PROLOGUE
A young girl runs through the forest around her panting loudly. Her strawberry blonde hair whips behind her back sticking to her face from the drops of sweat rolling down her forehead. She stops and looks around her sky blue eyes widening to gather in her surroundings.
Around her various trees not known to her knowledge surrounded her. The little girl started walking until her foot caught on a root sticking out from the ground she fell face first into the ground with a yelp. Her strawberry blonde hair now coated in mud and a large gash ran from her cheek to her chin. SNAP, The girl turned around at the noise and began to walk backward facing the noise to make sure nothing attacked her. Soon after that many other twigs began to break. Turning to make a run for it, she turns as fast as she can runs at a full sprint. The trees around her turned into a blur, with the girl focusing on getting away from the noise as fast as she exhaustion started to catch up with by slowing her now and causing her breathing to come out as wheezes. The little girl attempted to get the dried mud from her hair but it was no use. Sobs started to come from the little girls mouth from sheer exhaustion and from the nasty cut on her face.
"CHLOE!CHLOE!ARE YOU OVER THERE!" called someone near.
The little girl,Chloe, gasped and ran the opposite direction. Footsteps started to follow and she pumped her legs even faster fighting through the pain of her legs burning. Chloe heard the footsteps begin to grow softer and assumed that the person who was chasing her gave up and walked off. Taking deep breath she sat against a tree in an attempt to slow her heartbeat. A sweaty hand covered in dirt grabbed her wrist and pulled her up from sitting down and pulls her into a bear hug. She screams in the process and tries to get away with two strong arms wrapped around her but her attempts failed in the end.
"WOW!" Chloe looks up only to see one of her best friends with bleach blonde hair because of his father and squinty brown eyes due to his Japanese mother, dancing with amusement. "I cant believe I got Chloe, you are usually the one who wins!"
"SIMON, YOU SCARED ME!" Chloe accused stomping on him foot.
"Ouch!Okay, I'll admit that was kinda scary...for a girl." he said laughing.
Chloe looked at up at him with hot tears beginning to form in her looked down at her from laughing his butt off and expression changed instantly from amusement to sympathy and guilt.
"Look Chloe, I didn't mean to scare you its how Tag works, okay." he said quietly hugging her. She nodded bent down with his back turned to Chloe.
"Get on." Chloe looked at him and got on with out a word. Chloe was shorter than most 10 year old's and a lot lighter so. Simon had no problem carrying her through the for another 10 minutes, when Chloe her branches snap behind them. Whipping her mud soaked hair around she saw a large shadow, she looked at it a little closer before notices it was the shadow off a tree.
"Is everything alright, Clo?" his voice muffled because Chloe wasn't facing him.
"Yeah, everything's fine just though I saw something, its fine." She said shaking her head.
Just as she turned her head back to rest on Simon's shoulder, hands went under her armpit startling her to scream, as arms lifted her up off Simon's back. Chloe kicked her attacker in the stomach and heard a grunt. She turned her head only to see a set of irritated emerald green eyes.
"Oh my gosh! Sorry Derek!" Chloe said with sincerity in her voice.
Derek continued to lift her up onto his shoulders where she sat and played with his fine black hair.
"Don't you dare braid my Chloe, I don't want to have girl hair." he said with a grunt.
After another 10 minutes of walking back the way they started the game, Derek picked her up to take her off his shoulders. As soon as she got down she started stretching her legs by weaving in and out of the trees.
"Be careful, I have heard that there were a couple of landslides going by the river so be careful Clo." Simon said as a warning.
Chloe still rand in and out by the trees coming by the river but should have listened to Simon's warning because the next thing she knew, the dirt beneath her started to fall and she fell with it. she rolled down the hill with Simon and Derek both calling her name. She stopped rolling when she came by the river she went to stand up but slipped on a slick puddle of mud and hit her head on a rock next to her with a sickening Crack. At the contact with her head hitting the rock she blacked to hearing her name repeated over and over. Derek and Simon both went down to where Chloe lay, blood all over her head from the contact of the looked at her head and tears began to form in his eyes. He looked at Derek.
"She needs help! Simon go get someone I will start to carry her back. HURRY SIMON!" Derek screamed.
Simon took one last look Chloe before running back up all the dirt to get someone to help. Derek carefully picked up Chloe and began the 5 minute walk back to their way there a woman wearing uniform carrying her high heels ran toward him crying.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU MONSTER?!" exclaimed the woman who was Chloe's Aunt.
Derek kept his eyes on the ground and began focused on a certain twig sticking out of the ground. No 10 seconds later the paramedics arrived and took Chloe off in an ambulance that left Derek standing in the middle of the forest. Kit, Derek's adoptive father came up to Derek, he crouched down so he was eye level with Derek.
"Come on lets go to the hospital to see how Chloe is doing, okay?" Kit said trying to cheer up his son.
"No, her Aunt blames for what happened, and if I go she would never let me see Chloe again." Derek whispered.
"Oh that's not true and you know that, here we will just go to the house then."
RING RING RING
Kit went over to the phone and answered it while Derek and Simon sat back and watched. Every so often they would here an "Okay" and a "Yes". Once he hung up the phone Kit walked over to Derek and Simon.
"Okay, it seems that when Chloe hit her head she lost all off her memory when she woke up." Kit said sadly.
" So she will not remember us!" Simon screams as tears start to stream down his cheeks.
"Maybe its for the best...Her Aunt never liked us anyways." Derek whispered as he got up and went upstairs.