Author Note: I understand that this doesn't make any sense, so I will be posting a trailer for this series on my youtube and then I will post the link on my profile when it's done. If you are really confused, the trailer will explain everything. ______________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Despite being the daughter of royalty, or close to it, Gabriella had been sent outside of the castle for boarding school to "experience real life." It was one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the kingdom, true, but during Gabriella's annual visits to the castle she realized how sheltered castle life really was.

At school, Gabriella had a few best friends, but was also friends with everyone from the richest fashionistas to the studious scholarship kids. She was great at understanding different peoples' points of views. So, it made sense that, out of everyone in her family, she understood best why the revolutionaries had started rebelling. At times, she even had agreed with their need for change but just not their violent tactics. This had become a huge source of tension between her and her father, who refused to advise the king towards reform. He had still refused, even when things became violent.

Gabriella had known about the growing violence of revolutionaries in the country. She had known also that her family posed a huge threat to these people. Or, more accurately, her father posed a threat. Yes, she had known about the violence, yet after arriving back into the castle for a visit she had fallen into a dreamless sleep without a worry…

Gabriella was never really sure what woke her up from the dreamless sleep she had fallen into while watching clouds pass from the skylight window alone in the lofty attic. Maybe, it had been the absence of something. It always tortured the petite teenage girl why she hadn't been woken by the painfully important events that she was told happened prior to her awakening. The events that forever changed her life, and she had slept on. Yet when she was awoken, it was all over.

Gabriella drowsily opened her eyes at the lightest touch on the shoulder and came back to reality. She noticed a man in his mid-thirties looking worriedly down at her. The man's hair was light brown, spiked at all angles, and had an unsmiling look on his tan face.

"Gabriella Montez?" the man said more as a statement than a question.

" Who are you?" all she could do was look up, frozen with fear, at the man kneeling over her, her voice shaking.

"Teddy Carr." Gabby noticed how hushed and tense he seemed, jumping at the slightest noise, and glancing up every few moments. " It's not safe here."

What does he mean 'not safe'? Isn't this the safest place in the country? Inside the castle? Why is he here? Why would my parents send someone I'd never met to wake me up? How long was I asleep... A million thoughts raced through Gabriella's mind…

All she could form out of these silent questions was, "How long have I been asleep?"

"Long enough, probably less than an hour. We have to leave here soon; it isn't safe. They're watching the castle." Teddy said this in a grave tone that caused a horrible feeling of fear form in the pit of her stomach. Suddenly all of his words sunk in and Gabby sat up alertly. And, then, all the words came.

" What the hell do you mean leave? You can't take me anywhere. Where are my parents and Eli and Julianne?" Gabriella had this growing feeling like whatever this man was here for it wasn't good.

" We have to go. Hide you. Your family is gone." Teddy's tone of voice was becoming increasingly uneasy and urgent.

"I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me where my family is!" she addressed him angrily, trying to hide the desperation in her voice.

Teddy looked away as he spoke the next series of words that changed the life of the 16-year-old, brown-eyed brunette.

"I'm sorry. Your parents are gone. They were taken away… They are going to be killed, most likely." Teddy didn't dare to look at her now, his very words breaking the girl's heart. " Your brother, too, he is too old to be trusted. Julianne was sent out of the country. Even if she lives, you can't ever see her again. I'm sorry."

When Teddy stopped, Gabby just sat there shocked. It hit her hard, when she was least expecting it. It crashed through her heart like a bulldozer. And, there was nothing left but wreckage, the emptiness that followed the only evidence that there used to be anything there at all. She was too numb to cry. Suddenly the last images she would ever see of her family flooded her memory. All these images flashed through her mind like a black-and-white silent movie. Her family. They were there less than an hour ago, alive. Now they were gone. No more than distant, surreal figures of the past.

So, Gabriella did the only thing she could do now, she continued on. Alone and afraid after losing everything. She knew that she would do whatever it took to stay alive. Her life was the only thing she had left. So, without a single tear, she stood up and reached to the floor to pick up what she had left from her previous life, her mother's shawl. "Why didn't you try to stop them?"

"Because I was, I am, one of them."

She remembered these words for years afterward, but she had only just heard them before she fainted.