Caine & Diana || ˢᵗºʳʸ ºf ᵘˢ

PROLOGUE

A/N: this is old & kinda still being edited so yeah its not the best but maybe i will keep working on it! also trigger warning cos i use the r-slur in this because its used a lot in Gone by Michael Grant, which this book is based on! :) 

UNDER EDITING

edited 24/4/24

***

Diana stiffened as the gusty breeze weaved through her dark brown hair. She sat quietly. Waiting. Unsure and very much lost.

All parents had disappeared. Well, actually, all people over fifteen had disappeared.

Yes, vanished. 

Gone.

It was impossible. It made no sense. And yet it was Diana Ladris' new reality.

She sighed. She partly wished she was gone too. But she'd have to wait a while for that.

She pushed the stray strands of her hair out of her eyes, watching absently as children rushed past her, Coates kids, kids she knew. Some were crying, some yelling, some ecstatic -- all of them had that same spark of uncertain fear and adrenaline as they roamed the halls of a school with no more adults. It was a disaster. No more teachers and adults to control the chaos.

Gone.

All of them, gone.

Some thought this would last forever. Some believed it would all be over soon. Others said it was all a dream. Or, more fittingly, a nightmare.

Diana? She didn't know what to think. She was lost. Diana just wanted it to be over. She wished it was all different. That she didn't go to Coates, that she was normal... that she had friends.

Coates.

Diana rolled her eyes.

Coates was a school for troubled, confused kids who did bad things or who thought bad thoughts. Sometimes they weren't even bad, just misunderstood. Kids who were just, overall, abnormal.

Diana shouldn't be here. No. Her mother had fallen down the stairs and died. Not her fault, but...

Diana had been so afraid at the time, so afraid of her father and what he would do, but determined not to show it. She wanted him in jail, the bastard, she tried to blame it on him, but no luck. The police saw through her act, sent her here. She was better than that, smarter, but she had failed.

And now she was at Coates. With no friends, with no one to love or to rely on.

Diana hugged her knees into her chest, folding herself into the bench as if she could make herself disappear. She wished she was gone like the others, not here all alone.

"Hi."

Diana looked up, at that eerily familiar voice...

It was that creep, Bug. The weirdo ten-year-old kid who got the nickname from eating bugs and who was also apparently allergic to personal space.

Diana glared. "Go away, creep. Don't you know anything about privacy?"

Bug stiffened. He shrugged. "You looked lonely."

Diana shoved him away. "You're the lonely one." She hated the way her voice broke with emotion. She didn't care for Bug. She was just... Messed up. 

But now the world was messed up, so much more than it already had been. She shoved down the well of emotion, laughing dryly despite herself. Messed up Diana at a messed up school and now in a messed up world with no adults.

Bug had slipped away.

Diana gazed up at the crowd of kids in front of her, buzzing with energy, crowding around someone. Panicking, probably. Diana didn't really care about this whole non-parents thing. No parents meant no rules.

But... deep down she knew that wasn't a good thing. She decided to ignore that deep-down thought.

"Alright! We've got this all sorted! We will act, okay? No panicking. We will be the rulers, alright?"

Diana curiously lifted her head at the announcing voice which had boomed over the rest, a voice she knew well. She squinted, making out a flash of dark hair.

"Don't be afraid," he continued, and Diana saw that everyone was instantly enchanted by his speech. They were taking him seriously. "Everything will be okay if we band together."

A ruler, Diana thought to herself, vacantly. She lifted to her feet, and sure enough, it was who she thought it was.

A charming teenager with smooth hair, as dark as midnight, equipped with an attractive smile stood forward, grinning at those who beheld him. His name was Caine Soren.

He said, "We're the Coates kids, right?"

Some halfhearted cheers.

"We're a powerful group of people, and we have each other. When the time comes, we will all go to Perdido Beach, and see the situation over there. This is an opportunity, not a bad thing. It's a way to do over." He slammed his fist into his palm. "We will not show fear!"

He raised his hands in a grand gesture and the cheers were louder this time. Some didn't cheer at all. Some lingered in the background, watching. Like Diana.

Diana stepped forward tentatively, emerging from the shadows.

Someone was deciding to act. She was going to act too.

She might as well make most of the time of not being fifteen.