Author's Note: First chapter, sorry it's so short. And by the way, it's going to be a few chapters before she meets Jack.
It was a stormy night, the clouds blotting out all evidence of light, the rolling thunder shook the Earth as if the apocalypse was in full sway, and lightening streaked the heavens, seeming to tear holes in the sky itself.
It was this night that a little girl, in a small run down house on the edge of a costal city, woke up. It wasn't the storm either, no. She could deal with the weather. But Papa and Mama were fighting again, their shouts melting into the thunder creating a continuous strand of frightening sounds.
The girl sat up in bed holding the blankets around her and rubbing her eyes. Her white-blonder hair, mussed with sleep blending in to the white sheets themselves. The constant flashes of lightening revealed a glassy, fearful look in her gray-blue eyes. Papa had called those eyes "cigarette butt" eyes once. That had made her laugh. That memory had coaxed the fear out of her eyes, but only for a moment until she was brought back out of happier times as more yelling reached her delicate ears.
Many years ago, for one reason or another, the little girl's Papa and Mama had gotten married, but it turned out to be a loveless relationship. They fought all the time, they were never happy. Somehow, they had never had an affair; they both had more honor than that after all. As a last ditch effort to salvage something of their marriage, they decided to have a child. A beautiful little girl. They both loved her with everything they had, but they still couldn't love each other. And the fighting started again.
At first she was afraid; she'd never heard two people fight like that before. Sure there were brawls all the time in town, but nothing like this. Nothing so angry. Then she learned to ignore it after she noticed that it was only yelling, only words. But tonight was the climax.
There was a loud thud in the other room and she clutched a threadbare teddy bear to her chest. She jerked forward as if to go see her parents, then hesitated, stopped and listened. All of a sudden there was the sound of breaking glass, of someone running from her parent's room and out the front door and someone following just as fast the wind banging the door back and forth.
This time she didn't hesitate and ran for the door teddy bear still pressed to her chest, but just before she got there she heard a scream, and somehow she was able to hear it over the thunder that cracked overhead. She turned the corner and instantly went numb at what she saw. Mama lying in the middle of the road, blood running into rain, Papa standing over her with his mouth wide open; both were soaking wet. Before the little girl had a chance to react there was a bang, blood spreading out from the wound on her papa's chest, and she fell over right next to her mother. She ran to them then letting the tears run down her cheeks mingling with the rain, just like her parents blood.
It was then she looked up and looked down the street. The first thing she saw was the smoking gun, literally, held by a hand connected to an arm, connected to a man. And then she saw his face. Dark eyes rimmed in black, something like dreadlocks with bits of finery beaded in, held back by a red bandana, and a braided beard. He was soaking wet, shocked and sorry and by the time she had blinked a few times to make sure he was real, he was gone.
Continued…