Prologue

December 21, 1989

Everyone was dead, and she was the only one left. Her mother who taught her to sew, cook, to laugh, and dance, and her father who used to read to her at night and taught her to love the earth were both dead. And then there were her two older brothers, who were overprotective, and annoying. She was the only one left. The little girl collapsed on her knees. She just stared unblinkingly at the rigid bodies of her family laying in front of her. This had to be a nightmare, or a trick, because they couldn't be gone. The little girl had just only just talked to them this morning over breakfast. Her eyes stung as tears fell down her pale cheeks. She remembered her mother telling her to not get her dress dirty, that they were having a special guest for dinner. She looked down at her white muslin dress, now bloody, and a sob escaped her mouth, her shoulders shaking, as she tried to hold on to the scream.

She collapsed over the nearest body, her screams muffled into the still chest of what she would later realize used to be her father. The little girl knelt there for what seemed like forever, weeping in big heaving sobs as the shock of her family's deaths was replaced with a despair so deep that it seemed to almost swallow her whole.

Her head snapped up as she heard the sound of heavy boot steps coming closer, and she knew with a certainty that she couldn't explain that her family's murderer was still in the house.

On shaking legs, she got to her feet, turned, and bolted from the house, long dark brown hair whipping around her as she made her way across her front lawn and into the nearby forest. The little girl panted as her heart pounded rapidly in her chest. The girl ran through the forest, the branches of the trees and bushes snagging into her dress as made her way through the forest She could barely see a thing in the dim light, but she knew the only way she wouldn't share the same fast as her family if she didn't get away. Her goal was to run and put as many meters between her and the man who murdered her family as possible.

Her foot caught on a root, and she suddenly found herself slamming down hard on the ground. She scrambled to her feet, but a shadow crossed her face, causing her to freeze.

Her whole body shook, her eyes wide she stared up into the cold hold eyes of her family's killer. "Please..." she whimpered, "Don't do this!"

But the little girl knew that this ruthless man would kill her. As he lunged at her, everything faded away to a vision of endless white.