Chapter 1:The Angel In Me…

Story of my life. "Don't show your weaknesses. Winners should win, losers should be punished." Not exactly the dramatic entrance I was looking for. You'd think that motto would be easy to follow (Although they both have the biggest contrasts on this planet.) since I lived without knowing my parents, lived in a big stony mansion I inherited and have no friends because they all think you're too good for them. Sounds like something out of an epic novel, right? But I'm being one hundred percent serious. I thought it was easy to follow too…. Until something strange happened…'

But first, let me introduce myself. I'm 17. My name is Rae Stone. Well… not exactly, I just make everybody call me that because it sounds better than my real name. Raven Delilah Romano Winterstone… the Second. Sounds weird doesn't it… the Delilah part? My parents wanted it after my great grandmother. Yeah, yeah. Have a good laugh about it. They probably threw that in for the fun of it. It gets pretty annoying when people talk about it and do the "You say whaaaa?" thing when I used to introduce myself by that name but I took care of that quite easily…

(Flashback)

"YO, raven! SQUAWK! SQUAWK!" yelled a hundred pound piece of brawn and absolutely no brain. He signaled to me and everyone in the field started to laugh. I was in Junior High at the time. I had been waiting for this moment all week. I had prepared myself by punching my pillow multiple times and imagining his stupid grinning face all over it – which was easy. Today was going to be the day. I walked up to him and said "Lucas, first of all, ravens caw. Not squawk. If you can answer my question, I'll let you off easy. What's black and blue with blood all over?" He stared back with confusion written all over his stupid, fat, pudgy face and said "Huh?" I laughed and yelled "ENGK! Sorry, mite. But the correct answer is YOU!" Before anyone could react, I had Lucas face down on the grass as I punched him in the gut. Then the teacher came.

(End of Flashback)

Ah well, that guy deserved it anyway. Oh, and if you guys want to know what happened to me…. It wasn't detention. I sort of gave the teacher a tip…ok, ok so I bribed him. What's a girl with lots of pocket money to do? So what? It's not that big a deal…is it? Anyway, like I said, I took care of the name-calling quite easily. Some of the other problems were pretty minor so I won't bore you to tears with them. Now I live a boring civilized life like this. Well… if you called a passionately lonely and EMO…sorta life civilized. Now, enough introductions. Let me just tell you how all of this started…...…

I was pretty much known in Bayside High School in the (G) section. Yes, that means gifted. Not that I believed that I was. *cough* How would I describe myself? Hmm… I had long black hair with silver streaks in it (I was bored); I got a body tattoo done. It was two dragons intertwining around my body with the two heads on my shoulders, blue eyes, and pale skin and was almost six feet tall (pretty impressive, eh? The wonders of milk). I played on the school's basketball team and did pretty well (meaning perfect score) in my exams. A lot of girls hated me. Mostly cheerleaders. How passé is that? All the guys in school kept trying to date x rape me. It was annoying. That's why I took up self defense. I get to live on the money my parents make at their big, humongo-ginormous company. I was pretty content with my old life.

It was a Friday when the incident happened. It was the same old day, same old school. As I walked into the class, every single guy looked up at me and gave me their usual jockey grins. I snarled at all of them and strode to my seat. The jocks in school described me as hot but with looks that kill. The seniors however, describe me with a look that says, 'cross me and you'll need a miracle'. The other girls just call me a stuck-up, snobby, brat, which was fine with me. Our class teacher, Mr. Fitzgerald walked in and straightened his desk with a sight grunt. The once noisy class became silent.

He started with History, which to me, was the, and my worst subject in the world. I would have excused myself to the bathroom until he started on a subject which I hadn't even started reading yet. It sounded strange because it had something to do with mythical winged creatures. Strangely enough, that topic intrigued me. But the horrible bit was when the teacher started handing out sheets of paper and told us to draw or write an essay of our opinion on the subject. I decided to draw since we were only given 20 minutes. Slowly my mind formed an image and I started to draw.

