|| LONGING || EDITTING

|| Prologue ||

Laughter always boomed the house alive, mainly from the deep rumbles of joy shaking the body of Ashton Archer. He had a good life - raised right to be kind and fight for what he thought was right, had a beautiful daughter and handsome son. He was happily married to his High School sweetheart, Louisa Charleston. She, however, didn't have such a good upbringing - filled with disappointment and insecurities to burden her everyday thoughts.

But Ashton changed that.

Louisa went to her job on an everyday basis for five hours, then at night, Ashton would go to work and not return until three in the morning. Yes, it put distance between the married couple but they still fought for time together and they made it work. Their son, William Archer, was a sixteen-year-old who was growing to become a genius - his future being thought out well. He was going to be an inventor and if that didn't work out, he'd become a Psychiatrist but he was dead set on being an inventor - his creativity was a true gift and could make the coolest of things even if it was limited.

Then there was the married couples youngest, Arizona Archer - a girl at the age of five who were already determined to become the Knight of the world. Ever since she was born, she's never hurt anything -- not even a bug. She had one of the purest of hearts and it was rare for her to be mean or disrespectful to her parents, a lot like William in that aspect. Because Louisa worked during the day, it seemed Ashton was always closer to the kids and Louisa was out of the picture but the woman merely overthought that theory as their children loved them just as equally - they couldn't pick a favourite.

Arizona and William had a slightly different relationship than the average siblings did - they got along more often than they did fight. William loved his sister with every cell in his body and the rest, he would die for her and Arizona, even at a young age, would do anything for her brother. When her brother was rejected by a girl on a date, Arizona made sure to tell her off when the siblings had bashed into the girl out of school, the five-year-old telling her that William was the best thing and she was a 'big stupid - head'.

Of course, Arizona felt bad afterwards and ended up apologizing when she got the chance but wasn't sorry for defending her brother.

Then, a year later... All hell broke loose.

Louisa had reunited with whom she once called a best friend, Marie Johnson, they caught up and Marie was astonished by Louisa's achievements and Louisa was happy to hear that Marie had found herself a man to settle down with: Aaron Schmidt. Louisa had learned that Marie and Aaron had been trying for a child for so long, but, when they had gone to the doctors, they found out Marie wasn't able to have a child. Which soon had Marie growing envious after meeting Arizona and William -- she felt rage fuel her veins whenever she saw how far her best friend had come in comparison to her.

It wasn't until she had given Aaron a good enough reason to do what she wanted to do that they managed to achieve what they had wished for. Marie a child, and Aaron an experiment. So, when Louisa and Ashton planned to go out on a date, after so long of not having time together and alone, they allowed Marie and Aaron to babysit Arizona -- considering William was going out to impress the girl he had been seeing. It was the perfect moment for the couple to put their plan into action.

Almost a few hours of watching Arizona and having her fall asleep, they didn't hesitate to take the child from her family, it was devastating when Louisa and Ashton walked in at ten o'clock at night just to find out Arizona wasn't there. Louisa searched upstairs, Ashton looked downstairs, when it was obvious Arizona wasn't to be found, Louisa called Marie who wasn't answering and Ashton called the Police before calling William. Ashton even went to the place Louisa said Marie was staying just to see that they had clearly already left. The police were scattered around the house for days on end; the Archers knew their lives were never going to be the same again.

Nor did it help that within a few years of not seeing Arizona, two policemen appeared at their doorstep. They had grieved before, but being told that their daughter was killed and her body was deeply disfigured, broke the Archer's, they didn't know how to cope with knowing that people they could call 'Friends' had taken their child just for her to die at the age of eight.

Arizona's departure had left the Archer family to drown in their sorrows. Ashton never had the same sparkle of happiness in his eyes again. William never smiled or spoke of Knights again. Louisa's undying guilt to haunt her day and night for many years to come.

But they didn't know it was all for nothing...