Author's Note 1: This is a rewrite of Radiant Dawn centered primarily around the development of the Dawn Brigade, so many details will resemble FE10. But I hope my plot strays away from the original enough to keep you engaged. This is a preview of my 2016 NaNoWriMo project. I wanted to write out the first chapter before November actually started. I hope to edit and update the NaNo draft regularly after November ends.

Author's Note 3 (12/16/2016): I would like to apologize for some of the formatting in this chapter. Apparently, the website didn't save my line-breaks, so this is one massive wall of text with very awkward transitions. I thought I discreetly fixed the problem, but that's not the case, so I'm reuploading this chapter in hopes of fixing the problem.

Fire Emblem: From Dusk Until Dawn

Chapter One: Prescience

"Silver hair?"

"That's what my sources have been telling me, Sir. There are a few others with her, but she's the one that people always seem to remember the most."

"How strange… And you're absolutely certain?"

"I've had at least five confirmed sightings in the past month alone. Some call her a witch. Others think she's the goddess in disguise."

"The goddess? Pfft. These peasants always seem to jump to the most irrational conclusions. What can you tell me about her?"

"Nothing. As far as I can tell, she hasn't existed, or she has pretended to not exist. So odds are, she is the goddess, or she's rather good at hiding."

"If I was in a worse mood, I would have your head for heresy!"

"O-Of course, Sir. I-It was a…vulgar joke. Forgive me…"

"Stop groveling!"

"Y-Yes, Sir! Ahem…but…what should we do with her?"

"…make her hide again. Or make sure history forgets her. Interpret that as you will."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Ugh…my head…"

"The voices again?"

"Are we almost home?"

"Maybe…wait here. I'll be back soon."

"W-Wait. What are you-"

"I'll be back. I promise. Stay."

And he was gone. Like always. Micaiah shivered, rubbing her bruised knuckles against her forehead to soothe away the ache. The pounding seemed worse now that Sothe had gone even though the voices had stopped. The darkness grew much vaster without someone beside her. She hadn't thought it possible, but Begnion had finally drained every ounce of light from the night sky. Hidden behind a thick veil of clouds, the moonshine died slowly, painfully, smothered by the ever-growing smog of apathy and fear that seeped out from the villages below. Or maybe the poor thing was just as horrified as she was; it needed to hide for a bit, wait out the disaster, pray it ended… Blaming Begnion was just a means of coping, and she knew it, but at least if she pretended it was Begnion's fault, she could believe the goddess hadn't abandoned them yet.

Sothe had always thought of the darkness as a gift or rather…a tool. He used its properties to shape the fear of his enemies; not knowing had always been the fear he liked to play with most, and darkness devoured all sense of "knowing." Gift or not, Micaiah stumbled through it, groping trees and nothingness with calloused, muddied hands. She wouldn't wait for him. Home was too close. And sleep. She just wanted to sleep.

For a fleeting moment, she saw a light in the distance like a star dancing through the forest. Desperate to find it, she focused on its warmth. Light meant family, friends, safety. If she had been smarter, she would have waited for Sothe to return as he had ordered. But she couldn't. Not in the dark.

She figured the light couldn't lie to her like the darkness often did, telling her where it was safe to place her foot and laughing when she believed its falsehoods. But light was good, she reminded herself. Light was good. She was good.

She saw it again, a flame dancing in the distance, and she pushed herself as fast as she could on the uneven ground. At last, she saw it. Home. For now. The building Sothe had found for their little group wasn't much. It leaked. Its decaying roof and walls didn't protect them from the wind, but with a fire and good company, it was almost like a home. Nolan's stories and Edward's laugh and Leonardo's scoffing gave personality to its moldy walls.

"Nolan!" she called, straining her eyes against the sheet of darkness, greedily trying to find the light once more. "I'm back! Sothe shouldn't be too far…"

She rounded a corner, the warmth of sweet smoke instantly filling her lungs as she caught full sight of a torch this time. Her heart stopped, but her body still reacted, scrambling back in the direction she had come only to find a man in red armor blocking her path. Her trembling fingers grappled with her satchel, searching for her tome, but by time she had it in her hands, two more soldiers had appeared, creeping from the dilapidated building like moths drawn to the torch's flame.

