Chapter One

I've dreamed of the sky so many times. I dreamt of the blue birds that would fly among it. I read that the sky was blue but at times it could be a mix of orange, yellow, pink, and purple. That confused me, how could something as permanent as the sky change color? I even read about a rainbow – which only confused me more.

You see, I've never seen the sky. I think I once did when I was young but I can't remember. In my dreams, I dreamt of a blue sky and black birds flying among it, the smell of fresh air that lingers, occasionally a rainbow that bled into the sky like in my books, and the sun.

The sun has always seemed foreign to me even more than the sky. It's a bight burning ball of fire floating in the sky, yea that makes sense. I've felt I should be afraid of it but how could you be afraid of something you've never seen? For all I know that world doesn't exist and all that does is the cottage I live in with Father.

I tiptoe down the stairs coming from my room in the attic and into the small kitchen. It was nearly midnight and the room usually looks pitched black. The shutters are always closed tight and when I was little I would try to open them but they almost seemed to be locked from the outside but now a soft, yellow glow illuminates the room.

Father is sitting at the table, a lantern his only light source. I freeze. He gets really angry when he sees me down here at night; I'm supposed to stay in my room. Quietly, I start to tiptoe back up the stairs but suddenly I hear a women's voice break the cold silence. "You can't keep her here forever," the voice sounds tired, like it's been saying this over and over again. Father leans back in his chair, lets his glasses fall to his nose, and continues to fiddle with the necklace he holds in his hands.

"Don't you tell me what I can't do. This is the best thing for her." His body seems relaxed but the sternness in his voice tells me its anything but not.

I try to walk down, quietly to see the women behind the voice "How do you know?" My foot steps onto a creaky floorboard and my heart jumps into my throat. "Alexander, listen to me." The voice says and I breathe out a sigh, they didn't notice. Slowly, I walk further down the hallway and stop behind the wall so only the top of my head peeks out.

The woman isn't old and she isn't young; more of that in-between. Her gray/brown hair is twisted up into a bun and little crinkles surround her brown eyes. Father stands up and yells, "I know she's safe!" "She's a prisoner!" The woman says as she stands up, towering over him. Her eyes seemed cold then in almost a flash they turned back into the kind, tired eyes they were a minute ago.

Father lets out an angered breath and his eyes soften, "Eloise you have to understand, Cassidy is protected here, the minute she steps out she can't go back." I step back and the room almost seemed to go in a million directions at once…they were talking about me. Slowly, the woman Eloise, turns away from my Father, almost like she's contemplating what she's about to say. "I give up David; I'm done trying to convince you. But it's not going to matter."

At this his head whips around at her and says, "What?" She turns around and a cold scowl seems to overpower her other features and she says, "It doesn't matter, the Island always gets what it wants and it wants your daughter. Well, more accurately your granddaughter." She almost smiles at his confused face, "You see Mr. Littleton your daughter, Cassidy, will have a daughter and she will crash onto the Island and she may seem like a minor character in the Island's story but I can tell she is much, much more than that, she…oh well, you won't live long enough to know."

"Tell me," He almost sounds as if he is begging, but she only nods, for what seems like forever silence develops around the room and then she speaks. "No." Through gritted teeth, Father says, "I think you should leave." A faint smile appears on her face and it seemed as if it didn't belong there. "You can't stop it, you know." With that, she left without another word; a strange blue light creeps out when the door opened. When it closes Father quickly, bolts and locks the door.

Suddenly I realize, I've been holding my breath the entire time and let it out. Before he notices I'm down here, I jump and run up the stairs. He gets angry when he catches me down here, what will he do if he finds out I heard his conversation.

When I get to my room, I drop onto my bed, it squeaking under my weight. The conversation from tonight begins to sink in. Maybe they weren't talking about me, what if they were just trying to trick me for some sick reason? They didn't know I was there.

I scramble for ideas to make sense for all this. She said I was a prisoner but I don't feel like a prisoner. I feel normal, I think. There was so much I heard that I can't understand, the Island thing really keeps nagging at me and I keep coming back to it. But it's all just a jumble mess and then I realize, I may not really sure of anything anymore, but as I lay here staring at the ceiling there is one thing I do know. Father lied.