Introduction
Hey there so I just want to warn everyone that this is going to be very rough for a while and maybe even cringy. This is my first book and it's based on a reoccurring dream that I often have so it might be weird. I am open to criticism so lay it on me, be as mean as you want since it will make me a better writer.
If you want to make me a book cover go ahead I might use it if I like it or I'll show it in the top picture thing and dedicate the chapter to you. Anyways enough of my talking, I'll start the introduction now.
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I wish I could say that I was normal. But wherever I go disaster tends to follow me. I don't know why I'm different and why people fear me but they do. I'm just a regular 17-year-old girl named Ara. It's a weird name I know but I can't bring myself to change it, its the only thing that I have left from my parents. Now I know what you are thinking, what happened to my parents? Well, remember how I told you that bad things tend to follow me and cause problems? They are gone because of me.
When I was 8 I had a temper that could match a raging bull and it tended to get out of control a lot and it would take hours for me to be able to calm down. One night my parents were fighting and my dad was screaming at me, telling me that I was a mistake and that I was ruining the family. I never knew why he hated me, he always loved my siblings Idris and Aalto. Even my mother hated me but at least she never took it out on me, she just stayed away from me.
My dad's shouts eventually turned into punches and kicks, his hatred for me taking over him and putting him in a blind rage. Why was he doing this to me? What did I do wrong? I cried and pleaded for him to stop but he never did. The tears on my face felt like they were boiling hot as they made their way down my cheeks and onto the floor below me. I never did find out how I blacked out or more importantly how the fire started and why it didn't kill me with my parents.
When I woke up weeks later I was in a hospital with my siblings and no parents something inside me broke and I don't know what it was but ever since that day I haven't been able to look at my brother and sister without seeing our lost parents. I know that they don't blame me for what happened but they should. I was the one that took our parents away from us and I'm the reason that we got moved from house to house because no family wanted us. Well I should take that back, they wanted my perfect siblings but they never wanted me. Since that day I haven't been able to forgive myself for what I did.
***
Once a week at random times, the king's men go door to door and take people. We aren't told what they are looking for and why they take certain people. But the people that they take end up going to underground areas where they are beaten into submission to become slaves or where they are trained to become mindless puppets and are shipped off to the front line to fight the wars. They don't look at teenagers though. They only care enough to examine you once you turn 18. Lucky for me I still have a month before I turn 18 and I don't know if I should be scared. What if they realize that I am different and take me away from my new family? I have these fears every night and they are always in the back of my head.
We only have a few weeks of school left before I graduate and I could not be happier. I know that everyone has a hard time in high school but for me, it is about 10 times worse than the average person. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the students that bullied me but the adults tend to do the same thing. Everyone can tell that I am different from just one glance, even though I hide behind hoodies and my curtain of red hair. I still stick out like a sore thumb. Spring break ends tomorrow and that means that I have to go back to the hell hole that is known as St. Marks Highschool.
