Coded

                                                                        ~ Prologue ~

                                                                Emerson, Maine - 2036

      It was January, 15, 2036, on the small town of Emerson, Maine. It was also an oddly warm night for a winter in Emerson, thirty-four degrees and not a cloud in the sky. The stars were twinkling up above, normally distant, but tonight they were so close, it was as if you could touch them.

        A little girl, the age of eight, reaches her hand up, almost as if she were trying to do just that. She walks along the narrow side walk holding hands with her parents, one on either side of her. Her parents swing her up into the air to help her avoid walking into a pile of melting snow. All three of them were laughing without a care in the world. The huge clock in the middle of the town square rings 12 times, signaling midnight.

        The mother leans down and whispers in the little girl's ear, "Happy birthday Ebony Rose Reed, make a wish." The little girl, Ebony, closed her eyes, scrunched up her small nose, and silently made her wish. "What did you wish for?" Her mother asked once Ebony had opened up her eyes again. He father spoke suddenly, "Ebony! Don't tell her, otherwise it might not come true," he finished with a wink.

        "Oh, Garrett, please," her mother started, "Come on Ebony, what was it? A pony? A puppy? New toys? I'm dying here!" Ebony smiled.  "Mama, you know i can't say," Ebony said giggling. "Well maybe," her mother said bending down, "I'll just have to tickle it out of you!"

        The little girl let go of her parents hands and ran down the sidewalk to try to escape. Her father caught up to her quckly and scooped her into his arms. Ebony was laughing uncontrollably now as her father tickled her. When he finally let her go, the child spoke again.

        "Okay, okay, I'll say it. My wish for my..." She broke off as she counted on her fingers her new age, "One, two... four, five... seven, eight, nine! I wish for my ninth birthday, is that Mama and Daddy will never go away." With tears in her eyes, Ebony's mother bent down and gave her daughter a hug. "We'll never leave you sweet child, as long as we can stay we will."

        "Lucille, are you crying?" Ebony's father joked. Lucille tuned to give Garrett a harsh look and he suddenly had an indistinguishable look in his eyes, the two shared something between them without the use of words. They knew something the girl did not. A silent understanding passed between them. "So soon?" Lucille asked to almost no one on particular.

        A crash came from down the street somewhere. It was too dark to see much of anything. Lucille turned away from her daughter to hide the silent tears streaming down her face. Garrett squated to Ebony's level, "Ebony, listen to me. You must go. Run and hide somewhere safe, we will find you soon."

        "But Daddy, why?" she asked confused.

        "You must go. Think of it like that game you like to play where you hide and we try to find you. We will come for you as soon as we can. Go!"

        As Ebony left, her mother wept into her fathers's shoulder and she heard him say, "Lucille, I love you." Then they kissed, like they were the only two people in the world that mattered, like they were saying goodbye. Ebony dashed around the corner of a building, oblivious to everything that was happening at the moment.

        Ebony peeked around the corner of the deep brown, brick wall, to check if her parents were coming. She saw them standing hand in hand staring at something that was coming closer. A hooded figure, wearing all black stood before them in a matter of seconds.

        "Hello, Reed," the figure said. It was a man, definitely a man's voice. "Hello..." Garrett responded, but Ebony was too far away to make anything else out. She was curious, so she moved closer, wondering why her father had told her to leave.

        The three adults murmered something else to each other, clearly a private conversation, and Ebony wanted to be a part of it.

        "Mama!" She cried out, "Mama, I want to know too!" Lucille turned around with a look of sheer horror and panic on her face. "Ebony, no!" her mother cried out as three shots were fired. Lucille turned a ghostly white, and her eyes rolled back into her head. Garrett caught her as she fell to the ground.

        "Lucille! Lucille! No!" He cried. He turned the hooded figure, "What have you done! What have you done!" Two more shots were fired and Garret fell down next to Lucille. With his last breath he whispered, "Run, Ebony. Run."

        She did. Ebony didn't know what was going on, she just knew her father and mother where painful to look at. She heard two more shots from somewhere behind her. "Come here child," the man spoke, "I won't hurt you." Another shot. Ebony's arm started to feel funny after that.

       Ebony ran behind a garbage can and hid from the scary, monsterous man, her arm was dripping of a thick, red liquid. This time he yelled, "Come here child! I won't kill you, I need you alive." The man was searching for her now. He was almost at her hiding spot when a scream came from down the street. Then footsteps, kind of small ones, came running down the street. The hooded man left, he was gone without a trace.

        Ebony was sniffling now, wondering why she was hurting so intensely and why the man wanted her. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, yelped and fell to the side. When she pushed herself back up she was staring into two huge green eyes. It was a boy who could not have been much older than 12, who stared down at her. He was tall for his age, maybe five feet and three inches, and he had dark brown hair that curled at the ends hanging just past his ears.

        "Now what are you doing all alone in the dark?" the boy asked Ebony. She did not answer and just looked up at him with her small and sad hazel colored eyes. "You're hurt," he noticed, "You need to come with me now, I'm going to help you."

        "It's going to be okay," the boy coaxed. He reached his hand down too her and Ebony backed up so fast, she hit her head against the garbage bin and passed out. The boy scooped her up in his arms, and carried her small frame away... T.B.C