As one man charged, she began to chant a spell, but he caught her by the hair and slammed her skull back into the trunk of a tree. Her tome slipped from her hands, the magic fading from her fingertips as the spell died. The soldier twisted her arms behind her back, pulling her delicate frame up against his dented, heaving breastplate.

"Well what have we here?" the soldier with the torch asked. "Silver hair?" He ran his fingers through her locks twinkling like starlight in the glow of the fire. Micaiah could feel the animalistic heartbeat of the soldier holding her and his breath lingering close to her ear.

She struggled against his grip first, tossing her head about, but he only seemed to snake his grip around her tighter and tighter until she could barely breathe.

"The general is going to be happy to see this one.," the soldier with the torch continued. "I was beginning to think she had escaped."

"All right, witch… If you don't give us any trouble, maybe we'll put in a good word for you, hm? We don't need any more roaches hiding beneath the cracks in the floor."

The young light mage grit her teeth. The soldier in front of her held his face just close enough to hers…if she wanted, she could spit on him. And he seemed to read this thought in her amber eyes, so he drew back.

"…How's about a scream? That might get your friend back here a little sooner. And then we can all go home once he's dealt with. Maybe he won't cause as much trouble as the old man did…"

Micaiah's eyes widened and the two soldiers laughed. In the distance, she could see the dim glow of more torches. "How many more friends do you have hiding around here anyway?"

"That isn't any of your business," she mumbled.

She heard a crack and tasted blood in her mouth before the pain registered in her mind. Blood seeped from a gash on her cheek where the soldier's gauntleted hand had connected with her face. She yelped as he grabbed her jaw and thrust her face into his. "You can tell us, or you can tell the general, and I promise you…you won't like him. So let's try this again; how many more friends do you have hiding around here."

She breathed in one shaky breath. "…one," she finally answered, her voice barely a whisper.

"Good girl." He relaxed his grip on her chin. "And where's he hiding?"

"…behind you."

She watched the panic rise in his eyes until he gave into his urge to turn around. When he returned his gaze to hers, rage had replaced panic. "What kind of joke-"

"I wasn't talking to you."

The soldier holding her arms screamed or rather…he tried. Blood seeped from a wound in his neck, staining her hair. She felt his heart pounding wildly and then nothing at all as his body fell limp behind her. The soldier with the torch grabbed a horn hanging at his side and held it to his lips, a single smooth tone drawing the attention of other soldiers in the area.

"Don't watch," a tall young man ordered as he emerged from the shadows behind her. And Micaiah shut her eyes. She heard the second soldier scream. Thunk. A groan. The screech of metal on metal. Another scream. After a moment, she felt a sweaty hand around her wrist, tugging her along. "I told you to wait." He gathered her tome and shoved it into her chest as he led her back around the remains of their base.

"We can't leave yet. We need to-" Micaiah staggered in the darkness again as her foot caught a rock. Her wrist slipped from Sothe's grasp as she caught herself before she fell face-first onto the ground. It was then that the moon decided to show itself for the first time in what seemed like weeks. She fumbled around for her tome once more and froze. She stared face to face into the misty eyes and pale face of a middle-aged man, his mouth half-open in an unfinished scream. Sothe managed to muffle Micaiah's cry as he swallowed his own surprise.

"You have to keep quiet," he whispered. "We can cry later, but for now, Nolan would want us to escape."

Micaiah shook her head, and Sothe finally forced her to her feet, half dragging her into the shadows once more. "Come on, we'll-"

An arrow flew through the darkness and met the left side of his chest. She watched in horror as he staggered back, eyes wide, hands shaking as they wrapped around the shaft of the arrow. She could see the light fading from his eyes already just as the clouds moved to smother the moonshine once more.

"Run…Keep running. Don't stop."

Micaiah screamed, and this time there wasn't anyone to keep her quiet.

Someone grabbed her again, but she refused to open eyes, to give him the satisfaction of making her watch anything else he could possibly do to her. For the first time, darkness felt like a friend, a gentle caress that might wrap her up in its arms and protect her from the world. She wanted to hide again, to be left alone, to never come out if it meant keeping people around her safe. He shook her, his heavy hands crushing her bird-like arms.

"Micaiah, snap out of it!"

She opened her eyes. Her room was dark, but not quite as dark as she remembered it having been. A middle-aged man stood over her, hands in a vice-grip that kept her from thrashing about. "Micaiah, you looked like you were possessed by something."

