Aurora

Prologue

It started when I was a baby, see. A small, helpless infant. My parents had given me up to three women – I’m not saying my parents didn’t want me, I’m saying they had no choice – and those three women took me in, as if I were their own.

            They’re three wonderful ladies who would love to take care of a child and be the selfless people they are.

            They live in a small house in the rural area of town, away from the civilization. I had asked them multiple times why they didn’t allow me to play with the other kids or go to birthday parties or sleepovers, and all they would say was, “We’re just protecting you.”

            Protecting me from what, you ask. Well, I personally don’t know the answer. So don’t ask me.

            I asked Vydia about it once – one of the women – about my family, and why I had to leave. She had gotten a grim look on her face, as if it were a dark subject to talk about. She took me outside and we walked through the forest just near the house, and she said she would explain as much as she could remember.

            “Your parents were holding a party to celebrate your birth,” Vydia had said. “They lived in the city, you know…where all of the people are. They had invited many of those people; friends, family, co-workers.

            “It was a banquet, really. We were there too, me, Gina, and Constance.”

            She had paused, as if she didn’t want to tell further. But I pressed on.

            Vydia sighed. “Then, once everyone who had been invited had arrived, a person came in whose name wasn’t on the invite list. She had a calm walk, but she seemed to have a dark aura around her, along with that beast of a dog she had. A very scary looking creature, mind you.

            “She…approached your crib, with your parents standing on either side…and she just…smiled down at you.

            “It was a wicked grin, something evil. She had stepped back, smirked, then said something I didn’t quite understand; I don’t know what she said. I’m sorry.”

            And then Vydia got up and hurried back to the house. I always wondered about that story. It seemed as if she wasn’t telling the whole thing.

            I think she does know what that person said, I had thought to myself. I just know it.

            This time…I’m determined to figure it out.

            Stay strong, Rose. The past will finally become clear.