CHAPTER FOUR

Here's chapter four. I badly want to introduce hunky Enzo as quick as possible. Enjoy.

(CHAPTER SONG: HUMAN BY CHRISTINA PERRI)

IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE THE MORNING LIGHT.

Somewhere deep in the woods, a group of people gathered around a bonfire. Each one held a torch of his own.

They all stood up straight, eyes focused on one and only one thing.

A woman.

She was visibly old and frail but maintained a stiff posture. She too held a torch of her own. She was dressed in a long black cloak that was clearly too big for her tiny figure.

She stood on an altar, facing the group of similarly dressed men and women.

"My fellow brothers and sisters," she called out, "I call upon you this night because I have made a frightening discovery last night.

"Through our fallen brothers and sisters I have been informed that far off, over the seas, across our boarders, there is darkness. A darkness never heard off nor seen in the history of mankind. It lives among the pure, disguised as an innocent human. That darkness has the power to destroy us all, to destroy the purity of this universe.

"It is OUR duty to prevent that from happening. It is OUR duty to rid the universe of such darkness. We must find it and destroy it whilst we can, fore there will come a time when we'll be incapable of that."

"Brothers and sisters I have been bestowed with a millisecond vision of the said darkness. She possesses eyes so blue it pierces any soul but most importantly she bares a mark, or will bare a mark. A mark that will convenience us a great deal. On her right arm she will bare a permanent mark of a rising eagle. The mark is no ordinary mark.

"She is no ordinary. We must start the search now. We must destroy her before she destroys us."

Shooting up straight Carter breathed heavily, clutching her t-shirt so very tight, and her horrific dream still playing in her head.

Only it wasn't a dream but more like a vision. Whatever she saw and heard was reality; a warning of some sort.

She only ever had such visions five times before, all coming as warnings of an oncoming danger. Although she didn't recognise the people or the place she dreamed of like before, Carter knew not to disregard this one.

It was real and she needed a plan and a quick one.

All in seconds Carter began to panic. Her body started shaking and her forehead and fingers became sweaty.

She didn't have the slightest clue as to how she should escape this. The possibility of being anything other than human was surreal to her.

How could she be anything else? How could she disguise herself as a human when she could swear upon her soul that she was one?

Carter was certain that she was not evil and she sure as hell wasn't a darkness looming over humanity. She began to doubt her vision.

Maybe it was just a nightmare, she thought. Maybe I'm just being dramatic.

After taking measured deep breathes she laid her head back down, not even attempting to go back to sleep because all her efforts would be futile.

After that night, Carter had no other vision or a dream connecting to it and she stayed firm on her conclusion that it was a mere nightmare. She convinced herself that she was safe for the time being. That she didn't have anything to worry about. She had to believe that or she was afraid she would lose her mind.

So she went on, clinging on to her wavering beliefs, desperately hoping that she was right, that she wasn't naïve or in denial.

So months went by without a single sign appearing to prove her wrong. She went on about her daily life as usual. School, work and home. That was her routine.

One month, two months, five months, ten months went without anything unusual taking place in her life.

Her senior prom as well as her graduation came and went. The day she dreamed of every school day was finally over meaning that she was free to attend any university she wished to with Mr Alvin promising to pay her costs all in all.

She still hadn't decided where she wanted to go but she had all summer to make up her mind. Her life was beginning to change for the better.

Until one day, exactly a month after her graduation.

She was just about ready to jump in the shower when the peripheral of her eye caught on something on her arm.

Slowly bringing her arm up; all oxygen ruthlessly abandoned her when she saw what caught her eye.

Right above her wrist, on the bottom part of her arm she bore a tattoo of a rising eagle, in what looked like dark black ink. It was so very visible against her pale skin. Carter was never fond of tattoos but most importantly she doesn't remember getting one.

Only one conclusion could be drawn from this.

Her worst nightmare was not just a nightmare. It was a vision, reality.