Update: yay! Also I might be starting on a new story...details coming soon. Hope ya'll enjoy!

Scorche: Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

Fluffykins: You are awesome, as useal. Thanks for not giving up on me.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the movie. I do however claim all original characters and ideas.

read and enjoy! and please review!

Chapter 3: Dead Silence

Little white puffs floated softly down to the earth's floor, sprinkling the ground with cold moisture. Soon the roads were turned to muddy sludge that caused the wagons to slip and slide. The season's first snow fall.A day like today even made a preacher want to curse. Slowly, with the snow, the day faded away to night.

Observing this scene a young woman stared out of her window. Her ice-blue gaze blank of emotions gazing out from a taught and shockingly pale face with dark circles under her eyes.

A month had flown by since the day she was attacked, if attacked was even the right word for the situation. It still haunted her to this day, causing lack of sleep and a restlessness deep in her heart.

Many of her friends had visited her, yet none seemed to be able to get through the invisible wall she had placed around herself. She had not spoken since that day and she barely ate. Even when Thomas came to see her she did not speak.

So it was at this household. Quiet days filled with sadness and exasperation. It was all her mother could do not to break down and cry. Just seeing her daughter wasting away was killing her inside.

A soft knock at the door slowly brought the young woman to turn away from the window. Eyes blank of emotion as her grand-mother entered the room. Coughs wrenched the air as the grand-mother tried to speak.

"Jade, darling. Good night."

Her grandmother hesitated for the briefest of seconds as a cough rattled her old body again, then turned to leave. Half way out the door she changed her mind and spoke once more.

"Jade..I. I love you."

With that her grandmother was gone. Little did Jade know that she would never hear those words from her grandmother's lips, ever again.

The morning began as all morning did, with one exception...it was quiet. Sitting on Jade's window just like every morning was a red rose, beautiful down to its thorns.

Walking over to the window she shivered. The snow had brought a chill to the house. Quickly she opened the window and slipped her hand out shivering again at the frosty air. As soon as the window closed a scream filled the air.

Startled she dropped the rose and darted from the room, clothed in nothing but her nightgown. As quick as she could in her sick state she located the source of the scream, a sound she now realized that had transformed into wails of anguish.

Slowly she entered her grandmother's room, where she found her mother trying to rub life back into the dead hands of her grandmother. Shock paralized Jade into absolute stillness. She could hear nothing, see nothing.

Slowly she came back to and took in the scene before her once more. This time as her gaze surveyed the room, and object controled her thoughts. For there on her grand-mother's windowsill sat a rose just like Jade's, except this rose was as black and dead as a burnt forest.

Jade turned away from the scene. There was nothing she could do and she knew it. She didn't have the energy. As she began to walk away from the room a sound filled the air, a cough. Worried she bit her lip and whirled on the spot. Her mother was coughing just as her grandmother had the night before.

Somehow, someway the family had become ill. With what, she did not know, but there was one fact that remained to be true, this illness could kill.

The villagers had come after hearing her mother's loud scream,and so the burial was taken care of.

Yet, the sickness was not over. Weeks went by and her mother steadily got worse. The doctor had no cure. To Jade's surprise she herself became infected with the disease.

Days came slowly and nights went. Yet she nor her mother ever made any progress.

One morning Jade woke, expecting to see the doctor standing before her shaking his head in hopelessness.

Yet what met her gaze startled her so, that even in her sickened state she tried to get away.

In one move she had jumped from the bed running for the door. Yet she couldn't move fast enough.

A warm blanket was wrapped around her as strong arms gently lifted her off her feet. She was cocooned in warmth. A fact that muddled her fearful thoughts.

A familiar voice spoke, " You're safe. I will not hurt you."

Once this registered in her clouded mind her gaze locked on her enemy. He looked to be around her age with shaggy redbrown hair hanging around his face. Grey-blue eyes studied her softly, judging her reaction. Something about his appearance reminded her a bit of a wolf, but what it was..she couldn't determine.

He was, by far,not what she had expected. Kindness seemed to be seeping in waves from his body.

Since the attack she had never felt like speaking, but now she tried to get her unused voice to work. Her puzzled green eyes churned with questions.

A soft smile answered her unspoken thoughts as the young man moved through the house. He sighed and spoke, "Your mother died last night."

A soft gasp answered this statement as her gaze filled with tears. Tears that she bad resfused to shed before, now freely soaking her pale sunken cheeks. She began to struggle in his grasp, not believing what he said to be true, but of course she was no match for the man.

The man quietly stepped out into the cold morning air. Stealthily and quickly he descended the hill and passed the well. Silently he entered the surrounding forest and in an instant he took off running.

Running he did, but faster than any normal human could manage. Jade was startled at the sudden speed and fear clouded her gaze and transformed her face into a mask of horror.

The man sighed and whispered, " I am a friend Jade. Do not fear me."

He hadn't even paused in his stride as he just ran.

Jade bit her lip. She wanted to scream, yell, anything that would get someone's attention. She was just to sick. To her amazement she found heself beginning to drift into sleep. The illness was just taking a toll on her body. Softly the wind began to blow, causing a strange but peaceful song to enter the woods. Just like that she fell into a restless, ill slumber.

As soon as she was out, the man made a noise low in his throat that sounded similar to a growl, he spoke into the wind.

" Be quiet. I know she is ill. He placed her in my care and she will not die on my watch. Now, be gone, and tell them off our arrival."

With that his speed increased and gush of wind blustered from seeming no where in the dense forest, causing the young man's copper shaggy hair to fly around his face.He rolled his eye's and muttered under his breath,

" Show off."

I know it was short and not my best but this chapter was a little hard for me to write. The next chapter will be easier, and it should be up sometime this weekend if I get the chance.

Send me a review.