This is to be viewed as a prequel to both "What Is Your Center?" and "Hounds of Burgess". As the title suggests, it is a small story of what happened in the beginning. The very beginning.

"It's time to wake up, Hana."

Fear. That's the first thing I remember. As I took the first few pulls of air, I only felt pain and absolute fear. And then I saw the memories. Flashes of the past few days rushed before my eyes. Executed as a witch, hung, and thrown in a cart… oh gods, a cart of the dead. I struggled out of the cart, staggering off into the woods in a panic. I fell once and got to my feet again. I felt the dirt, the cold. I felt the tall grass and branches whipping at my still bare legs. I clutched my chest as I kept running, feeling the burn of my lungs.

And then I heard a laugh. It was so dark, so scary, it only drove me on faster. I stopped short as I came to the edge of a lake, and looked up at the bright moon. As I did, I heard a voice, silvery, kind. It was the same one I heard when I first woke in the cart. "I place upon you the gift of the Chosen. The gift of All Hallows."

I narrowed my eyes. "The gift of All Hallows? I don't understand. I am not a witch! Doesn't anyone understand?" I shouted to the skies.

"You are Hana Eve, the spirit of All Hallows."

"I don't understand! Who are you?" Silence was the only response I received. I stood in the cold, screaming to the stars through my still raw throat. The man would never answer me again.

I knelt in the forming snow, fingers tracing the rope marks on my throat. I swallowed, feeling the flesh rise up to meet my fingers. I wanted to flinch at the divots in my skin.

I chanced a glance at my reflection and stifled a shriek. I looked at my hands and stared at the flesh for the first time. From what I could tell in the moonlight, my skin was ashen, as if I were one of the dead. As I thought about it, the tone was fitting. My reflection showed black markings around my eyes, over my nose and lips, and three thin lines ran vertically over my lips as well. I turned my face, seeing blackened cheekbones. Most shocking were the two small horns protruding from my limp short hair. I tentatively reached up to touch them, and retracted my hand just as quickly as I noticed they were indeed part of my skull.

I had no more tears. I had shed the last of them when I faced the noose just hours ago. The cold stung my naked skin, giving me the beautiful yet horrible reminder I was indeed alive. As I looked around, I saw more than I ever had as a human. Not just sharper vision, but I could see... things. Everything had an ethereal glow, making it so beautiful. Even the lake shimmered, especially in the moonlight. It took my breath away.

I startled as a weight fell over my shoulders, and I saw a black cloth fall around me. "Now what is a young woman like yourself doing all the way out here, naked and all alone?"

It was such a seductive, deep voice I almost didn't want to turn around. Fear gripped at me as I realized how vulnerable I really was. I had been stripped of everything, leaving me with absolutely nothing. I realized just how alone I really was. Anyone was better than no one. "Do what you're going to do and leave. Please."

The voice chuckled and the presence behind me sat down, forcing me to look at him. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. His skin was more ashen than mine, and his pale eyes reflected the moonlight with ease. His black hair was slicked back in a way that still made it look soft if I were to touch it. He was bare-chested, meaning what was wrapped around me was most likely his cloak. "Trust me when I say I would have done so already if I wanted to do anything."

I was more interested in his strange glow. His aura, I suppose I could say. I wasn't used to being able to see such things. He was dangerous, I could tell that much, but there was something else. He was alone in the world, sad in a way. But the sorrow was so beautiful I almost couldn't look away. "Who are you?"

"My name is Pitch Black, the Nightmare King. I suppose you would know me best as the Boogieman."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Excuse me?"

"Have you got worms in your ears already?"

"No, I heard you, but do you really expect me to believe that?"

He grinned, showing me jagged teeth, and glanced at me. "You should start believing in many things, woman. Yourself, for starters. What is your name?"

"S— Hana. Hana Eve."

"I see. And what do you represent?"

I was so utterly confused, and still scared. I clutched the cloak tighter to my frame. "All Hallows. He said I was to represent All Hallows."

His laugh returned, sending a shiver down my spine. "Well then, this is your night. Relish it. Feel the spirits as they come from the other side, on this, the night were the land of the dead is closely connected with that of the living."

I looked around again, and clutched at his arm in instinct as spirits wandered through the woods around us, their gaze constant and unwavering as they walked. "I don't understand." I hated how my voice still rasped, and how a lump formed in my throat again. It was all too much. "God, I don't understand."

"God has nothing to do with it. You'll soon find out there never was one."

As terrifying as the spirits were, I could see them as something else. They were lost, looking for those they had left behind. "What am I?"

"A Spirit, so far as I can tell. One raised by the Man in the Moon from the looks of it."

I frowned and looked at him, letting him have his limb back. "Man in the Moon?"

"I'm surprised you haven't heard the stories. Look there. Do you see the pattern in the moon, never changing? The pattern makes a face. The stories are there is a man on the moon, looking down upon everyone."

I scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. Man can't travel to the moon."

"Oh but it's true. I put him there myself, though that is another story for another day, I suppose. Regardless, he is not a human. Nor am I. Nor are you anymore. He brought you back to life to serve a purpose. That purpose is to monitor the activities that happen this day."

"I'm not… human anymore?"

"Have you seen yourself, woman? Your eyes are glowing in the darkness. You have horns, skin like mine, ears ending in sharp points. You may have been human at one point, but not anymore. Embrace it. You are now superior." He stood with the help of his staff and started to leave. "You can keep the coat. I'll form another one."

My heart leapt in my throat as I stood to face him, gripping the coat tightly in my grasp. "You're just going to leave me out here?"

He glanced at me over his shoulder. "Why wouldn't I? I see no reason to take you along with me. You'll be fine on your own."

A sharp wail of a ghost nearby made me jump and rush forward, grasping on to his arm in instinct again. "Please, Mr. Black. Don't leave me out here. I-I don't know anything. I'm… who am I anymore? What is my purpose? I'm scared."

That seemed to trigger something in him. He grinned again. "Oh I know you are. I can feel it. However, I see no use in you."

My grip slacked on his arm and I stepped back. "Please. I'm alone, I'm scared, I've nothing anymore." I looked around as the ghosts seemed to be getting closer. "What am I to do with myself?" A soft sob escaped my throat, surprising even me. I thought I was done with the tears. I fell to my knees in a sudden wave of weakness. "Please don't leave me alone."

He was so quiet for the longest time, I thought he had left. What seemed like a decade passed before he spoke again. "Don't make me regret this. You will learn to use your powers as I teach them to you. I want nothing but promising results. Hopefully I'll have you trained enough for next year, and introduce you to as much of the world that I can."

I looked up at him in shock. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"And none of this Mr. Black shit, I'll have none of that. You will address me as Pitch, or Master, is that understood?"

I nodded. Anything to get out of the biting cold. "Yes, my master." He extended his hand to me and I took it without regrets.

"Do not disappoint me."