Chapter One It starts off kind of boring, but it will get better in the other chapters.

Darkling

Three Years Before...

"MOM! DAD!" I screamed as I ran through the front door. I sprinted into the kitchen, but no one was there. I bounded into the living room, but it was empty. I was too excited to notice the bad vibe in house. I looked in the other rooms, but no one was there. I dashed up our spiral marble staircase, and looked in all the rooms, but it seemed as if no one was home. That's weird, I thought. Where is everyone? I ran down the stairs just as the door opened, and my mom, dad and sister came through the door. I leaped to the ground on the last few steps, and ran into my sister, Holly.

"Guess what! Guess what!" I was so happy I was practically glowing. I held up a paper, the paper that had made me so happy. I started bouncing up and down with excitement, but Holly didn't move at all. Finally I focused on my sister, and realized that her light blond hair was sticking to her face, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying. When she looked up at me, she started bawling. I looked at my dad, but he wouldn't meet my eyes. I looked at my mom then, and she stared back with cold ice-blue eyes, as if I was a traitor. Suddenly my paper didn't seem all that important anymore, but I still held it up, trying to pretend that everything was fine, even though it obviously wasn't. "Guess what." I said a lot more quietly, but I couldn't help a small smile. No one answered but I went on anyway. "I got the lead in the play!" I said, my excitement growing again, "my teacher said that I was great, and I could be one of the greatest actresses of all time!"

"Eve," my mother said in a chiding voice, "he only said that to make you happy, obviously your not got to be an actresses, much less a famous one." That wiped the smile off my face. What was wrong with my mother? Yeah, sure, she usually gives me a hard time, but does she have to be such a… a-a bitch about it? Wow, I don't think I've ever thought of my mother that way, even though she is, but my father said it was only because she loves me and wants me to succeed in life. Then how come she doesn't act that way with Holly. It's like Holly is an angel, and I came up from hell, just to give her a hard time.

"Well Mr. Baroli said that-"

"Eve," my mothers hard voice cut me off, "we have more important things to discuss besides your stupid play." Like what? I've only been talking about this play for the past three weeks.

"Eve, honey," my fathers usually light and carefree voice sounded deeply pained and sad. "We have some things we need to talk to you about." He looked up then and locked eyes with me. Suddenly I felt very small and young; I didn't like the look in my father's eyes. It was so incredibly sad, that I just wanted to go up to him and hug him with all my might.

"What's wrong daddy?" I said in a small voice.

"Well you see, you know your turning is coming up soon and…" My fathers' voice died in his throat.

"Just say it Richard," my mom said in an unemotional voice.

My dad cleared his throat, and went on, "well you see there's… only a very small chance… that-"

"Richard, stop babying her, she's older, she can handle it, if she can't it doesn't matter anyway." I got a very bad feeling then, and I wanted to stop my mother from talking, but I knew I had to face what she was going to say. "We went to Dolores," Dolores is the headmaster, of our little group of magicals, kind of like the alpha dog, the one everyone looks up to, and you don't cross Dolores, never. "And she said that there was only a 21% chance that you were going to go light." I stared at my mother, not understanding what she was talking about. She might as well have been talking German.

"Wha-what?" I mumbled, stunned. The idea that I was more likely to go dark it was like someone had just ripped a layer of flesh off. But, I couldn't actually go dark, right? When I was born, the chances of that was one to a million. And only one person in my family has ever gone dark, great grandma Pippa. My whole life I've dreamed of going light. It made my stupid play seem like nothing. "Well, maybe she got it wrong," I murmured stupidly. Of course Dolores didn't get it wrong, but I had to have hope in something. "And-and, there's still a chance."

"Eve you might as well face the facts, darkness is your fate, your trial is tonight, so you might as well go pack your bags." I couldn't believe my mother barely seemed fazed that her daughter was probably going to go dark and she may never see her again, how could she be so indifferent. Besides the fact that this was going to hassle her, and she was going to be talked about behind her back when I was gone, she didn't seem to care. I was just an inconvience to her, a hassle.