Micaiah admired his features for a moment, his youthful eyes, strong jaw, the curl of his greasy, ruddy hair. And then tears began to blind her, spilling over onto her cheeks and the blankets she had wrapped herself in for the night. She turned to look away from him, remembering how empty his eyes had been. She felt his hand on her head as he slipped down beside her and pulled her against his chest. "A vision or a nightmare?" he asked.

"I-I don't know…but I think we should move again…"

"I thought you might say that." Nolan sighed. "That makes…two bases in two months. We can't seem to catch a break, can we?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry… I wish things could be different but-"

"But what? I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be. None of us would be. You can't shoulder the blame all by yourself. The rest of us cause just as much trouble as you do. Duke What's-His-Face still wants Leonardo's head for that stunt he pulled last week. This could very well be about that."

"Maybe…" Micaiah twirled a lock of her hair around a finger, and he stopped her, wrapping his hand over hers.

"Leonardo's not back yet. And Sothe probably won't be back for a few days. Why don't you and Edward head to town and lay low until we can all regroup? I can meet with you once I pack things up. How's that sound?"

The light mage opened her mouth to speak, but she could only whimper in response. Nolan pulled her into his chest again. "Nothing's going to happen to us. We'll find a new place twice as good as this one…probably won't be too hard." He chuckled. "We could always head to Crimea…lay low for a few weeks."

"…if we leave, it will just be harder to come back," Micaiah croaked. "We have to stay."

"Well…We can't help anyone if you don't start sleeping through the night. Promise me you'll try to stay out of sight once you get to town. Sleep for a few hours. Eddie's gotten more than enough sleep for the rest of us. He can keep an eye on you."

"Did…I wake you up?"

"I wasn't even asleep, so you don't have to worry about that." He winked at her. "You should get moving. Pack up your things. I'll wake Edward."

Nolan helped her to her feet, and almost instantly all the warmth left her body as he pulled away from her. For a moment, she thought she saw his form glimmer as though he were just a dream. Everything had an ethereal quality if she looked at it for too long; she could almost taste blood in her mouth, but she was certain it was just her imagination. No mud on her hands. No bruise on her cheek. But her heart still pounded, and her throat still ached from a scream that seemed to be perpetually trapped in it.

She rolled her blankets into a ball and shoved them into her bag.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Wow…you look pretty awful in this light. Have you slept at all, Micky?"

Micaiah yawned, fiddling with her cloak, completely certain that she looked awful in any light; even her hood couldn't hide the sheet of silver hair illuminating the bags under her eyes. Her gaze seemed to catch the attention of everyone as they passed, and she couldn't help but think that each and every one of them saw her hair and knew who she was. She should have insisted that they wait in the forest, but Nolan reasoned that they would be sitting ducks if they didn't lose themselves in some crowds. Finding three or four people in Nevessa would be like finding a needle in a haystack…unless that needle practically glowed.

"I haven't been sleeping…"

"Nolan said you had another dream…" Edward looped his own arm through hers, steadying some of her shaking. "These things sure are useful, but they might just do you in. Is there anything you can do to make 'em stop?"

"Get away from danger, I suppose." She offered Edward a smile, and he returned it full force, his brown eyes the size of plates.

"Well how about I cut down a few troublemakers? That should get at least one problem out of the way."

"And create more in the process… Nolan's right. We should…lay low for a little bit. We've been doing too much…"

"You know, I bet this is Leo's fault. He likes to think he's the sensible one, but he causes more trouble than the rest of us put together. He just gets away with it because he can 'rationalize' things. You know, I could rationalize things if I had a few years of school. I'd rationalize my way right out of this hellhole and into a new era!"

"Edward…" Micaiah leaned into his arm, her gaze shifting towards a few women that had been watching them as they passed. They giggled, and Edward shot them a grin. "Please. You're too loud. Let's try to find the church without causing a riot in the street."

"I wouldn't do that. …but I bet you wouldn't scold Leonardo if he did it. When was the last time I caused any trouble for anyone?"

"Didn't Nolan say you were throwing rocks at soldiers just yesterday?"

"…they didn't see me."

Micaiah let herself smile again. She wasn't quite sure how old he was. Actually, no one, not even Edward himself, knew how old he was. He was one of those people that simply seemed to come into existence one day just as he was: almost six feet and barely 140 pounds of fire and sunshine.

"And even if they did, they wouldn't remember me. They see hundreds of kids every day. What's going to make me stick out?"

