Castle (The Badlands Series) Book 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Forward

Emlyn Lovet ran down an empty street in the desolate rainy town of Forks, Washington. The road was surrounded by greenery, vegetation, and trees. Trees, there were so many of them in Forks, and Emlyn hated it. She had grown up here her whole life and wanted a change of scenery, but that dream seemed far away.

In the current time of things Emlyn had found herself running down this lonely street. She often drove down it on her way to school or work but never had she ran down it. Emlyn found herself suddenly falling and as her feet fell over something and tumbled beneath her. She hit the asphalt of the old road face first her hands scraping against the scratchy surface, and her clothes becoming tainted with the black rocky substance.

Emlyn pulled herself to her feet and brushed the dirt off her face, clothes, and hands. She looked around noticing a rather large sharp rock had been her attacker and she sighed as some blood came from the cuts on her hands. She wiped them on her jeans and then wiped away the hot tears that had been rolling down her face.

"Why do I do this to myself? I knew Jacob was a bad guy, but I fell for him, and now my heart's in the dirt," Emlyn said aloud to herself, trying to calm herself down from the situation. "I just have to move on, it's not my fault." She started walking back down the street, but something nagged inside of her.

She wanted to vent out her feelings, but she didn't want to vent them aloud. She eventually after about twenty more minutes of walking arrived at an old white house. She pulled her key from her pocket and let herself in. Emlyn looked around at the covered furniture and faded paint on the walls. She remembered a time when the house was lively, with the smell of cookies, and the sound of her parents cheering every time the Dallas Cowboys made a touchdown.

After her father's heart aneurysm burst and her mother died soon after of breast cancer, Emlyn was left alone. She had been eighteen when they died and thankfully could support herself. She couldn't thank the world enough for the house already being paid for and she wasn't left with the burden.

Emlyn pulled a stack of cluttered papers from the dusty old desk that sat in the far corner of the room. She had always wanted to be a writer and her parents despised the dream. Emlyn had been able to publish popular fantasy books online but never a hard copy of a book. Emlyn sat down at the desk and picked up a pen as she looked over the pages.

Castle was the name of the book she had started writing but never finished. She had created Horrace the old man who was known for being wise, but maybe a little crazy. Camilla the evil antagonist who gained power from her anger but blinded her to the point it would destroy her. There were people in the book just normal people here and there but that was it. There was no protagonist and Emlyn smiled. "Why not?" she said to herself and began writing.

"Then there was Emlyn... the writer, the one who was broken, but all she could do was stare at the pages, wishing she could be there too. It was if a swirl of light suddenly filled the room, and then everything began to shake."

Emlyn stopped writing suddenly as her house began shaking and lights began filling the room. She didn't know what to do so she began telling the story aloud, "The people cheered her name inside the book, they wanted to make her their queen."

She could hear voices chanting and cheering her name from the pages, so she kept writing aloud as adrenaline moved through her veins. "...and then as she was writing she fell into her book."

Emlyn didn't fall though she felt something sucking her in, everything turned black around her, like it was a black hole sucking her to her doom. Before Emlyn could change the story, she found herself falling, and all she could see was darkness. A lonely empty darkness that called her deeper into it. It sucked her down further and further until she felt herself crash land onto something hard. Though before she had time to react, she felt the darkness invade her mind and shut it down.