Prologue: A Dream?

   Sam had just fallen asleep when her dreams came. She was running with nowhere to go. All the walls were getting farther and farther away, but the floor was collapsing. Slowly the tiles that she ran on dropped into a dark endless pit behind her feet. The tiles were her hope for staying up, and they were lost just as her hope was. Sam soon became tired of running for so long. She could feel the sweat pour down her pale cheeks. Very soon she dropped to the floor and the tiles fell all around her until she stood on the only one left. Then, that last tile fell. Her scream sounded like a victim’s to a murderous crime. The look on her face was fearful and lost. Her eyes were soulless, and her mouth showed no expression. Still, you could tell what she felt like from her face. As she was falling, she came to an abrupt stop. Her legs were swollen and sore. Her hair was matted and greasy from sweat. She felt pain all through her body. Then, there was only a white background around her. Sam stood up, even though it felt like needles were pricking her all over. Finally she heard a voice. The voice called her name in a gentle way.

 The voice called again, “Sam, I’m over here. Come see me. Please. I need you Sam.”

 “Where are you? Where? Who are you? Why me? Why are you calling me? I can’t help you. I’m sorry!” she cried in reply.

 “Come Sam. Please.” The voice said again. “I need you to help me. You can save me.”

 “I don’t understand! I can’t save anyone!”

    By this time, she was in tears. She collapsed to the ground, and gasped for air. Her black and silver t-shirt was torn all over, and her jeans looked like they were shredded by rabid wolves. Sam’s shoes were beaten up and broken like she was, so she took them off long ago when she was running leaving her bare feet worn and blistered. Suddenly, a little girl appeared and the hard, dirt ground that Sam was laying on became a field. Flowers of all different colors surrounded her, and the little girl skipped over towards Sam. The little girl had on a glowing white dress with silver shoes, and two ribbons to tie up her hair. She had beautiful blonde hair that went down to her waist, and her face was completely innocent. Sam sat up and looked carefully at her. The little girl reminded her of someone, but she did not know who. Her smile was sweet and she had passionate, sweet eyes. She had a cute, small nose and rosy cheeks. When Sam looked at her, she saw a reflection of the past in her white teeth. Then, it came back to her. That little girl was Sarah when she was younger. She was her, but before all of the horrible experiences came. Once she realized this, the little girl started fading away as she ran off laughing with the joy that Sam used to have. Sam tried as hard as she could, using all her strength, to get up. Then she ran after her, but could not catch up. She was soon left alone again, and everything went dark. Suddenly, death and sorrow came upon her. Pain and fear took over her body. All the past events appeared once again in one fellow swoop. One flashback still caught her emotions the most. It was the one that she always paid most attention to, and let affect her most. Sam’s heart, pounding in her chest, stopped. She drew one last breath, and took in that vision, the memory of her sister, and best friend, dieing in front of her. She saw it clearly. A door flung open and she saw herself hiding in a closet, while her sister Tara, fought with a young boy. Sam’s family had taken in Tara about three years ago. She and Sam were about as close as two people could be. Now, Sam was afraid for Tara. The boy had a knife gripped in his right hand and was angry at everything, and everyone. His name was Damien. A few days before this, he started acting stranger than usual. Everyone thought that he was just going through a phase, but it was more than just that. Damien was angry with the whole world, even himself. He even forgot himself, his real self. As he attacked Tara as Sam just watched. All of this was happening when she was only ten. Tara was twelve, and Damien used to be her friend. He was only thirteen, but he was strong, and he did not know how to face his problems. This is why he ended up taking it all out on Tara. She was one of his only friends, but he could not see past his own tears and pain to remember that. They had moved into a different room than the thick wooded closet where Sam lay hidden and paralyzed by fear and confusion. She plugged her ears, so she could not hear anything that was going on. Sam peeked out of the closet, hoping to see the opposite of what she found. There was blood scattered over the ground and many objects were knocked down, pieces sprawled across the floor. Once she finally got the courage to go into the other room, she froze as soon as she entered.

   She saw Damien there, holding up Tara’s head. Blood was streamed down her face, and covered her body. Her clothes were rags now, and Damien just held her head up by her hair. It was dark, but Sam saw everything clearly. Pain and rage began to build. Suddenly, she screamed and all her emotions exploded inside of her. Her eyes turned from blue to yellow and filled with tears. Her face became tense and her tears streamed down her face. Sam loved her sister more than anyone.

