Ashanti's Fate

Late in the night, deep in the heart of New Orleans, a young girl walked alone, with only the pale moonlight to guide her. As she rounded the corner to finish her walk home, a woman stepped out of the shadows. Ashanti, she called herself, an African Healer.

"Come, come, Darling. Come inside. I have important news to share with you," she called to the girl. The girl was wise and shook her head, indicating she could not oblige. Ashanti would not take this answer. She ran to the girl and took her by the arms, her own eyes burning stares of warning into the girls. "Eliza," she choked, "you must come and hear me! You are with child! You need to know the danger you are in. Please, you must come inside." The woman dropped the girl's arms at once and dashed inside her home, a single door in a brick wall. The girl would have missed it had she not seen the opening of the door as Ashanti disappeared.

Knowing the old woman must know something, given she had known her name without having laid eyes on her before that moment, Eliza followed warily into the unknown, having no idea what she had stepped into.

And so our story began.