Troubled Times

Prologue

February second, 1955. The day my life turned to shit. But I'll get to that. My name is Elise. I'm twenty-two years old, and as I write this, I'm cramped in the small basement of a coffee shop in New York. The owner was kind enough to allow my acquaintance, Jonathan, and I to stay for a few days, at a rather low cost, but neither of us are quite sure how long his hospitality will last. 

This has been my life for the past ten years. Before that, it was great. My mom and dad loved each other, and we were happy. But then of course, my twelfth birthday arrived. Now, at the time I didn't know what was going on, but mom and dad told me to pack a small back, only with the things I desperately needed. I obliged, obviously. Then they instructed me to run to the other side of town, not sparing a backwards glance. I hesitated. But surely mom and dad knew what they were talking about. So I ran. And I didn't stop until a rock of a man knocked me flat on my ass on the dirt path. He reached out his hand, and I took it, standing to my feet. His eyes were a steely grey, and his hair was jet black. His face wasn't friendly at all.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" His cold and lifeless eyes stared back into my own as I shook my head slowly. He sighed, running his hand through his hair. 

"Fucking hell... trust your parents to neglect important shit that you needed to know..." 

"Who are you?" I asked, annoyed that he didn't explain after I answered his question. He looked down, steel grey eyes meeting my own green ones. I glared back at him, and he barked out a chuckle.

"Elise, you are remarkably like your mother, did you know that? She was just as feisty as you are now. I'm Jonathan, I'll be your acquaintance for the next few years, so you're gonna have to get used to me. Your parents asked me to look after you in case they ever got caught, so here we are. You're just going to have to trust me, and in approximately thirty seconds we're going to need to run before the bastard creatures that captured and killed your parents will do the same to us."

I opened my mouth to ask the million questions that were running through my head, but Jonathan looked back and cut me off.

"No time to explain now, I'll tell you on the way. For now, fucking run!"