"Maybe the fact that you threw rocks at them."

"Quiet you. Someone's got to keep them in their place."

She spied a flash of red armor out of the corner of her eye, and Edward seemed to see it as well. Rather than pull her into an alleyway, he kept moving forward, slinking his hand down and lacing his fingers with hers. She gripped it firmly, and he kept tugging her forward. "Look at me," he whispered. "Talk to me. If you look like you've done something wrong, they'll pick up on it. Pretend you like me for a few minutes."

Micaiah begrudgingly lifted her gaze from the ground and tried to focus on Edward's eyes. As happy as he always looked she couldn't help but think he seemed a bit sad at times. He hid it well, but there were times she caught him looking around at the streets of a city and wondered how well he knew them.

"I want to get some real meat from the butcher for dinner tomorrow," he told her as they wove through the crowd and the soldiers, feigning the appearance of distracted lovers. "We'll have one last hurrah in the capital before getting work again. How's that sound?"

"Where do you intend to get the money for that kind of meat?" Micaiah asked, trying not to look over her shoulder as she barely avoided grazing the arm of a soldier.

The young swordsman winked. "I know a few guys. You just leave it to me. I'll see that we have a grand time."

Once the crowds had thinned a bit, Edward stopped and removed his hand from Micaiah's. Rather than continue onward, he crouched down in front of her. "It might be a good idea to go through a few more neighborhoods in case someone's following us. You might collapse before we get to the church. Want a ride?"

"Edward, we'll look ridiculous. I can walk. I'll just sleep later."

"No. I'll look ridiculous, and that doesn't matter to me. Plus I could use the strength training, and you could use the break. Hop on! You know you want to."

"Edward…"

"Micky…"

"Tch…Ed."

"Mic. I can say names too. I can say them ALL day." He shifted his feet, back already aching from crouching for too long.

She sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He pulled himself into an upright position and steadied her on his back with his hands on her thighs. "There we go! How's that? You just rest your pretty little head and let me handle the paranoia for a bit, all right?"

"Don't push yourself," she reminded him, placing her head on his shoulder. As he walked, the world moved by like a dream. A few people stared and whispered and her grip around Edward tightened just a bit.

"Close your eyes. Imagine how great our next base will be."

She decided to listen to him. "A noble's forgotten summer home would be nice. Maybe a little dusty."

"Leo would have it cleaned up in no time!"

"There's probably lots of forgotten treasure…"

"Sothe could sell it. We'd have enough to live off of for the next three years."

"It'd be warm. We could stay there all winter, and no one would bother us."

"Nope. Not even the goddess herself. Just our own quiet, little secret castle."

Micaiah tried to imagine it, but the picture simply wouldn't form in her mind like she wanted it to. It was always cold and dark, rancid and empty… No matter where they stayed, they would feel like rats, settling for anything that resembled shelter. Edward continued talking, and she encouraged him with general grunts of agreement. His swift movements felt almost like a bird floating above the clouds. He bobbed and weaved through streets and before too long she realized he had stopped talking. He stepped in rhythm to a song he hummed under his breath, and she imagined he was dancing through the streets, a victorious mercenary challenging anyone to try and disturb the peace he had created.

He was thirty years old, burly, still rough around the edges and always smiling. He had married a beautiful knight, and he returned to his children at the end of the day every day. They called her Aunt Micky, but she was still a child herself even though her eyes were older than even Nolan's by then. And she watched everyone around her grow wrinkled and gray, but she never changed.

Edward shifted his grip on Micaiah as she awoke with a start. She panicked for a moment and then settled down. The streets were empty except for a few stray guards in the alleyways, some talking to prostitutes, others gambling. They probably wouldn't spring into action even if someone asked them to. "I decided to stay away from the center of the capital. We're almost there," he told her. "St. Lucius's place is around here somewhere. Or at least it was before the war. It was always a pretty safe bet even when other places were pretty full."

"I can walk now." She squirmed until he set her down, and she watched as he stretched out his aching arms. "…how long did I sleep?"

"Maybe just an hour. I walked through a few of the old places we used to visit, said hi to a few people. I'm pretty sure no one's after us right now."

"Thanks, Edward. I really appreciate it."

"Any time!" The young swordsman saluted her and proceeded to drag her off down the street once more.

"H-Hey! Stop that!"

