A/N: My first ever Shiver fan-fic. Let me know if you like it, and please be gracious with reviews :). Haven't read Linger yet, but I plan on purchasing a copy as soon as I can! I know this is very short, but it's a prologue. Just setting down a proper foundation because this is going to be a wild ride, folks.
Prologue: Part one, Grace
The funeral was in a week. I told Mom that it was a bad idea, horrible, even; we both hated the man, but she insisted it would give me, us, closure. I disagreed. I didn't want to leave California, didn't want to have to face my past in Mercy Falls. It was bad enough having his last name tacked onto the end of mine for the rest of my life, or at least until I get married.
I was packing my clothes into my old, practical suit case. Long sleeves, jeans, sweaters, flannel pants… It was the beginning of October, but I knew better than to hope for transitional summer-fall warmth. I'd always been cold in that town…
I couldn't wait for this week to be over and my so-called father's coffin to be six feet under, cold and lifeless.
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Prologue: Part two, Sam
I knew I was subconsciously nearing the origin of my transformation. Of my loss of humanity. Of my death. I shook my head, as if to rid it of the dark thoughts. I didn't want to think of it like that anymore, but they always came back, haunting my mind.
I could smell the nervousness radiating off of the young, female clerk. I purchased the small thermometer-compass and shoved it in my front pocket. I wanted to have it on hand, just in case. I could feel that the changes were getting closer, supposedly strange for my age. I wouldn't believe anything they told me, anymore.
Every winter, my instincts led me to the same place, and every time I changed back into a human, I got as far away from it as possible. I couldn't wait, whether it was for spring to come or death, I couldn't be sure.