HEATH ERICA

PROLOGUE

   No human has bad intentions. No human is born a monster. No evil being can really exist... right?

   There is a large street in her neighborhood. The street winds round and side to side and stops sometimes, but she never got to see it because her mom would always tell her not to. Jessica didn't like her mom much, and preferred her dad's strange quips and lack of discipline. She liked to break rules just to show that she was the real boss of the house. After all, she was so fearless.

   Fearless enough to get up at the darkest time of night because she heard a sound in the kitchen. She was already at the foot of the stairs, in the living room when the noises started up again. The six-year old wasn't afraid of any intruders as long as they didn't have eight legs, even though she was only four feet off of the floor. Now her small, dark feet pressed against the floor, ready to spring and attack. If they'd just trespass into the living room...

   Crash. Bang. Flop-flap. Tink.

   Jessie had not thought about her sisters who were even closer to the intruder, but every sound of struggle made her think that thing was approaching her big sister's door. And so she ran as quietly as she could into the kitchen, to do... Well... something about it.

   The first thing her cobalt eyes noticed was the light pouring in from a window that was too tall for her to reach. And she followed the ray of light to find the culprit of all this noise; a small bat that was stuck on the household fly trap. Jessie couldn't reach it easily, but she still tried by pulling herself on the kitchen counter. Her small hands grabbed the fly paper's back and stre-e-etched an long, flailing wing, only torturing the small foxface further. She looked at her hands almost blaming them. Suddenly, a pair of slightly larger hands delicately superseded hers. Breath caught in her throat as the hands swiftly removed the bat from it's tomb, allowing it to fly away like there was no tomorrow.

   A small sound tumbled out of her choked throat, "C-case-e-y?" She knew that was definitely not who was still holding her hands, as they were much paler than Casey's tawny tone. The humanoid being behind her let go and moved themselves into the child's view.
 
   That person was very much unlike what she'd ever seen. It was a boy with shaggy dark hair that covered his eyes, a smile that seemed almost genuine, and a lacking of a shirt- well, not like that mattered at all to her in that moment.

   "Why're you in my house?" She glared as scary as she could, to which the slightly taller boy looked away nervously.

   "I crashed."

   Such a simple answer befuddled her. How did he crash? There's no cars or scooters in here... To this, the boy looked around and whispered, "I'm Jasper. You're warm. Can I come back tomorrow midnight?"

   "Uhm..." The poor girl's mind ran blank, but Jasper was already crouching on the frame  of the window by the time she looked back at him. Without warning, the boy leaned sharply to the right and fell out, making Jessica scream in fear.

  Immediately, her big sister ran out to her and the lesser just cried. Jessie cried and cried, not just fear, but because this strange boy came in here so creepily and assaulted her in such a bizarre way. She tried to explain it to Casey, but she hushed her little sister, rubbing her back and whispering, "It was just a bad dream, no one was in here..."

  After a few more minutes of shushing the riled youth, Casey let Jessica sleep in her bed to protect her from any "Jaspers." But what Casey didn't notice was the broken glass figurines on the floor, scattering deadly shards everywhere.

   Jasper kept his promise and returned the next night, much more carefully this time. They sat out in her room of glass and he told her stories about creatures of all shapes and sizes. The next night he just told her about his house. The night after was the best Disney movies. The night after that was about what flower was prettiest. And it continues for years, slowly exhausting Jessica all the while. But Jasper was there when she needed him and one night she did. Her father had passed away. She was outraged at her mom for not crying at the news, and just sad to see Casey's tear stained face. So she hid with Jasper. And that was life until she would turn fourteen years old...