Micaiah looked over her shoulder. From an alley, several men had emerged, pursuing a young woman and what looked like her brother. She pulled her arm out of one man's grasp and slung her fist into his cheek giving her enough time to step in front of the boy as the others circled around her.

"Oh come on. You know the rules," the man said as he tried to rearrange his aching jaw in his mouth. "Pay the toll or else. I'm sure you could find a way to scrounge up a few coins here and there. I can think of a few things I'd pay you for…"

"Hey! Back off!" Edward yelled, tugging Micaiah behind him. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" His hand twitched over his sword, fire pulsing in his eyes as he sized each of the brutes up. Six total. All with axes or swords. Odds were better than they could have been.

"What've we got here?" a second man asked, cracking his knuckles. "Looks like a squirrel to me. You gonna pay the fee for her?"

"You could always just walk away now," Micaiah told him calmly. For some reason, her hands had stopped shaking. Maybe an hour of sleep had made all the difference in the world, or maybe Edward's aura worked its own special brand of magic on her. She reached for her tome in her bag and held it against her chest, the magic from it warming her instantly. "The people here have enough trouble as it is without your causing more."

"We're just trying to keep a little order in this place. I don't think anyone in authority has any problems with it. I don't see any soldiers trying to stop us. Do you?"

"We won't ask again. Please leave."

"Yeah! Scram!"

"A squirrel and a little bird… You gonna' chase us off all by yourself?"

"Do it," Edward said, nodding in Micaiah's direction. "I'll cover you."

"What are you ladies jabbering on ab-"

Micaiah raised her hand and from her fingertips light sprung forth, filling the void of the dull cloudy day with warmth. The bandits reeled back, cringing and giving the young woman and boy enough time to retreat safely.

"Thank you," the woman gasped as she hurried by.

"We gonna stay and finish this?" Edward asked.

Micaiah merely nodded. "They'll continue to be a problem if we don't deal with them now."

"Nolan's going tear us a new one."

"Not if we can end this quickly and quietly."

"Then I'll handle the quick, and you handle the quiet."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Ever since falling asleep, Micaiah's sense of time had dissolved into nothing. The grey of the day didn't help matters. It could have been morning, afternoon, or almost night, and she wouldn't know.

Had they been fighting for hours?

How many men were there now?

This wasn't a dream, right? This was real…it had to be. The smell of blood was too vivid…the screams of citizens too loud…

Edward took the brunt force of the attacks and did what he could to remain energetic if only to keep her spirits alive and well despite the worsening odds, and she remained behind, picking them off one by one. These men were easily twice her size but then again, Edward didn't exactly have a powerful physique despite being tall. His smile wavered with each blow against his defenses.

"Hey! Micky! Look out!"

The light mage looked up into the whites of a bandit's eyes. He had his axe raised above his head, but as he brought it down, an arrow lodged itself in his neck. Sputtering, the bandit dropped his axe at her feet, and his body landed not too far from it. "Thanks, Leo…" Edward heaved as he shouldered his blade. "Guess I let one of them pass."

"Is it impossible for you to stay out of trouble?" the blonde archer asked, lowering his bow.

"You have no room to talk."

"I'm not the one that started a brawl in the street."

"Well…we finished it, didn't we?"

"I finished it."

"Oye! There they are!"

"And there are more of them..." Leonardo dipped his head in greeting to Micaiah before readying another arrow. "At least they're just bandits and not soldiers this time. How many more hits do you think you can take, Edward?"

"Is Nolan coming?"

"Naturally."

"Then I'll last as long as it takes for him to get here."

"I'm serious. You should pull back if you're injured."

"Hi, Serious. I'm Edward. Nice ta' meet ya'!"

A vein in the archer's forehead pulsed. "You're clearly well enough to fight. I ought to let them knock you around a bit more."

"Bring it on!"

Leonardo's strategy was to draw the bandits in one by one, doing minimal damage with his bow while Edward took a breather. By time the thugs were close enough to do any damage, Edward could swoop in and finish them off. But this strategy only worked if they managed to keep the thugs from ganging up on them. Before too long, the three of them had been backed into a corner.

