The Lost Knight (Volume I)

Chapter 1: Bump in the Night

I grab the box of midnight-purple hair dye from my book bag and squeeze my way down the narrow, overstuffed hall into the only bathroom in our apartment.

The shower hasn't worked since it was turned into a storage closet, so I clear the sink of the old cat food cans Auntie has stockpiled, turn on the cold water, and dream about the day when I'll have my own apartment with a shower, hot water, and food.

"Agatha, are you still pouting?" Auntie yells from her recliner. "I told you, Uncle will pick something up when he's done with work."

My foster parents, I call them Auntie and Uncle, are not what I would describe as parents, or even aunt and uncle, they're more like babysitters. Uncle hasn't been home for three days, and I doubt she believes he'll be here tonight. She just wants me to tell her that I'm okay with her not picking up dinner. I'm not.

Today is my thirteenth birthday. It's not like I was expecting a cake, but something to eat would've been nice.

After I dye my hair, I take a shirt from the pile of laundry I'm standing on, wrap it around my head, and carry the remaining hair dye back to my bedroom. I love my tiny room, mostly because I've been sketching and painting jumbled and disjointed art on these walls since I was old enough to grip a pencil. Part of the reason I chose what the box calls boysenberry for my hair is because the extra dye is the perfect hue for the raven I'm painting on my ceiling.

Dipping the number-three flat brush into my dye calms me and all is forgiven. Auntie's not a mean person, she's just a bit off. Being angry with her is like being mad at one of the cats - pointless.

I wrap a blanket around my shoulders and open the window. Queens is especially chatty tonight with the noise of cars, people fighting, dogs barking, and the laughter that only I can hear. I stand on the bed and fill in the gentle face of my birdie while humming along with the chorus of voices outside.

Tonight, the singing is boldly wafting through my window. I can't understand the words and don't know the tune, but the music is sweet and peaceful. It's sad that I can only hear my songs some of the time, when I'm tired and relaxed, and sadder still that no one else can listen with me.

My dye runs out long before I'm satisfied with my raven so I give up and climb into bed. The song I'm listening to now is particularly soothing, a hymn or possibly an opera. Maybe one day I'll be a great songwriter or something.

A muffled thud near my window startles me from a sound sleep. There's an eerie red glow casting moving shadows across my room. I blink a few times to make sure I'm not still dreaming and follow the source of the light. Just to the side of the foot of my bed kneels a tall, hooded figure with luminescent red eyes. It's stroking the long ears of a much smaller creature that looks withered and dying.

I'm not scared, which is weird, but it might be because I'm not sure I'm awake. I turn on the lamp to make the dream disappear and end up blinding myself. When my eyes adjust, I see the sickly green skin of a long-eared frog-boy lying on the floor and the tall cloaked being that's cradling it. The tall black monster who closely resembles the Grim Reaper appears to be even more stunned than I am. We stare at each other while my brain struggles to figure out what I'm looking at. These things don't exist, so how can I be seeing them so clearly?

The black-hooded creature never takes its red eyes off me while it stands and lifts the small sickly frog-boy off the floor.

"Agatha?" it whispers.