I See Fire ➳ Stilinski

Prologue

Smoke. Smoke everywhere. It's climbling down Raven's throat, gagging her, tearing up her eyes. She lets out a strangled cry for help, but no one seems to hear her. The funny thing is, there's people all around her, crying for help just as Raven herself, yet they ignored her screams of agony. Fire blazing up from all ends of the wooden house, eveyone rushed to all the doors and windows, doing all they can to find a way out. Raven tried to pick up a chair to attempt to smash a window, but it slipped right through her fingers as if she didn't even exist, so she only watched as children and their parents fractically searched every crevice of their home. Flames started to close in around them, Raven trembled in the corner with the other children, who were clutching tightly onto the adults whispering that everything would be okay softly in their ears. Like the small, naive, children they were, they believed them. However, Raven knew better. She'd been here every night for months, watching tears stream down the members of an innocent family, listening to their cries of pain, but never able to save them. Muffled sobs broke out of her mouth as they all turned to the woman who seemed to be their leader, alpha if you will, and she only gave them a slight nod, signaling to the people around her that this was the end. Raven badly wanted to join them, all holding hands, peacefully awaiting their death, but black spots were already littering her vision. She dropped to her knees as her vision went entirely dark, the only thing clear is two bone-chilling beady red eyes and the deathly soft words 'I will avenge you'.

Raven shot up in her bed, screaming bloody murder, drenched in cold sweat for the millionth time this year. She wiped away at her tear-stained cheeks, although new ones were only rolling, replacing the tears she already dried.

"Honey, again?", her mother asked quietly, sighing in response to the shaky nod Raven gave her. "I-I think you need to go away for a while."

Fresh tears spilled over Raven's rosy cheeks, "Huh?"

"Sweetheart, this isn't healthy! You need help!", she cried out.

"No, mommy! I can fix it! I don't want to go away, don't make me leave!", ten year old Raven sobbed, clinging on her mother's side. "Please don't make me go away, mommy I love you!"

"I know, I love you too, but we have to do this, or we can't be happy. You want to be happy don't you?"

Raven sniffled, nodding at her mother with puppy dog eyes.

Her mom gave her a sad smile, tear pooling in her eyes, "We're going to take you to a place called Eichen House, they're going to make us happy again. I'll be back for you, I promise."

Raven counted the days, tallying on the wall next to her cot. 1,825 days. It took the long, gruesome, painful, 1,825 days for Raven to finally realize that her mother was never coming back. No long would she keep up with the creep Brunski, or spending her days alone, not counting Meredith, her only friend. Meredith was the only person in all of Eichen House that believed Raven when she told her that she wasn't crazy. Raven didn't think Meredith was crazy either, just special. There are a lot of special people out there, Raven learned this from her dreams. She couldn't just sit back and force herself to believe that they're only coincidences. Nothing's a coinsidence in this world, nothing, not even Raven sneaking out of Eichen House that night. That too, was a trick by the universe to unfold a world full of secrets that Raven could never imagine.