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EDIT 03/04/16: This story has been discontinued. I've kept it posted to preserve my old writing style. If you still want to read this story, I hope you enjoy what my twelve/thirteen-year-old self had to offer.

Chapter One: Black

A scream escaped an incoherent mouth, bouncing off the walls in the dark room. A figure snapped up from their bed, the covers falling back to reveal the torso of a woman. Her eyes darted around, recognizing her room in the shadows. She heaved a breath of relief, falling back on her pillow.

'It was just a dream….'

A dream of her family members' corpses appearing and disappearing, each showing signs of brutal murder. The background was a dimly litted room, occupied by Raina and another man, a stranger, laughing at her sobs. She begged him to stop showing her everything, but he would only laugh more…

For a long moment Raina lay there, letting her heart rate slow down, her breathing become smooth. The young woman sat up and pushed the covers off her while sliding out of bed. Even though a layer of sweat plastered her forehead, she shivered as the air from her apartment drafted around her.

The blonde splashed her face with cold water, then warm in the bathroom. Wiping her face on a towel, she stepped out and reentered her bedroom, not before locking the door. She went and opened the curtains of her window to display a cityscape of skyscrapers and traffic-jammed streets.

Her alarm clock read 4:21 AM, but Raina got a book from her nightstand once she was settled back under the covers. While she turned to retrieve it, she caught eye of a portrait containing two women and a man. Seeing the picture caused memories to arise and Raina to sigh. It also made her feel like a child again, God knows why. She slammed the picture face down. A sudden decision to go back to sleep came across Raina. She turned back around.

Only to see a dark figure glaring down at her.

Another scream occurred in the hour as Raina scrambled out of bed. Because of the covers that'd twisted around her legs, she met the floor with a force that rattled the bones in her arms. In spite of her position, Raina snapped her head around to see…shadows. No one. Nothing.

Butterflies flooded her stomach and Raina whimpered. For what felt like an hour she lay there, wrapped up in the sheets, gazing at the spot where she could've sworn she'd seen the ninja standing. A siren wailed in the distance. But there was no one there. Raina pushed herself off the floor, unwrapping the covers from her. She swallowed, putting a hand to her forehead. "God, you're losing it, Raina. Losing it..."

Her eyes felt heavy and sore, a headache was coming on, and her joints seemed to be in pain when they moved. Sighing, Raina threw the covers back on her bed and climbed under the sheets, squeezing her eyes shut. But behind her lids, she still saw the towering figure half bathed in the outside street lamp, clothed in all black with white eyes that seemed ablaze...

Oblivious to Raina as she drifted to sleep, those white eyes were watching her from outside her window at the very moment.