Micaiah knew she should have been watching the boys, but she couldn't help but shift her gaze to the town around them. Most of the citizens in the area peered out from behind boarded up windows to look at them. A few huddled in alleyways for cover, many of them children without anywhere else to hide. But they didn't look as scared as she thought they should have been. Many of them kept their gaze locked on Leonardo and Edward as they picked off a few more men. The archer shot with the grace and finesse of a professional while Edward staggered about, landing hits with plenty of extra help from the goddess's grace, never stopping even after a few close calls. She moved forward herself, blinding another man with a bolt of light while simultaneously burning another.

Three left, she counted. Just three.

Leonardo narrowly dodged a thug's axe trying to get some distance between the two of them, but the man seemed intent on keeping him cornered. The two others had ganged up on Edward, one of which seemed to have taken little to no damage. As Edward thrust his blade into the shoulder of one, the larger thug swung at the young swordsman's head. Edward dodge the axe's blade, but its handle connected with the side of his skull, creating a sickening crack that sent him sinking to the ground. Micaiah fired off another bolt of light to distract him, but it missed merely illuminating the sneer on the man's face as he threatened to cleave his axe down on Edward's neck.

A rock nailed the man in the head from behind, forcing him to miss his swing but just barely. He grit his teeth and instantly redirected his anger to the particularly courageous children venturing out from the alleyway with stones in hand.

"Leave him alone!" a thin bespectacled boy yelled, his voice cracking. A chorus of timid agreement echoed from behind him.

"Micaiah!" Leonardo yelled to get her attention even though she had clearly seen the accident. He jumped back far enough to finish off the man he was fighting, but he still wasn't quick enough to get to Edward. Weapon back in hand, Edward charged for the man as he advanced on the kids.

"We're not done!" he yelled as he jumped onto the man's back from behind. He kept one arm locked around his neck and thrust his blade into his side.

"Edward, stop!" Micaiah finally finished off the third man with the combined efforts of Leonardo.

The bigger, stronger man threw Edward off without much trouble, causing the young street boys to scramble. Edward jumped to his feet just in time to catch the blade of the man's axe in his stomach.

"Not so tough now, are we?" the bandit taunted as Edward slid back against the wall of the alleyway, blood already staining his tunic. "You can stay here with the rest of the trash." A firm kick pried the young man's body from his weapon and sent him sprawling into the dirt.

Laughing as he turned to finish off the other two troublemakers, the thug managed to meet Leonardo's gaze just a split second before an arrow lodged itself in his forehead. Leo shoved his way through the corpses and fell to his knees at Edward's side, ripping open his bloodied shirt and trying to hold the wound closed all at the same time. His hands remained steady the entire time, but all the color had drained from his face. "Don't move," he croaked.

"Wasn't planning on it…" Edward returned. His lips tried to form a smile but instead his face twisted in pain as Leo applied pressure to the gash. "…th-that was a good shot."

"We can talk about it later. Micaiah! Run and get a priest!"

The light mage knelt beside the archer, light glowing from her fingertips already. She placed one hand over Edward's forehead and another on his gash and closed her eyes. She could hear Leonardo's protest like a distant cry in the back of her head, but Edward couldn't wait for a priest that might not come. Little by little, she transferred her own vitality to him. It was almost like releasing a burden if life was a burden… But the more she pushed, the more desperately she gave, the less she felt like herself. She was just a husk shriveled in the sun and blown away by the breeze. But she pushed herself more and more. She could feel Edward's wounds closing underneath her fingertips.

"Micaiah! Stop it!" Firm hands grasped her shoulders and wrenched her away from Edward's now unconscious body. She fell away like a puppet, limp in Leonardo's arms as he tried to shake her from her stupor.

"Can you carry her?" Nolan's voice asked Leonardo from somewhere in the area.

Micaiah assumed he agreed even if he thought he couldn't. He wasn't the strongest in their group, but Micaiah wasn't very big to begin with. He could handle it. Nolan needed to carry Edward. …they wouldn't be able to stay at the church after all. Her hood had slipped from her head, and she couldn't help but imagine all the townspeople staring at her, whispering about her as the four of them retreated, all covered in blood.

"Whoa…did you see her?"

"Yeah…how did she do that?"

"…what is she?"

In the encroaching shadows, she saw a little orange bird and watched as it hopped along the bloodied ground, beady eyes following their every move.

What am I?

Author's Note 2: When I write chapters, they never usually exceed around 2,500 words in length, but this one is over twice that long. I thought about dividing it up to make it less intimidating, but decided against it. Please let me know if you have a preference towards longer or shorter chapters or if it makes any difference at all.