 “Tara!” she screamed. “Give Tara back!”

   There was no response to her voice, not even a movement from Tara’s limp body. She screamed and ran towards Damien. She could not stop herself. There was no way to stop her from running at him after what had just happened. Sam was yelling the whole time.

 “Get out of my way!”

   She was three years younger, but Tara taught her how to fight.

 “Give her back!”

   Damien went to pick up his knife and steadied himself for the attack, his eyes still blank and emotionless. Sam saw the blood dripping down the side of his knife’s sharp blade. She ran towards him still, launching her body in a desperate attack on this boy. Damien slashed at her with his knife and cut her deep on her right leg, yet Sam wobbled up to a standing position. Using all her energy to get up, she stood there staring at him.

 Then he called out, “Don’t come closer, or I’ll do it again.”

   Sam took one step forward and Damien unsheathed a gun from under his shirt and aimed it in her direction. Sam refocused herself and got her normal senses back and moved quickly to avoid being in the spot he targeted. She evaded all of his shots and came around behind him. She hit the gun out of his hand, and threw him to the ground. A knife came up and stabbed her leg again. Sam moved as quickly as she could carry herself to another spot. She backed into a table and turned to see a picture of her and Tara smiling together on it. Tears were still pouring out of her eyes, and she could not talk straight any longer. A knife flew by and she ducked. She started yelling again and grabbed the gun from the ground.

 “Give Tara back! You took her! Give her back!”

   She shot at him and missed but shot again two more times. Both of her next shots missed. Sam could no longer calm herself down.

 “Get away from her! Get out of my way!”

   Damien took cover behind a cabinet until he thought there were no bullets left in the gun, but he was wrong. As soon as he stepped out from where he hid Sam fired another shot and hit him straight through his right shoulder. She started over towards where Damien and Tara lay on the ground. She could not stop the ache and sorrow she felt.

 “Tara!”

   Damien still tried to win, even though he was too injured to continue a fight.

 “You will not get by.”

   Sam headed full speed towards him. Suddenly, another guy came out of nowhere. He looked about maybe sixteen years old. He grabbed Damien and disappeared from her sights like a flash of light, but they had not left. Damien knew him. Sam heard him speak to the guy.

 “Close call Vince. You’re a bit late.”

   She looked around and could not see them at first. As Sam tore throw the room searching for where Vince moved them too, she knocked a lit candle onto the rug on the floor. Sam and Tara had bought that candle at a dollar store and the wrapping read: mystery scent, so they had lit it earlier that day to discover what the mystery scent was. As the cinnamon candle hit the rug, a fire started, and that is when they came out. Vince attacked Sam with his own blade. He slashed through her arm, and she fell to the ground on her knees. Damien and Vince rode away on a motorcycle that was waiting at the back door. Sam broke down and a consistent river of tears streamed down her cheeks. Sam’s once beautiful eyes were filled with what she saw when she first stepped into the room, the image flashing over and over again. Her cheeks turned from the soft rosy color they used to be, into a pale color that looked almost ghostly translucent. Her smile was gone, and the spark in her facial expression had been dissolved. All that was left to be seen on her face was misery, fear, pain, anger, and despair. Her once lovely clothes and blue satin ribbon, were trashed, ripped, and torn. Sorrow surrounded her and filled the room. Her blonde hair was black from ash that coated her hair when she fell onto the floor during the fight. As the fire began to enclose Sam with its flames, she did not even notice it or care. She was lost in her emotions and the events that just passed. It was all too much for her at thirteen years old. It would still be too much for anyone, no matter what age. She screamed for her sister again and again.

 “TARA! TARA!”

   There was still no response. She screamed it one last time, and reached towards her sister’s lifeless body.

 “TARA!”

   Then, everything stopped. Sam found herself sitting on a rock in the middle of a brown patch of earth. Total blackness surrounded the area, except where a small light appeared over her. Slowly the light went out. Then, the rock disappeared and the ground she sat on was gone. She was surrounded by total nothingness once again.

   Sam woke up screaming after having another horrible nightmare. She was again horrified by the things that went on in her nightmare, but she could not stop them from invading her mind when she slept. It was always as if she relived it all exactly. She was especially afraid of the memory of Tara’s death, seeing her motionless body hanging by the strands of hair gripped in the hand of Damien, the boy who stole her sister from her. Sam’s nightmares of this memory and that image were so realistic too her that sometimes she was not even completely sure it was only a dream.