Chapter One-Anna Lee

Anna was traveling home on a cool night in October. Anna Lee was a young girl of sixteen or seventeen. She had smooth black hair with such shine people always thought that with the color and sheen of her hair that it was grease on her head. She was a pale, muscular girl who had always been interested in getting into fights. Her eyes were of the greenest emerald color that she had received the epithet "green dragon". She wore a black tight-fighting tank with a green dragon emblem across the front appropriate for her nickname. This was paired with faded jeans that hung loosing to her petite frame. Over all this, she wore a red leather trench that hung all the way to the ground. Black combat boots and gloves that came to her elbows finished of the look. The sun was setting and covered the road in a veil of blue and orange warmth. The crisp wind as Anna drove her chopper down the long winding backwoods of Melin, licked and cut at her face. Melin was the main city before her hometown of Glocklin, Alabama. Glocklin was a small farm area that consisted of a few old and striking plantations as well as around five or six small farm families. Anna Lee lived in an old plantation at the end of a long winding path of trees, vegetables, and cotton rows. Anna always knew when she was reaching home because the soothing smells of hay and cotton plants reached her nose.

Their house towered over many of the small conventional ones that surrounded it 2 miles on each side. Her room was the fourth window to the left on the highest floor. It had been a small alcove until she decided that she wished to live in serenity on the uppermost story. No persons resided on that level and it was usually silent. Next to her bedroom was an ostentatious bathroom with russet walls and a rich crimson floor. The sink and bathtub were of the optimum terracotta materials. Both had gold handles and faucets. The rest of the floor contained a modern kitchen complete with sandstone counter tops and a real floor and fabric from Vienna, Italy. Those were from her father. She never really liked her father, he left when she was ten. She had only seen him twice over the years and the last time he had given her these pieces of fabric. They were high quality and bold in shade. Though this suited her tastes just fine.

She loved the house dearly. Something felt wrong today though, a sense of dread that would not go away. She normally felt a sensation of comfort and security when she smelt the sugar cane in the grove. As she pulled up the ocean of granite-paved driveway someone screamed. The motorcycle's brakes wailed as she plunged her foot onto the peddle. Anna leapt off the bike and carelessly tossed her black helmet, with green flames on the sides, to the ground as she reached for the door handle. A pungent odor reached out to her senses as she walked through the door. The smell was venomous; it was becoming hard to inhale. She gasped for breath then quickly covered her mouth with her gloved hand and continued. Anna followed the smell, her heart rate elevated as she neared a door. There was a demonic aura coming from under in. With a clammy, shaking hand she took a deep breath and stood her ground.

She giggled the doorknob. All of the handles in her house were aged and did not open right away. She tried harder; a significant click told her that it had opened. Anna opened the door and a flash of light tore at her eyes. When she was finally able to blink her sight back she saw that she had entered the guest room in the east corridor. The lights were on and her cat Moki was curled in a ball with the blood red sheets cascading round her head. A wave of relief passed over her. With a flick of her wrist she clicked the lights off and turned towards the hall. A long, narrow hall washed in a black cloak was there to greet her. No matter how breathtaking the house was in the gold light that covers it in the day, there was an emptiness that consumed it in nightfall. Anna padded down the antechamber and stopped dead. The smell that had faded only moments before had come back with retaliation.

The smell was not what had stopped her but the area that it was coming from. She had been jogging before, but sped up when she realized that her mother, Area, and younger sister Camera had stayed home when she left to visit her friends in Melin. She heard a dripping sound, the kind of sound when water hits pavement or overlay. The kitchen had a colonial feel with maple cabinets and a grand oak table that was her grandmother's. The smooth, glossy surface leads down to four beautifully carved wooden legs. They curved and swayed in all the right places. The table was always her mothers favorite piece in the kitchen. She gently caressed the soft glossy surface and smiled warmly, memories filling her head. Snapping out of her dreams she crossed the creaky floor passed the rich royal blue fabric that covered the wide, paneled windows of the first floor kitchen. She scoured the steel sink, but it was completely fine and turned off. With a quick swerving motion of her head she turned toward the fountain in the main hall. She was not looking at the glorious fountain, but rather looking past it. Her eyesight was good enough to spot a small drop of red liquid crash onto the white tile. In a few quick steps she covered the distance between the kitchen and hall. Anna stood next to the minuscule red drop. It was then she looked up.