Hey everyone! How have you been doing? Long time, right? So as promised I have began working on The Cinder (Sequel to the Brooke). It's going really good and I'm pretty sure all those who loved The Brooke won't be disappointed with The Cinder at all.

I'm making a few changes in The Brooke for which I'll be re -editing and updating all the chapters by tonight. It is advised you read The Brooke once again before continuing on to The Cinder.

Some changes are minor while some our major. For example - Pinnacle Games has been changed to Pinnacle Race, Gleaning center is Glean Center now and also Ana calls Christian C instead of D (since everyone was confused about that.)

This is a sneak-peak from the first chapter of The Cinder. Hopefully I'll start publishing the story by next weak. Enjoy XD

Anastasia POV

I sat peacefully in the bright sunlight.

Soaking its warmth deep into my pores.

There was a time once when I took this natural resource for granted.

But not anymore.

After remembering my imprisonment into a deadly place for five months long, every time I saw sun glowing was like a gift.

A gift so vibrant, so pure, it made me almost kneel down and bow to the kindful rays.

The light, the warmth, the heat. It was so pure. So peaceful.

You never know the importance of simple things in your life until they are taken away from you.

Something like that happened with me when I was sixteen, baited into the rattrap of Brooke Mountain High School.

Technically it wasn't me who was supposed to go there.

It was my friend Mia, who didn't want to leave her new place at Los Angeles. So she decided to give her scholarship to me.

Because both her parents were rich lawyers, she was able to draft fake documents that proved me as her. Mia Fields.

I was thrilled to have such an opportunity... only to enter my worst nightmare.

The Brooke and the Pinnacle Race took more than just the lives of my friends.

It took away my sanity. My memory. And my love.

A heavy pain erupted in my heart just thinking of him.

Christopher Grey.

But what pained me more was his betrayal.

We were supposed to be together. Live together, fight together, die together and win together.

But during the final level, he threw me from the mountain peek with nothing but a glass chamber I was trapped into.

Oh, and also with the agonizing feeling of hurt and betrayal.

By some miracle I survived, came back home but in a different time zone.

Where I never went to the Brooke at the first place. Where the Pinnacle Race didn't happen.

Where I never remembered meeting Christopher Grey or anyone belonging to Brooke Mountain High School.

Four years later, it was my attraction towards Christian Grey, that led to a complicated series of events and triggered all these buried memories.

Which included being hit on my head with a rod, almost dying, having a nasty concussion with an ugly scar, a huge part of my head shaved and a brief period of amnesia.

Oh did I forget to mention that Christian and Christopher are twin brothers?

Yeah, that makes this mess a whole lot more complicated.

Christian and his family believed his twin brother had run away four years ago. Though Christian did have his suspicions.

In fact according to Jose, he had been to BMHS too. Under the same duration as us.

But his memories have still not been triggered.

Was it a way for all our minds to deal with the trauma or something done to us by those evil bastards?

Surely if they can send us back into time, have Jack Hyde (the guy who hit me) disappear in thin air, they can do almost anything.

But right now none of these problems bothered me.

There were times when all the questions, the worries, the plans would make my head burst up.

But this moment was not one of those.

A pale hand landed on my shoulder.

I turned to see her face.

Sunlight falling on her, making her skin glow like an angel's. Her dark hair showing their golden shade under the blessed rays.

She came to sit next to me, closing her eyes and doing what I was doing ten seconds back.

Soaking the sunlight.

"It's beautiful here." She said in a hush, not wanting to disrupt the peaceful quiet.

I nodded my head in agreement. I wanted to close my eyes back and face the sun but somehow I knew these moments with her were precious.

I didn't want to lose my time with her.

So I kept looking at her.

Lucy.

My friend from the Brooke.

My ally from the Pinnacle Race.

Lucy turned her head towards me, protecting her eyes with her hands from the bright light to see me.

"Have you found him yet?"

She was talking about Christopher.

"No I haven't." My throat felt heavy when I said those words. The effort made me feel like I was sleeping.

Which was strange since I was wide awake.

Lucy didn't seem to notice the strangeness in my voice.

She shook her and smiled at me.

"You need to find him fast. Time is running Mia."

"It wasn't me who left him at first place. Why should I go for him back?"

"Because it's not just you. I know you Mia, you never intended to find him for yourself."

She was right.

The moment I woke up into the hospital bed, all I wanted was to bring Christian his brother back.

Somehow his grief for living without his twin shadowed all my agony.

If I had to play hundreds of Pinnacle Race just to get him his brother back and put a smile on his face, I'd do it without wasting another breath.

Since the last few months I had known Christian, there has been this fierce need in me.

To value him, cherish him, protect him and make him happy.

I didn't know what it was going on between us.

No, actually I did know.

But I also didn't want to act upon it.

How weird would it be going from one brother to another?
That too twins?

God, I didn't want to be so shallow.

Not to mention how unfair would that be to Christopher, even though he was a big time asshole.
Even though he threw me brutally to my death.

Actually after that he did deserve it.

Why should I care for something as insignificant as his feelings after what he did to me?

But it wasn't just him.

It was Christian.

How confusing this all would be for him.

How could he not doubt that my attraction to him was only due to his similarities with his brother?

Hell even I doubted myself.

Given that I didn't remember anything about Christopher or the Brooke when Christian and I had first met.

But that didn't mean that it wasn't my sub consciousness trying to substitute Christian for Christopher.

Which made me disgusted with myself.

So I made the decision of whatever it was building up between me and Christian had to stop.

Not only for my sake but his too.

"I have to go. My time's up." Lucy's declaration brought me back from my musings.

I scowled. I didn't want her to leave.

I wanted her to be with me. Help me get through all this with her observing nature and her intelligent eyes.

I opened my mouth to protest.

It all happened so fast.

Someone came running behind her with an axe in his hand.

Before I could blink, the faceless person raised his arm high in the air and brought the axe down.

The axe landed straight across Lucy's head.

Turning her body headless.

He chopped her head off.

From the body.

One minute my friend stood smiling at me, next her head fell on my lap.

The blood gushed of the hollow throat.

Splattering on me.

I opened my mouth but I couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe.

My limbs were shaking. Body trembling. Yet I couldn't bring to move myself an inch.

I refused to see what happened just now.

My mind couldn't process it.

The faceless blurry person stood in front of me, his feature turning sharper now.

Cody.

It was Cody.

Excited for more? Let me know what you think of it by clicking on the review button below.

Love ya all,

Kaishi Springs xoxo