Crown Of Thorns

Prologue

She should be used to seeing blood by now. 

A young girl, not yet quite a teenager, but much older minded for her age was awoken from her small twin sized bed in the middle of the night by the most haunting sound she had ever heard.

The sound of her Mother's horrified scream cut through the small farm house like a bullet cut through the air. Rem bolted up in bed, her thin lips parting in shock. Her gray-blue eyes flashed around her room, it was dark. About 3am. Witching Hour. 

The small girl pushed her heavy quilt off of herself, and quickly scrambled to her feet. She padded over to her closet, wrenching open the doors and fumbling for one of her seraph blades. Her small, nimble fingers clasped the hilt and she pulled the blade close to herself. 

"Afriel," she whispered quietly, and watched as the blade lit up. A warm, amber glow forming around the steel blade. Once named, and awoken, Rem held the blade close as she quietly crept towards the hallway. Peeking her head out, she looked down both sides of the hallway. Upon not seeing anyone, she quickly advanced towards the stairs. 

There were a series of harsh noises coming from the kitchen, and Rem quickly rushed down her stairs.

"Mom!" she yelled, as she shoved the kitchen doors open with her bony shoulders. She raised the blade, ready to strike, only to stop in her tracks. Every ounce of oxygen being ripped from her small body all at once. Her bones froze, her spine as straight as a ruler.

Her Mother was laying on the kitchen floor, weeping. Her long grayish brown hair hanging down her back. In her arms she was holding Rem's older brother-William. 

The first thought that occurred to her was that William was most definitely dead. His throat slit wide open, his blood spilling out of the gaping wound on to the tiled floor of the kitchen. Staining her mother's white cotton nightgown. His gray eyes were open, staring at the ceiling. They had a dazed, horrified look in them. And his mouth was gaping open, as though he had been killed in the middle of a scream. 

The seraph blade fell out of Rem's hand. Clattering against the ground at her feet. Rem felt her face pale, and her body begin to shake. Blood. Oh, by the Angel. There was so much blood. 

William's blood. 

Rem made a noise, a mixture of a cry of agony, and a strangled sob. As her knees gave out, and she fell. She staggered over to her Mother. Reaching for her brother-

"Don't touch him!" her Mother's voice cut through Rem like a blade. Rem wrenched her hand back, feeling her lips quiver

"Oh my baby... My baby boy," her Mother had began rocking back and forth, holding William's body close. Her shoulders shaking with sobs. Rem watched them, feeling her own shoulders begin to shake. The many dark runes that covered her Mother's skin were now covered in sticky blood. 

Suddenly a flash of movement by the window caught her eye. Rem snapped her head up, and locked eyes with the soulless creature on the other side of the glass. Horns as sharp as a sword, it's head nothing more than an ivory skull. Lifeless. Soulless. Dead. Evil. 

As though he knew what she was thinking, slowly, the greater demon quickened it's bony mouth up, into a smirk. Before disappearing. 

Rem slowly looked back at the sight of her shattered family on the floor. Looked at William's lifeless stare. Looked at her Mother's face of agony. And she felt a stinging sensation begin to burn under her skin. Running up her spine, through her veins. Behind her eyelids. Rage. 

It was that very night, that Rem Cartwright swore to the Angel, that she'd avenge her brother's death. Not only for him, but for her Mother. 

It was that very night, that Rem's soul was replaced by the burning need of revenge.