Prologue

A car pulled up to a young girl on the streets. The girl was worried; she knew that car.

It was the car that symbolized the county police. And they seemed to want to talk to her.

"Cladissa Newton? We have some grave news for you, I'm afraid. Please get into the car and we will explain while we drive you home," said the man in the driver's seat, obviously grim. His brow was sweat streaked and there were bags under his luminous blue eyes.

The girl, who was obviously Cladissa Newton, flung her flaming red hair from her face as it had been pushed there in the breeze that had followed the police man's arrival. Her face remained blank, which worried the police officer.

"What is wrong, sir? Can you not tell me here before you drive me home in your highly reputable vehicle to my dear parents? I dare say that would save my own reputation as well as theirs. No girl in her right mind wants to be driven home by a policeman."

The man frowned. She had a rather advanced vocabulary for a sixteen-year-old…

"I'm afraid I must escort you home, Ms Newton. This is news that can not be shared publicly."

The girl got into the car, but her piercing green eyes never left the road.

"Cladissa, I know this is hard to hear, but your parents were killed. We're still trying to find out how, but there are no marks on their bodies, no clues as to how it could have happened. They left you a letter, but we have no idea why…it's blank. But we figured because it says on the front you must read it, we should give it to you."

Her face was still blank, which worried the driver even more. He gave her the letter, which was still curious to him.

The girl took it with fingers that betrayed her real emotions by quivering slightly as she opened it.

Her green eyes whizzed across the page as if there was text on it, her eyes filling with tears as she read each line, but her face remaining blank as a mannequin's.

The officer was really becoming worried as she crumpled the page up in one hand with an angered fire blazing in her poisonous eyes.

"Officer, I want to see their bodies when I get to my house. Will you allow that? Good. I wonder what will become of me, sir. Will I be sent to an orphanage? I have no relatives to speak of…"

The officer was disturbed by this girl greatly. She had shown virtually no emotion at the news of her parent's death and seemed to be able to read something on that blank piece of paper…this girl was beyond strange. And as for what would become of her…he didn't know. Somehow the officer thought it would be unwise to say so though, so he stalled by asking, "What did that page say? You seemed to be reading it."

Her green eyes were deadly as she replied, "Nothing you couldn't read yourself, officer."

He frowned.

"Is there a trick to reading it? A magic spell, perhaps?"

His gut twisted as he watched her face contort. Had he said something wrong?Her eyes blazed with a sudden aggression that made the officer in the passenger's seat grab her wrist and say, "Easy, kid. He doesn't mean anything; we're just trying to find out- AARG!"

He pulled his hand away, shaking it and blowing on it as if he'd been burned.

The officer felt his heart rate quicken as the girl spoke.

"Don't touch me," she said quietly, the venom in her voice cold enough to chill the officer's blood where he sat.

In fact, the windshield was being covered by slowly spreading ice as he drove, making it almost impossible to see out of it.

This was getting very strange; almost unnatural…

"Stop the car voluntarily, or you shan't drive another inch in it again," said Cladissa, her eyes holding the officer's attention.

He knew the threat was probably idle, yet fear made his insides seem to turn to mush.

He didn't stop.

"Stop the bloody car! I warned you, sir!"

His blood pounded in his ears, but again he did not stop. Stopping the car could make her think she had control, which was never good.

He heard a bang like a cannon shot and went unconscious, but not before seeing the girl's door fly open as she sprinted from the vehicle.