Lullaby

Prologue

"Evelyn, why won't you pay attention?!" 

Evelyn raises her head quickly, tiredness out of her already. She looks at her dreary older sister, Lilith.

Her father had died on her 10th birthday, almost a year ago. Since then, her family was whirled into a tornado of misfortune.

Evelyn's father left with a bunch of debts, leaving her mother always stressed and working overtime on three jobs, supporting herself, Evelyn, and her two older sisters.

Since then, her older sisters Lilith and Jennie took the responsibility of teaching their 10-year-old sister Evelyn.

Lilith just graduated high school, but they obviously couldn't afford college so she took on some jobs. Jennie was a freshman, but had to drop out immediately into the year because of their father.

Evelyn had just started 5th grade, her last year of elementary. Of course she was disheartened that she couldn't see her friends anymore. They lived too far away and they didn't have a car.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep last night because of you two bickering," Evelyn snaps back. "I had black bags under my eyes this morning!"

"Don't blame it on us!" Jennie replies, standing up from her chair. 

"Silence! We shouldn't be fighting this early in the morning," Lilith says while ushering Jennie to sit back down. "Now where were we?"

"We were learning about World War 1," Evelyn yawns behind her sleeve. Jennie sneaks her a glare.

"Alright, let's get back to the lesson."

~*~

When everyone finally went to bed, Evelyn puts on her dusty coat and walks outside quickly, careful not to make any noise.

She pulls the hood over her head before running through the streets, careful to watch out for cars.

After a few blocks of running, she makes it to the bookstore. She happily opens the door and walks in.

"Oh, Evelyn!" the storekeeper looks at her in surprise. "I thought I told you to not come this late. It's dangerous!"

"I know, but it's the only time I can read the books," she replies.

"Just be careful on your way back," the storekeeper gives her a small smile before going back to shelving some new books.

Evelyn strolls through the aisles before reaching her destination. She takes out the new Harry Potter book and makes her way to a chair.

She sits down and opens the book, already immersed. 

An hour or so later, Evelyn folds a small corner of her page on chapter 26 before placing the book back onto its shelf.

She skips back home, words and thoughts racing through her head. Who was the heir of Slytherin? And why is Harry hearing voices?

She was too into her thoughts that she didn't notice the car.

As she crosses the street, unaware of anything, a car approaches her. The driver didn't have his or her lights on and couldn't see Evelyn through her dark coat.

***

"Where's Evelyn?" Lilith opens the curtains to her and Jennie's shared bedroom.

Jennie groans and props herself up on her bed before rubbing her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"She's not here," Lilith replies darkly.

"Lilith! Jennie!" their mom barges open into their room, hair messed up and still in her pajama robes. "Come here, quick!"

Their mom leads the two girls out into the street where a large group of people were gathered. Lilith and Jennie push through the crowd with some difficulty. Once they saw what was in the middle, Lilith almost fainted while Jennie was petrified.

Blood was spilled around the street, splattered across a car . A dark metallic red pool circling around the wheels, a cold pale hand reaching out.

Jennie let out a shaky breath before crouching down and peeking under the car.

Underneath the vehicle was a bloodied and beat up girl in a dark coat.