The Names Our Children Will Know

Prologue Part 2 - Draft One

It had been a long time since Elanna had stood in this house, but she still knew every step of the entryway. Her voice still echoed the exact same way when she called out. The same paintings, the same small coat rack hung near the door. The walls were even shining with the same polish as had been on the walls since Elanna was a child.

"Father?" Her voice trembled in fear and bright tears sparkled in her eyes. "Father, where are you?" She absently scratched at her arms, carving more bright red lines. Something was wrong, something big, something important, something she should have already sensed...

"Something's happened... Father, there's a plague coming." Now she remembered. The man with the bright red hair and the grating voice. He had told her to run, and she had, all the way back to a home she swore she would never set foot in again. She had to warn her father!

Elanna's skin was almost transparent now. Her bones shone dully through her skin in the late-afternoon sunlight pouring through the open doorway. She shivered, an odd look crossing her face. Casting a fearful glance over her shoulder, she nearly ran to the stairs. Her foot was on the first step when she halted, standing rigid.

"They're coming, Father!" Her voice had risen to a scream. The strange, shadowy creatures her mind had conjured were coming closer and closer–

With a choked wail, something in Elanna's mind broke under the strain of long, harrowing nights being chased by monsters–both real and imagined–and racing back home to warn the family that hadn't spoken to her in years. She fell to the floor, a cry of anguish tearing itself from her throat.

With that last fruitless show of defiance, what was left of Elanna Wesson collapsed. When she stood up again, something was different. It wasn't Elanna that stood in the entranceway to her father's house. It was something else. Something darker, more dangerous.

What had been Elanna Wesson growled softly to herself and wandered further into the house, looking for her father.

Looking to hunt.