I was pretty satisfied with the wings, body and clothes until I had to draw the head, hair and face. I started to tap my pencil on the table top. Suddenly my hand went out of control and started to act as if it had a life of its own. My hand or 'It' started to draw the head the hair and to my horror. It started drawing the face. I closed my eyes and expected to see a ruined drawing. But, as I opened my eyes and looked down at the paper, a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. The face of the person in the drawing was….…me.

I was about to rub the whole thing out and write an essay instead but then… my back started to burn. It hurt so much I could have screamed in pain. Instead I gritted my teeth and tried to rub my picture out. Then the bell rang. Darn it! 'The bell is not a friend anymore. Its over!' Mr. Fitzgerald started to collect my paper. My reflexes weren't as good today so I didn't snatch the paper back from him. He took one look at my drawing and wolf-whistled. I could have killed him. I really could. But since the topic he was teaching now was of interest to me…I decided not to. I waited impatiently for him to dismiss the class. Finally he cleared his throat and said "Class is dismissed. Good job everyone." I could have jumped for joy.

I grabbed my books and ran to my locker, dumped my stuff and ran to the bathroom. I splashed some cold water over my face, hoping that this was all the weird-ness for today. A few cheerleaders entered the bathroom holding bags of make-up and push-up bras. They glared at me and me at them. Stupid blonde bimbos. As I walked down the hall towards my locker I thought that nothing could make my day any worse….but BOY was I wrong.

In art class…

I felt relieved because art was one of my good subjects. But something really bad happened. I was innocently hanging around the front of the art room when all of a sudden, my back started to sear with pain. It was the sort of pain you get when it feels like you being torn apart. It hurt a lot. I could've sworn if the teacher, Mrs. Morris hadn't come. Fortunately, the pain subsided after a while. I sighed in relief and waited for the teacher to unlock the door. I walked in and set up my easel and simply started to sketch. All of a sudden I remembered about my hand and how strangely it had started acting on its own accord. I sighed. The only thing to do was to wait and hope it won't happen again. I started off with some light sketching before moving on to something more artistic.

A few more students started to come in and Mrs. Morris started the class. She started talking a lot and finally said "You may draw whatever you like. I will be going for a meeting now so keep quiet and do your work. She swept up her books and moved towards the door. All off a sudden she gave a shriek and dropped her books. Hastily she picked them up and looked up at the boy standing in front of the door. "You startled me young man. You are the new student I presume. Well then come on in." she said ushering a very tall guy about six feet two. He had long black hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, slender, but muscular at the same time and an Orlando Bloom face which I bet all the cheerleaders would willingly die for. I could already hear the squeals in the back. Shyly he stepped in and tilted his head to one side in an attempt to look at the classroom.

Mrs. Morris straightened her jacket and forced a smile. "Now then. Your name is…" The guy turned to Mrs. Morris and said "Cedric Darkbane." 'Darkbane? Who on this PLANET names their kid, Darkbane?' was my initial reaction. Mrs. Morris nodded and dragged an easel to an empty space right beside me! 'HELLO! I requested an ALONE sitting position!' I thought hoping that she would hear me. But of course no one could. I caught a glimpse of the new student and saw that he was smiling at me. He held out a hand and said "Hey, my name's Cedric." I saw a few of the football players grinning at him. I could tell that they were probably thinking what an idiot he was to try and talk to me. So I decided to prove them wrong just to piss them off. I shook his hand and said "Rae Stone." He looked at me and back at my school book which read my real name. 'Well, shoot!' But he just smiled and nodded.

"We're doing free drawing today." I added generously. 'Hmm…very unlike me.' I sighed, stood up and went to the pile of books stacked neatly in a corner, you know… for inspiration and stuff. Anyway, still undecided, went eenie-meenie-miney-moe and got a book of mythical creatures. Coincidence much? Sat down and let my mind go blank and let my creativity soar. 'Too poetic? Yeah, I think so too.' Completing the light sketch, I felt eyes burn into the back of my head and turned to see Cedric staring at me. 'What is your problem? Eyes, back to where they came from. NOW!' As if he heard my thoughts, he averted his eyes back to his easel.

