remembered, pulling me from my thoughts. "Do you want to stand up and introduce yourself to the class?" She smiled at me and waved her hands in a come on, get up gesture.

I suppressed a sigh and stood from my seat. I couldn't understand why teachers always asked this question. Was anyone's answer ever really, "Why, yes, I'd love to do that!"

"My name is Aria," I said, trying not to fidget. All the attention, the eyes of the other students, made me uncomfortable. "I moved here from Blue Hook. I like reading and long walks on the beach."

No one in the class laughed at this little joke. No one even smiled. Feeling like a super buttwipe, I sighed and took a seat.

"Thank you, Aria," said teacher-what's-her-name. "And welcome to Grant City. I'd imagine it's quite a change from Blue Hook, but it's not so bad once you give it a chance."

I gave her a small smile. I could sense she was a good person, and despite the rancid air, constant noise, and lack of green, maybe city life wouldn't be so horrible after all. If there was one thing I prided myself on, it was my ability to adapt. I had to believe I could find happiness here, because like my current issues, I knew my happiness came from within me.

And, yet, my depression was overwhelming; my moods unpredictable, my emotions a roiling sea. My mother was dead, and I had been casted out by the people who'd been the closest things I'd had to calling my own.

I was a wanderer, an orphan, a soul without a home.

These were the conditions under which I arrived in Grant City. Nothing more, nothing less, than that. I'm not sure if that makes all the things that happened next fate, but looking back now, it sure feels like it.