Chapter Two:
WHEN I woke up, my head was pounding. I was in a forest somewhere, but not one like I had ever seen before. The sky was red, and the ground was a dark brownish-black. The leaves on the trees were sharp, as if they had been designed to be deadly.
"Morning, sleepyhead," someone murmured in my ear. I bolted upright, turning to look at whoever had spoken. It was the boy from school.
"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked, and I could hear the panic in my voice.
He laughed. "Well, since you'll probably keep asking anyways…I'm Dimitri, and you are in There."
"In where?" I demanded.
"There. That's what our world is called. Where the monsters live. Your mom was from here. She died here, too."
"M-m-my mom?" I whispered. "No. No my mom wasn't a monster. She was human." I tried to remember something about her, but my mind came up completely and utterly blank.
Dimitri grinned. "She was more than a monster, Annie. She was the princess of There, one of the most powerful witches of her time." He took my wrist and pushed my sleeve up, revealing the pale bottom part of my wrist. "You have the Mark of the family, Annie." He traced a thin pink line, which swirled and had a large D in the middle.
"That was never there before," I mumbled. Blinking, I pushed his hand off my wrist and stood up. "Why am I here? Or There? Or…whatever!" I crossed my arms, waiting for an explanation. He sat there silent, smirking at me.
"Come with me, Annie. If you don't, we both know you'll die out here. Those leaves…they're lethal." He grinned and flicked his fingers. A leaf broke off the tree and came rocketing towards me. On instinct, I used my arm to shield my head. But the sharp impact never came, and I looked up. The leaf was floating towards the ground slowly, and it looked like a normal leaf from my world.
Dimitri smiled. "That's the best part; you don't even have any idea what you're doing or who you are. And no one is going to tell you." He laughed. "Not even your dad told you anything!"
"My dad?" I repeated, narrowing my eyes. "My dad knows about this? And he knew what happened to my mom?" For a moment, the world flashed red, and anger streaked through me, red hot.
Dimitri's eyes brightened. "You're feeling angry. That's good." He touched my cheek gently, grinning.
I grabbed his wrist and pushed him off, feeling my anger drain down into my hand. When I let go, his wrist was covered in red welts.
He ignored it, and grabbed the string of pearls around my neck, showing me the front of it. Out of the white pearls, a pitch black one stood out from the rest. He ran his thumb over it. "One down," he murmured before laughing. "When your mother lived here, these pearls were all black. When she left, they looked like this. And now, once they're completely black again…it will confirm what legend says."
My heart was beating fast as I watched him. "You're crazy," I mumbled. "I…I don't know what you're talking about."
Dimitri rolled his eyes. "You will eventually." He grabbed my arm again and began pulling me deeper into the forest. "You'll be needing to meet your grandfather."
Too frightened to do anything else, I stumbled along behind him. I tripped over a sharp root sticking out of the ground, and fumbled to catch myself. I felt an arm wrap around my waist, catching me before I could hit the hard ground. I turned to look at Dimitri, and he lowered me gently to the ground, meeting my eyes.
I couldn't tear my eyes away from his. "T-t-thanks," I stuttered. He nodded slightly, but didn't remove his arm from around my waist. Finally I brought my eyes down, scrambling back up. He coughed weakly and jumped up, pushing me forward gently.
"Lets keep moving," he mumbled, and I moved quicker through the woods, keeping my eyes on the ground.
We came to a break in the woods, and a city rose in front of us. Suddenly a grey figure appeared in front of me.
"Dimitri you've brought us a human? It's odd; you've brought her into the city," it hissed.
"She's no human, Theo," Dimitri replied, putting a hand on the back of my neck. "This is Claire Darqueeth's daughter."
I watched Theo through my bangs, seeing him smile and study me closely. "How did I not see it?" Theo murmured. "Girl's the spitting image of Claire." He reached out towards me, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
Dimitri pulled me away. "Theo, Annie is royalty here. Have you forgotten that? Her grandfather is the ruler."
I jerked away from Dimitri. "Stop calling me Annie! No one but my mom called me that, and you have no right to call me that!" Theo laughed, and I ignored him, turning and running away.
Dimitri shouted, "Catch her! Vampires!" I felt two strong hands grasp each of my arms and pulled me back. Dimitri walked up in front of me. "Take her to the king," he spat in my face.
The two vampires dragged me to a large castle, which was through the entire city, and every single monster stared at me.
They dumped me on the floor in the castle, and then Dimitri tied my hands behind my back with a strong, thick rope and pushed me into the throne room.
A man who looked no more than forty was sitting in a throne, and he looked up when I entered. His eyes widened.
"Claire?" he whispered, standing up and taking a few steps down to the floor. "Dimitri! Why are you treating my daughter like this?"
Dimitri rolled his eyes. "Kind Michael, I mean to disrespect, but you know Claire died ten years ago. Meet your granddaughter, Annie."
Michael walked down in front of me, and tipped my chin up, nodding. "Ah. I see your eyes are different than Claire's. Your nose is a little smaller than hers was, and your hair a few shades darker." His eyes moved to the pearls, and they narrowed. "They were once black. That is the color they are meant to be."
Dimitri stroked the one black pearl. "When she gets angry, and uses the dark Powers, they begin to turn black again."
I looked at Michael with wide eyes, terrified. I was shaking, wanting to wake up from whatever screwed up dream this was. "Who are you?" I whispered.
Michael frowned. "Dimitri has told you nothing? I am Michael Darqueeth, your grandfather." I shook my head, and he frowned deeper. "I'm your mother Claire's father. Of course, you never really knew Claire, did you? You were only six years old when she was killed."
Fury burned through my veins, and my eyes narrowed. I couldn't speak, and my hands started shaking even faster. I smelled smoke, and the rope fell away from my wrists. I ignored the red tint to my hand, and punched my grandfather across the face. "You call yourself her father and you speak of her like that!"
Dimitri pulled me away, wrapping his arms around my arms and waist, holding me back. Michael rubbed his jaw, and I heard a little pop as he snapped it back into place, and then he laughed lightly.
"Well, Annie, you seem to have inherited her temper. But that's good; every time you get angry, you get closer to turning to our side." I looked down at my necklace, and two more pearls had become pure black. My lip trembled, and I bit it to stop Dimitri from seeing that I was scared.
Michael saw it before I could hide it from him, and he laughed. "Dimitri take Annie to her room. To be generous, give her my daughter's old room, that should please her greatly."