30 minutes later…

The teacher came in and swooped down on me like a hawk. Smiling at my painting, she took a look at Cedric's. She looked at me and back at him "You are very lucky to have such WONDERFUL inspiration around you." I gave him a puzzled look and he grinned sheepishly, turning the easel around. I saw that he had sketched me and I gave him my best icy glare. Suddenly my back started to hurt again. It felt as if someone was trying to rip my shoulder blades out.

I bit back a yell and massaged my shoulders. Cedric looked at me and when the bell rang, whispered, "Meet me in the park after school." I looked at him with a 'are you out of your friggin mind' expression but nodded anyway. My shoulders still felt numb after class but I managed to survive the rest of the day. Which gave me lots of time to debate on whether to go to the park or not. I just met him and I wasn't even sure if he was some kind of crazy rapist. Finally I made my decision.

After school, I sighed and trudged towards the park. I used to play there as a kid…

(Flashback)

"Hahahaha! Daddy stop chasing me. My side aches!" whined a five year old Raven. "Allright, sweetheart. By the way, mommy and I have to go somewhere again. On business so you can look after yourself at home right?" Little Raven looked at him with wild eyes "You're leaving again. You always leave. I should have expected it. I'll be fine on my own." He reached out but I had just pushed him away. "I'm so sorry sweetie." Those were always the words he pulled out before he went somewhere and didn't return for a couple of months. Even years. As soon as he had left, I ran over, flung myself into the swing and cried.

(End of Flashback)

I couldn't see anybody at the park so I went to one of the swings and gently rocked myself back and forth. Suddenly I saw Cedric coming out of the trees with a huge grey pelted wolf running beside him. I almost screamed but having faced so many years of conquering any kind of fear, I bit back and just eyed both of them suspiciously. Cedric grinned at me and kneeled down to whisper something in the wolf's ear. Immediately the animal lunged at me, knocking me off the swing and licked my face. I deigned to smile at the rare sign of affection and stroked its soft fur.

Cedric was giving me this weird look and suddenly I realized I was smiling. 'OMG! STOP LOOKING AT ME. ARGH! Okay, wolfy. Time to get off' I thought as I gently shoved the wolf off my lap and turned to scowl at Cedric. He stopped a few paces in front of me. "Do you have a cell phone?" I nodded, confused. "Call your parents. You won't be going home just yet." I winced a little then went back to eyeing him. "They're all the way in Japan and probably won't give a damn whatever happens to me. So if you're planning to kidnap me and hold me for ransom then give it up."

His eyes widened for a while then he turned motioning for me to follow him. There was a shed at the back of the park which I hadn't noticed before. There was a man with a long cloak and a hood that covered most of his head leaning on the door and when he saw us walking towards him he walked up to Cedric, whispered something inaudible and came up to me. 'Okay, girl. No panicking. Just stay calm and let the weird people speak to you.' The man stopped in from off me and pulled of his hood to reveal a firm and yet handsome face. He looked about 30. Looked sort of a daddy-like person any older woman would want to marry.

But his most striking feature was his shock of red hair. It was a sort of fire coloured. But redder. It was so unreal I almost wanted to ask him whether he was wearing a wig. He extended his hand "Pleased to meet your acquaintance li'l miss. Eduard Cutter, but you can call me Red." I raised an eyebrow and shook his hand cautiously. Instead of letting go, he got down on one knee and kissed my hand. I scoffed. "I'll bet you do this to all the ladies." He stood up and grinned. "Just the ones I like." Cedric shook his head and motioned for me to follow again. 'Ah, what harm could that do? Not like my life is excitingly fantastic anyways.' I was SO wrong.