Chapter 1

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Three Months Earlier

I slipped my thin, red rimmed, rectangular glasses in front of my emerald green eyes and brushed out my shoulder length maroon red hair, then headed downstairs. Underneath the small tree adorned with dozens of ornaments collected over the years and cheap silver strands of tinsel and colorful lights sat the promised mountain of presents, or at least, a mountain compared to the dozen or so we’ve received in the past few years. My mother and sister were already by the fireplace, so I grabbed a present and joined them.

I tugged gently on the black ribbon holding the box together, watching as the bow shrunk until it popped apart, leaving just the light purple square. I dropped the ends of the ribbon and slowly lifted the lid off and set it to the side, then stared at the contents of the box. Inside at the very bottom sat a dark purple book about the size of my head, a red band wrapped once around the outside edge to hold it closed. In the top right corner was a small picture frame with the letter “K” in it, the same dark red color as the band.

I slowly pull it out and examine it, taking the band off and opening it to the first page. It was then that I realized it was a diary. I smiled as I flipped through the lavender pages, imagining myself writing in it daily, or at least, close to it. My younger sister Serene sat on the other side of our mother, ripping the green wrapping paper off of her present excitedly, then squealing with joy before lifting it up to show our mother and I the doll. I looked up at my mother and smiled at her in thanks, then opened my next present. 

Carefully pulling back the red paper on my second present, I revealed a stack of five books from the series I’ve always wanted: City of Bones. My last present was a small silver cross that looked like a sword with a ruby in the center, which was my July birthstone. Light filtering in through the small window bounced off the beautiful red gemstone to bathe the bland white ceiling in a dim red lighting.

Author's Note

This chapter is also by Silent Wolf