[ A man runs through the forest holding a woman in his arms, screaming and crying out for help.
"Help! Help us, please!"
His foot gets caught between the vines and the leaves below them, their bodies fall to the ground.
...and then, there was silence. ]
[ November 25th, XX35]
"Thank you for agreeing to watch Elaine today." Amanda Foster, said in gratitude as she let her mother in the door .
"Of course sweet pea, she's getting older so it shouldn't be too difficult. Soon she'll be old enough to stay on her own from now on."
"Yes, she has grown quite fast." Linden Foster agreed as he took Samantha's coat and hung it on the rack beside the door.
"Maybe you can sign her up for the institute Linden, in just a few years she'll be twelve and eligible to enroll. Amanda went there, she can tell you just how good it'll be for Elaine."
"Yes, well let's not forget mother, it's good as long as you never get in trouble. I find the Headmistress to be a bit too harsh in regards to punishment." Amanda said sternly.
"I still have scars from the whippings the woman gave me when I was a child."
"And you turned out wonderful dear! Tabitha Green is a powerful woman who knows what she's doing. She does what's necessary to keep the children safe and obedient."
"Yes, we hear you mother… We best be on our way now." Linden said as he gave his mother-in-law a hug.
"Alright, don't let me stop you. Be safe now you hear!"
"We will. See you later!" Amanda called back from the driveway before entering the car with her husband.
"You know honey, I don't see why we couldn't have just spent this anniversary at home like we usually do." Linden said as he started the car and pulled out of the driveway.
"Oh please Linden, you just don't want Elaine near my mother."
"Well, I'm just protective, is all."
"No, you think she's crazy."
"What and you don't? You grew up with the lady you should know better than I do. She's always talking about those vigilantes like their beliefs are real!"
"Look, I may not have met a bound before but there's no reason for me to doubt her own experiences Linden."
"It's just a bunch of labels to describe mentally disturbed criminals, Farla. They aren't on some predestined path to heaven!"
"It's not like my mother likes them either."
"Yes, but she believes they have powers, so there's a difference. I don't want her teaching that crap to Elaine, Amanda. She's already come to me twice asking if the Bounded are real and if she'll get a mark soon. You should've seen her, she was terrified - as if the boogie man had come to eat her!"
"Listen, I understand, but my mother was the only one who had free time this afternoon. If there was anyone else I would've asked them. Please, let's leave this topic for later. I'd like not to fight on our anniversary."
"Yeah, well, that is how we met."
"Ah yes, sir delinquent."Amanda said, causing Linden to laugh.
"Oh come on! you know you loved the bad boy vibe I gave off in college."
"Pft, sure keep telling yourself that."
"Yes, I think I will." The couple shared a laugh before Linden was distracted by his wife's screaming."
"Watch out!"
Linden had only seconds to react. The wheels screeched as he avoided a drunk driver moving in the wrong lane. Unfortunately he wasn't able to avoid going off of the road and into the forest. They crashed into a tree and the impact caused them to go unconscious, by the time they awoke they were no longer in the car but had been dragged out further into the forest. By who was left unknown.
Linden looked over at his wife to see that she was still unconscious.
"Amanda, Amanda wake up!" Her face felt as cold as ice and her breathing had stopped. But, there was no major injury to be spotted aside from a few cuts and bruises that had likely been gained from the crash.
"Amanda!" He yelled giving her another body fruitless shake before he picked her up and began to run.
"SOMEONE HELP, HELP US, PLEASE!" He screamed.
[ December 5th, XX35]
"Oh, my God!" A woman yelped as she backed away from the casket.
"You can't even make out their faces!"A man beside her said.
"Mama, Papa? Answer me!"
"Elaine…please stop sweetie, they're dead." Samantha Groves said to her granddaughter, a nine year old girl whom she held in her arms at the funeral.
Elaine struggled to be released from her grandmother's grasp, tears flowed from her eyes and her voice grew louder with the reluctance to accept what was being told to her. "No, no they're not! Stop lying to me!"
Samantha shook her head as she grasped Elaine tighter to keep her from reaching into the casket.
Everyone kept silent as they watched Samantha calm Elaine down.
"Why...Why did they have to die?!"
"Because… Because sometimes good people… They're hurt by those who don't act with kindness in their hearts."
"Tell me who killed them!" Elaine sobbed angrily into her grandmother's arms.
"No, Elaine, anger like that will only set you on the path of revenge. You must learn to put their deaths behind you, we must not shift the blame my dear."
"So, I should blame myself then?!"
"No, heavens no, your parents wouldn't want you to put the blame on yourself - especially, since you had nothing to do with the reason why they died. "
"Then someone tell me who killed them!" They all hesitated to answer the question, Samantha especially. She didn't think telling Elaine would benefit her, especially with the psychopath still out on the loose.
She wanted Elaine to have a normal and happy childhood, but that was ruined the moment her parents were butchered to death by some deranged Bound. The wars were too close and Samantha didn't want Elaine to have anything to do with it at such a young age.
Elaine looked her grandmother in the eyes, they were red from the tears she was still shedding.
And the question Elaine asks next will only cause more tears to fall.
"Will we… Are they going to kill us one day?"
Samantha tried to remain strong for her granddaughter but that question just ate away at her soul.
So it was Elaine's uncle, Griffin, who answered for her instead.