I turned around and marched up the stairs in a daze. What the hell just happened? I get home so happy, just to be put down like a three year that lost his lollipop, but worse much worse. I looked up the stairs at my bedroom door which was slightly open. Suddenly I just wanted to sit; I didn't want to go up there. My breathing came faster, and I could feel my heart speeding up, but I had stopped moving. The walls seemed to be closing in on me, coming closer and closer until I could barely breathe. Without warning a hand came down on my back. I whirled around, and stared into my sisters forest green eyes. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were still red and puffy. "I just…just came to help you pack." I just stood there staring at her. She looked up at me, but then quickly looked down. She wanted to help me pack? Did everyone want to get rid of me?

"I don't need help," I hissed. I may have said it a little too harshly, because I saw her flinch, but I didn't care. She didn't have to worry about going dark. Everyone knew she was going light. It was a definite yes from the day she was born because Dolores was there and she predicted she was going light. I ran up the rest of the steps, and slammed the door to my room. I stood there, still facing the door. Then I grabbed a suitcase, and started throwing random pieces of clothes in it.

8 hours later…

I stood on the podium, my life falling apart around me. I couldn't breathe as Old Steve read the ancient ritual words. Everyone calls him Old Steve because he's like a zillion years old. He's got gray hair, and kind grey-blue eyes. But tonight his eyes were sad, which was not a good sign. But I still had hope. As stupid as it seems I still had hope. "And by law of magicals, if you, Eve, turn dark, you must leave immediately, darklings are too dangerous and unpredictable to keep with their family and friends. We don't want anyone getting hurt. Do you understand these rules and conditions?" I nodded my head numbly, too terrified to speak. Dolores stood up and sauntered over to where Old Steve stood. She waved him away, and walked over to me. Dolores is the president of our little group of magicals and very powerful, you definitely did not want to get her angry. Dolores is in her late thirty's but she looks like she's in her early twenty's. She's got light red hair, though it looks like a bright orange, but it looks good on her. She's tall and slender like a model, and she probably could be one too, with her high cheek bones, and striking blue eyes. Tonight she was wearing a black floor length dress with a high neck line and long sleeves. You would never see ever see her wearing jeans, which was exactly what I was wearing. She placed her cold white hand atop my head. Dolores closed her eyes and went perfectly still. I closed my eyes as a wave of nauseous came over me. Suddenly Dolores hand was off my head, and I felt better. I peered over at Dolores. Her eyes were still closed and she was holding her hand as if she had been burned. Suddenly she opened her eyes, and stared at me. I gasped. Her eyes were pitch-black. She blinked a couple of times and her eyes came back to blue, although her pupils were so big they almost covered her whole iris.

Without looking away from my eyes she said, "This child has gone dark; take her to the institution immediately." The institution was the place they take darklings. Although I wouldn't really call it an institution, it was more like a prison, but they like to tone down the name so the darklings don't freak out and try to run away. Suddenly a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

"Mom, dad," I pleaded. My father looked pained, his dark blond hair was mussed, and he had lines across his face. His usually carefree eyes were sad, but he didn't move. My mother just looked at me as if she was disappointed, but I could've sworn I saw a look of regret pass across her pale face. I looked at my sister last. She was crying her eyes out, and I think she might have taken a step toward me, but my mother gripped her hand, and pulled her toward the exit, my father followed. None of them looked back. That feeling, when you realize you're not wanted anymore, that you're being abandoned by your family, well lets just say it sucks. They might as well have ripped my heart out of my chest. Actually it was more like my heart was breaking into a million pieces. I stopped struggling with the person who was holding me, and went limp. I didn't have any fight left in me. There was no one who was going to stick up for me. There was no one who loved me. My family will go on without me, soon they'll forget about me. I was alone in this big world.