Chapter 1

Poland 1947

A young girl around the age of 14 was being pulled along by some soldiers. She was kicking and screaming, trying to escape her captors who had taken her parents away. After they were out of site, she broke down, and ran for the nearest place to hide. Her captors let go of her, certain she wouldn't cause any more trouble. She was sobbing now, and she curled herself up into a ball. She would never see her parents again. Mama, with her gentle eyes and kind words, and Papa, with his friendly smile and big bear hugs. They were gone, and she never even had a chance to say 'I love you' one last time. But Rosamund Shultz was never one to cry. So her tears quickly dried up, and her face went back to her usual stoic look. Standing up, she smoothed her now soaked black dress, and straightened her back. I'll see Mama and Papa again soon. She told herself. No need to be selfish and waste pointless time crying. Rose was the kind of person who thought that emotion was a waste of time. She only used it when absolutely necessary. The only real emotions she showed on a regular basis were sarcasm, and the occasional smirk.

Walking briskly to a guard, she asked "excuse me sir, may I ask where I shall be sleeping for the night?" taken aback by the strange politeness of the girl, he answered her automatically, with respect that her presence almost seemed to demand. "Uh, in the female section of the area. It's just a little south from here. You'll be in the same tent as some others… uh ma'am." He said, adding the ending part onto it, without much thought. Giving him a slight incline of the head, she said "thank you." Before walking off, with an almost determined pace. A young man was watching her, an impressed look written on his face. Wanting to know more about this interesting young girl, he followed after her, and tried to stay unnoticed. After walking for a minute, she said "you can walk alongside me you know." Slightly embarrassed that he was caught following her, he blushed a little before jogging up to her side. Scratching the back of his head, he said "uh, sorry for following you. I was just curious." Still looking straight ahead, Rose simply replied "Its fine. What is your name?"

He had to almost jog to keep up with her brisk pace, but he managed. "Erik Lenshirr. 15 years old, at your service!" he said, trying to make the conversation less tense. It didn't work. She was just as formal as before when she replied "Rose Shultz. Pleased to make your acquaintance." It was quite again for a moment before she asked "Why are you depressed? You soul seems slightly dim." Now that was a very odd question. "M-my soul?" Erik asked, quite confused. "Yes. Your soul. Why are you depressed?" she asked again patiently. "Well, for the same reason as you I guess. My parents got taken away." The corners of her lips turned down slightly, forming a frown. He was exactly like her. Only, he had feelings. Unlike her. It was sad. The emotional ones never made it far in life. But he seemed so innocent. So she resolved that she would keep an eye on him, try to keep him safe. Because he seemed different than the others. He actually seemed to be genuinely interested in her. So she would help him. The corners of her mouth then did a 180 degrees turn, and she was now smiling slightly at the boy. He didn't seem to notice this though, because he had started talking about things like what his favourite colour was, how he always wanted a dog, how he hated the rain, and when his next birthday was. He was born in 1932. Huh. The same year as her.

As he continued talking, she just went right on walking, letting him unload the baggage of not having someone his age to talk to for a very long time. All his talking should have annoyed her, it sure would have annoyed someone else, but she needed this distraction right now. When they finally reached the females tents, she stopped, and turned around. "I shall be going to sleep now. I may see you tomorrow. Maybe not. But If I do, I will say hello." With that, she turned around and ducked inside the tent. Erik stood there for a moment. Okay, this was a good sign! She would say hello tomorrow! That means he had gotten a friend. He hadn't had a friend in such a long time. Years and years in fact. So he resolved to protect this friend, no matter the cost. Having decided this, he walked away, feeling quite accomplished. The next day, she did say hello, and so the friendship of Rose Shultz and Erik Lenshirr bloomed. They soon became inseparable, and they did everything they could together. Rose was always the quite, calm one, and Erik would be the one who showed her a little fun.

Even though she used her sarcasm with him quite a lot, that was just her way of saying she cared. They told each other of their lives before they got separated from their parents, and of their own interests. Erik even eventually told her what happened to him when he was taken from his parents. How he apparently bent the metal gates that separated him and his loved ones. He even showed her the gate once, when they had the chance. She was quite surprised, but didn't show it. In exchange, she told him how she could sense the emotions, the good and the evil in a person's soul. She also told him how she never had a friend before, because all the other kids thought she was creepy because of her all black clothing and strange midnight black hair and coal black eyes. Erik was upset by this, and he made them promise right there and then that they would stay friends forever, and help each other no matter what happens. She agreed after a moment of silence, spitting into her hand and shaking Erik's. They never knew that the day that they would need to help each other sooner than they thought. The day that Rose would be separated from Erik.