"We all have to reach our limit one day, Elaine. Death is not something we can avoid; but no, that doesn't mean we'll let whoever did this hurt anyone ever again, trust me on that.
[ March 21st, XX45]
"Elaine!" Elaine blinks, as she's taken out of her stupor.
"We gotta run, they're here!"
"What?!"
"Hurry up!" Hannah yelled as she tugged on Elaine's arm, forcing the blonde to get up from the log she was sitting on - to stumble into a run for her freedom.
"Stop running you two!" One of the teachers pursuing them yelled.
"Damn it, shouldn't they be teaching a class or something?!" Elaine grumbled as she continued to follow Hannah through the dense forest - filled with fog.
"Hey, do you hear that Elaine?"
"Hear what?"
"Running water, I think there's a waterfall - NEARBY!" Hannah screamed as the girls plummeted down a waterfall by at least a one hundred foot drop.
Hannah opened her eyes beneath the water, about to make her way up when she noticed that Elaine was struggling to make her way to the top.
Hannah pushed with all her might to get to the other girl and swam them up to the surface.
"I-I can't - I can't swim!" Elaine managed to cough out before she fainted.
"Elaine? Elaine are you alright?!" Hannah asked as she tried to slap Elaine awake, only for her to notice the blood on the girl's temple.
"Shit, did you hit your head on something?!" Unable to receive an answer Hannah swam them both to shore.
A few chest compressions later and Elaine stirred awake.
"You feeling alright?"
"No, not really."
"...Turns out water and paper don't really mix all that well. The map is useless now and I have little idea where we are because of all this fog."
"So what the hell are we supposed to do now?"
"Stay hidden until the fog clears and try to make our way into the nearest town."
"But I thought you said it's too dangerous to go out in public."
"We don't really have a choice right now. We just need to be there long enough to know where we are. We have to get there fast to beat the winter, otherwise we might freeze to death."
"Winter's in like, seven months. You think we'll be out here for that long?!"
"Yes, the country's boarder will take us approximately eight months by foot, though... If we get ourselves a horse before then we'll be able to get there a hell of a lot faster."
"You mean, we're gonna have to steal it?"
"Yes, such is the cost of being a refugee, we're left resorting to the ways of the Bounded. Of course our mission is way more selfish and in no way heaven sent."
"I'm not sure about this."
"Well, do you have any brighter ideas?"
"I didn't want to escape just to become a refugee."
"So what exactly were you planning?"
"I dunno, just, not this."
"Look I said it before the only way out of this is going back to the institute, if that's what you want then stay here and get caught, just don't rat me out along the way."
"Wait, where are you going!?"
"To get myself a horse!"
"Wait, hold on!"Elaine shouted to Hannah's irritation as she stumbled after her.
"Keep your voice down would yah! I don't know where they are!"
"Okay but it's just- why are you so hell bent on staying out here?"
"Elaine, you might be okay with the laws of this country but I'm not! I haven't done anything so they haven't locked me up yet. But being gay is a crime here Elaine, so is having bounds as friends and if I want to study them I'll have to get close to them."
"So you do think they have abilities."
"I think there has to be more to them than just some ideology. Something big enough to cause the Officials to hate them so much "
Hannah paused in her footsteps and shushed Elaine in the process.
"There's no need to be so quiet, girls." The voice that spoke caused the girls to gasp in dismay.
"So, that was why you left Hannah. I am quite disappointed in you I must say, and dragging Elaine into your mess as well, you should be ashamed of your actions."
"Mr. Kendler." Hannah said as she turned to see their coach standing behind Elaine with his hand latched onto her shoulder.
"Please don't make us go back!"
"You have no other choice girls." Elaine furrowed her brows, why wasn't she given a choice? She didn't understand why she was forced to oblige by their rules!
Hannah let out a frustrated grunt when she noticed Elaine wouldn't put up much of a fight.
"Grr, fine then." Hannah growled out before sprinting off into the forest.
"Get her!"
"We're on it!" Someone from the bushes yelled before hurtling after Hannah.
"Come on Elaine, we're going back, your Grandmother was very worried about you."
Elaine pursed her lips in anger. "Yeah, I bet she was."
Meanwhile Elaine couldn't help but feel betrayed by her grandmother.
[ March 21st, XX45]
"Poor girl, you know you really shouldn't go back there. You just don't belong with them."
Elaine gasped awake in a cold sweat.
"You don't belong." These words from an unfamiliar voice echoed quietly in her head. She looked around her room within the institute and sighed as the echoes went from faint, to silent.
"Should I have come back here?" Elaine asked herself as she got up from her bed and changed into her uniform. She didn't feel like getting ready nor like getting up for that matter, but just like most things in her life, she didn't have much of a choice.
As Elaine turned from her bed to open the door she spotted something outside her boarded up window.
"What the hell? Is that... is that an A?" She said to herself as she looked out at the tree branches that seemed to be placed in just the right position to spell out an A.
"Okay, uh… Either I've gone insane or this is just, weird?" Elaine said as she back away from her window.
"I'm just, gonna… Ignore that."
"Follow it!"
Elaine gasped and ran out of her room in a panic.
"Yeah, I'm definitely going insane." She said to herself before making her way to class. Her hand on her chest, feeling her racing heart.
