Chapter 1
“Help! Help! Please! Stop!”
I slammed on my breaks halting to a stop inches in front of the frantic girl standing in the middle of the road during the dead of night.
Her hair was red as blood, and skin as white as snow. She wore a long white lace nightgown, looking almost ghostly in the harsh LED lighting of my 2006 Chevy. I looked around to see where she came from. There was nothing but evergreen trees on highway 9. She ran to the passenger side door and started pulling on the handle frantically continuously looking to the forest from the way in which she came.
Staring at her through the window, I reached over to the other side and unlocked the door. Immediately she opened the door, jumping in and slamming it shut. She stared straight ahead while I took a good look at her.
Her hair was curly and went down to her hips. Caked and matted with leaves and dirt. Her skin was grey, almost translucent. She had dirt smudges on her face and arms, I looked down and she was bare foot. An inch thick layer of mud being her only source of protection from the sticks and rocks hidden beneath the frozen autumn ground. She had scars going up and down her arms, some old and purple, some fresh and pink.
The mysterious girl was shivering, making her veins and fingers turning purple. I turned the heat to full blast and proceeded to reach into the back seat. I grabbed a red scratchy wool blanket. I held it out to her, as she looked at it for a minute and then timidly looked up at me as if to ask permission.
“Go on, take it.”
She took a shaky hand up and wrapped her tiny fingers around it and put it over her shoulders. She quickly looked down, letting her hair fall, hiding her face.
“What is your name?” She looked straight at me for the first time since she got into my truck. To say I was surprised at what I saw was an understatement. Despite the purple bags under her eyes and her pale chapped lips, she was beautiful. Small straight nose, pink pouty lips, and big doe eyes that shined and shimmered in the same green shade as the leaves in spring. As beautiful as they were, you could see the complete sorrow buried deep within.
She took a long skeptical look at me, those green eyes piercing into me. It was like she knew all of my secrets. Everything that was found in the deepest trenches of my mind and the darkest corners of my soul was in the out and open. Plain as day. She could see it all just the same as you or I could see the dark trees that surrounded the vehicle.
“Ann” She said, one simple and sweet word that would forever change my life. She said this in just over a whisper. Her voice was a soft sweet Melody like you would hear coming from a piano composition. A beautiful sound indeed, but like her eyes, it carried a deep seeded sadness to it. Her voice, her appearance, her presence was... haunting.