-W-I-S-H- -G-I-V-E-R-

Poland 1950

Rose was shaken awake roughly this morning. She didn't want to get out of her warm bed. But she was tugged up by her upper arms, and she realized she was being awoken by a soldier. That was a bad sign. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she gently detached the soldiers hand from her arm, and stood up straight. Now at seventeen, she had grown immensely in the past three years, and was now blooming into a beautiful young woman. Even though she still creeped some of the guards out, she was never deprived of wolf whistles when she walked by a group of soldiers. This only made Erik more protective of her. They were still attached at the hip, and he was like her guard dog, snarling at any soldier that looked at her in a suggestive way. Rose had stopped using her sarcasm on him a while ago, and was much more caring towards the boy, letting her walls come down only around him. With anyone else, she went straight back to her stoic and sarcastic self. As she did with this soldier.

She walked out of the tent without so much as a glance in the man's direction, and looked around for her Friend. She spotted him, and walked over to him quickly. Stopping in front of him, she asked "do you know why they woke everyone up so early? A guard practically dragged me out of my tent." The face that had been happy before at seeing his favourite person, darkened and he asked in a low voice laced with worry "he did what? Are you hurt? Did he do anything to you?" smacking his arm lightly, she shook her head no, and said "calm down. He was just waking me up for some important announcement or something. Maybe we're getting more people." Rolling his eyes he responded "We're always getting more people. I doubt that they'll drag everyone out of sleep just for a new group of slaves." Rose knew this fact too, but she didn't want to think about any other possibilities. However she couldn't deny the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Breaking through the ruckus, a commander stepped onto a podium made of crates and blew into his whistle to get everyone's attention. "QUITE FILTH!" he yelled. The noise level went down immensely.

"I'm here to announce that we are moving area 12 from this vicinity. They are being relocated. If you are part of this vicinity, get your items together and head to the gates. If you do not do this in the next ten minutes, you will have a little 'help' and be removed. Get to it!" everyone in that vicinity rushed to collect their things, but one of the occupants weren't moving. Rosamund Shultz was frozen in place, unable to move. She was part of vicinity 12. But Erik was part of vicinity 13. Right beside her. So close to her, yet so far away. She was going to be separated from Erik. Breaking from her frozen state, she yelled "NO!" before latching onto Erik. A nearby guard heard her, and scanned down the list of occupants from vicinity 12. She was on the list. Knowing this was going to become a problem, he signalled several other soldiers over and quickly detached the girl from her best friend. That made Erik furious, and he clawed and struggled to get Rose back with him. But there were too many guards. With three soldiers holding Rose, and five soldiers holding back Erik, they made it past the dreaded metal gate. It had been repaired in the past year, and they slid the new metal bar over the gate. Erik refused to have this happen again, so summoning all his power, he reached towards the gates, and slowly it started bending again. But it wasn't bending fast enough.

One of the soldiers saw what was happening and kicked the boy in the head, knocking him out before he could do anymore damage. Rose on the other side of the gate was struggling as hard as she could to. And when she saw her best friend being knocked out, she was dangerously mad. The sky darkened, and she lowered her head so her bangs covered her eyes. Her voice was different than before when she said "I suggest you unhand me." It was slightly raspy, but was so calm sounding, almost like they were discussing the weather. A shiver went down each of the soldiers but they didn't let go. Her lips twisted into a demented smile, and she looked up through her bangs. Unearthly green that filled the whole eyeball looked up at the soldiers. Opening her mouth, the song of death escaped from her lips, and the guards didn't feel so good. Next thing they knew, they slowly were turning to dust. Their souls were being sucked out, as well as their life energy. The song of death sounded like one of those creepy songs that would be played on an old organ in a haunted mansion. When the guards holding her had disappeared, she laughed. But now she had stray souls.

Getting an idea, she started to form something between her palms. With her hands rotating around and around, she kept at this until in the middle of her palm lay a small clear glass jar. Attached to it was a black leather cord to go around her neck. Summoning the souls, she herded them into the jar then placed the cork into the opening. Her hair covered her eyes again, and when she looked up, her eyes were normal. She ran up to the gates that were still blocking her way, but was locked out, because of the bar on the other side. Looking around desperately, she tried to find her friend, but he was gone. "oh no." she whispered to herself, dropping to the ground. "I killed him too. I killed my best friend." And for the first time in a whole year, she cried.