Prologue
Author’s Note:
I am aware that typically in writing, a double space between paragraphs indicates a passing of time. However, due to the lack of an indention option on Inkitt, I will be using a double space to separate my paragraphs, in place of typical indentions. I hope this is not an issue for readers. Instead, I use the little twisty-line thing to indicate any passages of time/setting/etc in the midst of the story.
~S. Fray
Lightning danced across the evening summer sky. Rain pelted the rusty tin roof of a tiny, dilapidated cottage. It was surrounded by lofty trees, which a strong gale of wind rocked and swayed violently. A roll of thunder rumbled in a chorus of crackles and booms, as the rain whipped vigorously in a heavy downpour.
Inside, the wood paneled walls were adorned with bronze kerosene lamps, which cast a pale, dim light throughout the single room home. To the left of the ramshackle door was a threadbare couch, covered in ragged pillows and a neatly folded checkered quilt. Beside the couch was a small wooden child’s toy box- full of tattered books, antiquated knick knacks, and hand sewn dolls.
The kitchen area was to the immediate right of the doorway, with a fireplace for cooking and for warmth in the winter. In the corner of the small kitchen sat an archaic-looking ice box, a wooden sideboard with a porcelain pitcher and small metal basin for washing dishes, and a single row of crooked wooden cabinets.
A single wrought iron bed was nestled in the far right corner of the home, neatly made with a green wool blanket and a single, feeble pillow. Between the bed and the wall, was a small plain wicker bassinet. A deep galvanized tub was in the far left corner of the room, for taking baths. Around a small, worn, and wobbly wooden table, in the middle of the shack, sat the Angelov family.
The mother, Sorina, was middle-aged and a newly made widow. She was an amiable woman that was superstitious. She was unconventionally attractive; she was short and curvy, having full lips with a prominent cupid’s bow, and had long, wavy raven hair which was prematurely graying. She was intelligent, but not educated. She was talented in domestic household duties, and had a knack for sewing and crafting.
In her arms she held her youngest daughter, wrapped in a thin baby blanket. Camelia was a chubby baby, with olive skin, and had a head full of curly ebony locks. She had dark brown eyes like her mother, and thin lips like her dad. She had a single tooth, was able to crawl, and was nearing her first birthday. Camelia was a very content baby- she rarely cried, and slept completely through the night, much to the delight (and relief) of Sorina.
The elder child, Lilac, was freshly turned 17 years of age. She was tall and slim, with strikingly pearlescent hair that had only a hint of blonde, skin as fair as porcelain, and her eyes were of a peculiar purple hue. She was cheerful, kind, curious, and had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Though her mother homeschooled her, Lilac was far from ignorant; her mother taught everything she could, and encouraged her education from a young age. Lilac had begun to read at only 3 years old, and even at her present age, would preoccupy her free time enraptured by books of all genres.
Andrei, the Angelov’s patriarch, had passed away unexpectedly, after a dubious accident. At the time, the Angelovs were living in a shanty town on the outskirts of a big city, called Slum City. Andrei worked in a steel factory, pulling the graveyard shifts. He worked hard to provide for his family, often working 14 and 16 hour shifts, so that Sorina could stay home with the children.
His hands were permanently calloused as proof of his labor, and constantly stained with oil and grime. Though, he never complained, and always had a crooked grin on his face. Opposite of Sorina, Andrei was ruggedly handsome- he was tall, muscular with broad shoulders, fair skinned, with cerulean eyes and a mop of shaggy sandy blonde hair. He was outgoing and mischievous, with a hearty laugh, and never knew a stranger.
One night, Andrei was walking home after a double shift at work. He was crossing the road in the designated pedestrian crosswalk, when he was struck unexpectedly by a speeding Electronically Self-Driven Vehicle (ESV). The initial impact only rolled him on top the hood of the vehicle, but the ESV struck the light post behind him. It caused the post to break in half, and a light at the top of the post fell onto the car beside Andrei.
This caused a small fracture of the lithium battery, which was ignited by a small spark from the frayed wires of the light post. It resulted in an explosion under the hood of the car, sending the hood (and Andrei) flying into the concrete wall of a building. He died upon immediate impact, though the driver, somehow, remained completely unscathed.
The owner of this particular ESV was one Heidi Meyer, a well known wild child, who had quite the infamous reputation. Though, all of her wrongdoings were always swept under the rug by her meticulous PR team. Despite a habit of shoplifting and public intoxication, she’d never so much as spent a night behind bars.
Her father, Leon Meyer, was none other than the mayor of Slum City. He was a large sponsor of the ESVs, and had endorsed them heavily in his early campaigns, until they were the only vehicles legally allowed on the public roads of Slum City.
There had never been any reports of a single traffic infraction, let alone any collisions, of any ESV since their release to the public. The desperate Leon promptly covered up the incident, claiming his daughter had fallen prey to an attempted assassination by a rogue extremist, and that Andrei had perished while attempting to save Heidi.
He supposedly tragically lost his life when the assailant deployed a pipe bomb, which according to Heidi’s official statement, Andrei had “heroically intercepted”. The dashcam of the ESV had been destroyed entirely in the accident, thus leaving Heidi’s testimony of the incident as the only “proof”.
For fear of Sorina requesting an official investigation of this contentious incident involving his ill-behaved daughter, Mr. Meyer promptly paid for Andrei’s funeral in entirety. He also gifted Sorina a cabin on a plot of land, far from Slum City, in the middle of nowhere. It was previously the Meyer’s family hunting property that Leon had inherited from his late grandfather, though it had been left untouched for over a decade.
Sorina found the gift to be too much, but she couldn’t decline such a public display of hospitality. Thus, she quietly accepted the payoff. Not long after the funeral, Mr. Meyer sent one of his personal drivers to the Angelov’s residence, and whisked the family several hours away to the derelict cabin in the sleepy town of Dark Wood.
The town was a small settlement that consisted of mostly lower class and retired folks, either too poor or too wary to join the rest of the world in the jungles of steel and concrete. The town of Dark Wood was very quaint, nestled in a valley surrounded by woods and rivers, and void of the modern technology and conveniences of Slum City. Perhaps, this could be the change of pace that the Angelov family needed, as Sorina so desperately wished to believe.
