I know I have so many stories to keep up with and update, but I can't help myself. I love this series so much that I just had to at least start one.

Disclaimer: Storyline belongs to me. The Forbidden Game is L.'s.

A very Unlucky Child

I don't remember much from my childhood, I know, how unusual is that? Not very... I guess, but I can remember us all going to my great-grandpa's house, my family I mean. Mother had been talking about getting rid of it, way past time, the building was going to sit and rot if they didn't let people tear it down. Even as I child I could tell my parents were hesitant about going, that they were afraid. I even remember thinking how I should hold their hands as we went in.

Instead they called my Uncle Zack and Aunt Summer to come help us. I can't remember exactly how far away his house was, but I know I fell asleep against my brother, Alex's, arm and he slapped me for drooling. Cassie, my older sister, simply laughed as my older brother hit me awake. Mother tried telling us to stop, but she was almost too tired to punish us, being pregnant with Samantha and all.

"Alex and Emily Locke," my father would say sternly, "Cut it out right now or we'll give you to the Shadowmen. They would love naughty kids like yourselves." We would instantly stop fighting. Our parents had threaten us with the Shadowmen from the moment we could walk. They were hideous ugly beings that lived to eat bad children. I refused to be eaten.

We arrived finally arrived at the rotten ancient house, this is where my memory starts to get fuzzy. We spent the first few days cleaning out the top floor. A six year old can't do too much so I just sat around and played with my wolf stuffed animal. I remember that when they finally got done with the upper floors, they headed to the basement, but they refused to go through the door. Instead they broke a wall down and got in that way. I thought it was a game.

Instead of being interested in the books on the shelf, or the strange items placed around the room, my attention was drawn to a strange stick laying near the unopened door. I felt a pull to it, as though it had been placed there specifically for me, as though the door that everyone had avoided could do me no harm. Picking it up in my six year old hands, I figured it was just another part of the game.

There were strange markings all over the piece of wood, I couldn't read but I knew how to copy down letters. There was a lot of room on the stick and I remember wondering if I could somehow draw on it. I managed to sneak over to my mom's purse and find a pen, clicking it, I started wondering what I should draw.

I was very tempted to ask my mom, but a strange thought overcame me, she would yell at me. Maybe for the pen, or for even touching the stick, neither mattered... I hated being yelled at. My short attention span was pulled from the idea of trouble to a scratched out line above all the free space, it must have been a name. It shouldn't be scratched out, if it was carved into the wood then that was were it belonged.

Doing my very best, I copied the letters as best as I could, improvising the parts I couldn't make out. The wood seemed to hum and pulse underneath the pen, the black ink sinking into the wood and forming grooves. I figured that it was just what wood did when you marked on it. When I was finished, a word fell involuntarily from my young lips, "Julian."

My mother gasped somewhere in the room, something glass shattered, and the whole basement was freezing cold. I had a brief vision of brilliant blue eyes staring back at me, but then I forget everything else. I never have bothered to ask, and no one has offered to tell me... I should have asked, maybe I would have been better off.

Bad cliffhanger, I know. Review please!