Chapter One: Bumps, bruises, and a sucky plan to get out of here.

Ari is talking to her "parent's" housemaid and plotting to get out of the house.

Ari’s Perspective.

"I hate her," my voice trembled as I spoke in anger to Bridget, a
housemaid of the "family" and a good friend of mine. Bridget was the closest thing to a mother I have ever had. Or ever will have, for that matter.

"I'm sorry, Ari.When I finally have enough money to get out of this dump, I'm taking you with me." Bridget responded in her thick Irish Accent.
Welcome to my life. I am a sixteen year old girl with chocolate brown hair. (and... strangely... a natural silver-blue streak.) I have glacier blue eyes, eyes that tell exactly what I'm thinking at the exact moment I'm thinking it if I don't come out and say it.(This gets me into trouble. A lot of trouble.) As you can tell, I'm what you would call a "freak of nature". What's even more freaky are my ears. They're pointy. EXPLAIN THAT ONE TO ME!!!

I am an orphan. I have utterly no knowledge of my birthparents, and I wish it was the same way for my "parents". They are the heartless, hare-brained, black-souled murderers and drug addicts that have been wanted for every crime in every city in New York. People don't even know I exist, beside Bridget. I am the McCallistor's punching bag.

I'm glad Bridget was caring enough to have me home schooled. I'm treated badly enough by the McCallistors alone. If ONE crime happened out there in New York City that wasn't solved, it would most likely be blamed on me.

As Bridget added bandages to my wounds, bruises, scars, and newfound gashes in my back, the involuntary image of only an hour's past returned painfully into my mind's eye:

"You!" Errin McCallistor, the drug addict and murderer or less known to the world as "mom" hissed, "You turned me into the cops! Now every city in New York is after me because of you!" She shoved me. I wondered what I did before I came here to deserve being treated like this.

"Really, now? Anyone in their right mind would if your so-called 'mother' tried to kill you the other night!!!" I defiantly snarled.

"Shut the !#$& up, you brainless, dimwitted, infuriating demon!" Errin shot back as she slammed me into the old brick wall of the abandoned apartment building in the hall. Millions of cells and nerve endings screeched inside my head as they were each torn apart from each other at the same time...

My head started to throb again just by the returning thought of it.

I will always hate her. I always get to play as their personal punching bag, or target board as they get high. Or drunk.

"Why don't they just get rid of me if they hate me so much?? They could At LEAST do me a favor and do that." I said, muttering to myself. But I already knew the answer to that question. They HAVE BEEN trying to get rid of me.

I remembered one of the many times Errin and Pierce told me that it was my fault they did this to me, that I had no meaning to them whatsoever. They cursed the day they opened the door that night to the doorbell chime, to find me at the doorstep instead of the things that they were waiting for. They told me that they understood why my parents left me at their doorstep and how lucky I was that I wasn' t dead... yet.

But they try to fix that every night.

Bridget pondered over the question for a while, then answered, "Well,I think you already know that answer. But like I said, things will fall into place over time... You just have to hold on until it does." Bridget's cherry-red hair radiantly beamed in the sunlight.

"I CANT WAIT!!! Not HERE! Why can't YOU understand this, Bridget?!" I raged. I felt bad afterwards, but.. It came out. Nothing could be done about it.

Bridget hastily answered, "I promise that when I can get out of here, I'll take you with me. I'll take you to a place you would have never imagined even in your wildest dreams! You can leave all of this behind! I will show you a new life, new people! But all I can do right now is wait. Please, PLEASE understand. We're on the same boat,remember???"

Yes, I understood. Bridget, too was an orphan. She took a long time to find a family that actually would be considered a family.

But none of the families she had were dead-heads.
Bridget’s Perspective

I wanted to help her. Truly. But it was against what Cobbletone had instructed me to do. I deeply wanted to tell her all about her past, her near future. But Cedric insisted he be the one who breaks the news. I was just there to protect her if things really got bad.
Dark One, bad.

I know you're thinking that I am horrible just sitting there and watching her get beaten, but believe me, she's tough. She's handled more than she thinks. The McCallistors aren't even close to bad compared to them.

Now was her time. I felt it. There was a letter in the mail from the Hall, telling her the news. The McCallistors ripped it up, but she was a bright girl. Subconsciously, she knew it was time for her to go home. Even if she had no idea where home is.

Ari rambled on and on about how she feels she has a future beyond here, and she needs to get out. Now. I tried to look clueless, slipping inside of the conversation once or twice, "WHAT?!"

She wanted to go to the airport. ONCE MORE, I squeezed in a "What?!" and then added, "What on Earth are you talking about?!"

"I have a strange, gut feeling I need to go somewhere."

"Where?"I asked. Ari stopped and pondered.

She then answered by replying, "I don't know... I just don't know. But I'll find out when I get there."

I said yes, knowing very well where she was going. I snuck her out of the apartment during the night, and drove her to the airport. She apologized to me for running out on me.

I told her that we'd see each other again.

I wasn't lying.

We would.

Now... Now, I could leave.

As I saw her walking into the airport, I felt my ears grow pointy, and gold streaks appeared in my hair.

"Godspeed the right." I whispered, and left for home.

Only this time...

My real home.