Prolog: The Death of Thomas Fairchild
There was only a sliver of moon that night. She remembered it all too well; the way the thin moonlight had cast everything into shadows embroidered with a dreamlike glow.
"Thomas! Thomas!" A woman's voice was loud in the silence of the garden. She laughed happily, her voice echoing on the high white-brick garden walls. Stopping, she rested one hand on the smooth stone. As she breathed deep, concern flashed through her eyes for a moment- but only a moment. He was hiding, just around the corner, most like. He was just waiting to leap out and grab her when she least expected it. The woman smiled, her eyes brightening as she called out again. "Thomas, we're both much too old to be playing hide and seek like this."
There was no answer, as she had well expected.
She moved forward, toward the bend in the garden wall. Her hand was tight against the smooth surface of the wall as she took cautious steps. A bird called out, frightening her and setting her skin to crawling. "Thomas, please." Her voice had risen to a plea.
Rounding the corner, she caught sight of the gazebo. A human form was caught in a slanting ray of moonlight, which darted eerily in through the open walls."Thomas!" she cried, a smile playing across her face. Lifting the hem of her skirt, she ran forward. She mounted the steps leading up to the main platform of the gazebo, hurrying up them to the silent form of her dearest Thomas.
She knew instantly that something was wrong. He leant against one of the seven supports that held up the peaked roof. His head, with a sleek coat of graying brown hair, was at an odd angle, the silver threads catching the light in an eerie manner. "Thomas?" Her voice echoed strangely in the darkness, quieter than she had meant it to be. She reached out a hand to touch his chest, above the heart. No beat of his heart. Her hand darted upwards, to hover beneath his nose and over his slightly opened mouth. No breath of his lungs. She caressed the side of his face gently, then opened her mouth to scream.
Thomas was dead.