Book 1 of "The White Deer" duology

~ The White Deer ~

By Firecrackerwolf

For my grandmother,
Who always loved and supported me, even through the darkest of times.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away

~ Maya Angelou

Prologue

Arrowhead, California

9/15/1963

9:23 pm

It was a dark night out on the streets of California, and for seventeen-year-old Gemina, she was driving in her turquoise Chevy to her boyfriend's house. She was wearing a white sleeveless blouse, a light blue pencil skirt with a brown belt, and black flats. Gemina Kellgers was a charming young lady with wavy chestnut hair, icy blue eyes, and rosy-pale skin. Not only was she lovely, but she was someone a lot wished to be-well, some at least. She had good grades in high school, had perfect attendance, had the voice of an angel in glee club, played the piano, and had a handsome boyfriend.

At least in Gemina's perspective, the night was still young, and she wanted to surprise Josh. Josh's parents were out of town for the weekend, and she figured why not spend this whole weekend with her boyfriend while she could? She didn't have anything going on, and this gave her an excellent opportunity to spend some quality time with Josh. Once she got there, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with him, but she guessed they could watch something on T.V. and what better way to watch some T.V. than have a snack to go with it? Gemina wanted to do something sweet and bake Josh some homemade brownies, and it was definitely a good snack for watching T.V.

As Gemina was driving, she listened to Elvis Presley's music and was a massive fan of his music. She could listen to his songs all day nonstop, and they never got boring. Who wouldn't love The King of Rock 'n' Roll? His songs always got Gemina in the groove, and she even managed to memorize most of them, and because she did, she would always manage to sing the lyrics like they were in the back of her head. Gemina tapped her hands on the steering wheel like they were bongos, and as she was, she sang loud and proud in a good mood. She was very excited to surprise Josh, and she hoped that tonight would be perfect, and what made things even better was a full moon revealing itself in the sky. What could go wrong?

Right as the song she was listening to was coming to an end, Gemina pulled her Chevy into Josh's driveway, and when she did, she turned the engine off. Gemina smiled towards the house, and as she did, she could already imagine Josh smiling at her brightly when he saw she came. She knew how much Josh loved surprises, and that was exactly what she tended on delivering on this very night. Gemina got out of the Chevy with the tray of brownies in the passenger seat, and after she closed the door, she strode towards the house. Instead of going to the door, she made her way towards one of the windows to see if she could catch a glimpse of Josh, and she went to the one that had a view of the living room.

What she saw, however, made her breathing stop.

On the living room couch, Gemina saw Josh, and he wasn't alone… he was making out with someone. Gemina's eyes widened as she saw the girl Josh was making out with pull his shirt over his head, and after she did, Josh's abs were now seen, and they were perfect. At first, the shocked teenager wanted to believe that she was seeing things, but no, she wasn't. The sight before her was clear as day and she wanted to collapse to the ground more than anything at that moment. Josh was supposed to be her boyfriend, but now he was cheating on her with someone else. How could he do this to her?

As the two continued to make out, Josh grabbed the girl's sweater and started to pull it over her head, and as he was, Gemina couldn't bear to look anymore, and she turned away and began to storm towards the door. When she got to the door, she expected it to be locked, but as soon as she went to open it, it surprisingly wasn't locked, and she didn't hesitate to march right into Josh's home. She made her way into the living room, and when she did, she saw Josh's abs were now pressed against the girl's stomach as they continued to make out, and just seeing them continue to make out disgusted Gemina more than anything. "You cheating asshole!"

Josh and the girl he was making out with jumped, startled and tore away from their make-out session, and when they did, Josh's eyes widened when he saw Gemina. "Gemina!"

Gemina didn't get a good look at who Josh was making out with, but when she got a good look at her, she saw Desiree, one of the cheerleaders. Looking at Desiree was almost like looking at a Barbie doll and the fact that Josh cheated on her with Desiree felt like her heart dropped to the pits of her stomach. However, as Desiree looked at Gemina, she didn't seem to have minded what she had done, and it was so typical of that cheerleader to kiss any handsome guy. Seeing them both together, however, was like going through a nightmare.

"Hi, Gemina," Desiree spoke proudly. "It's so sad you had to find out this way. Josh is a great kisser, though, wouldn't you agree? Just too bad you won't be feeling those lips of his anymore." She then giggled.

At that, Gemina's fingers tightened around the brownie tray-which wasn't covered. She then sent the tray flying at the two, and when she did, brownies scattered all over the place and even stuck to Josh and Desiree, and when they did, Josh and Desiree cried out in surprise. Desiree got up and started to yell at Gemina for ruining her outfit, but Gemina didn't care at that moment. "Hope you're both happy! You deserve each other!" Gemina shouted then made her way out the door.

As soon as Gemina got outside, she started to make her way to her Chevy, but before she could take another step, she felt someone grab her hand, and she whipped her head over her shoulder to see Josh trying to stop her, and he had his shirt back on. "Hey, come on-"

"Don't touch me!" Gemina then snatched her hand away from Josh and then continued to make her way to her Chevy.

"Let's just talk-"

"No!"

"Just for one second!"

"Leave me alone! I don't want to hear it!"

"Come on, let's talk about this!"

Gemina got in her Chevy, and when she did, she slammed the door, and as soon as the engine came to life, Gemina pulled the Chevy out of the driveway as fast as she could, continuing to ignore Josh as he continued to try and reason with her. When she was as far as she could get from Josh, she started to feel the tears run down her face, and it wasn't long until she began to weep as she continued to drive. She couldn't let Josh and Desiree see her crying, and having to hold back those tears from them was one of the hardest things she'd done yet. The poor teenager never would've imagined Josh cheating on her, and she always thought that they would've been together for a very long time. How could she have been so blind? Tonight had to of been one of the worst nights of her life… All she wanted to do now was go home.

As Gemina continued to ball her eyes out, she heard a tap on her windshield, and when she looked up, she saw a single raindrop slowly drip down like honey from a honey stick, and as soon as she saw that raindrop, her breathing began to become shallow. She hoped that it wasn't what she thought it was as it was the last thing she needed on this very night. However, her fears began to come true as the raindrops increased, and it wasn't long until heavy rain kicked in. Her hands began to slowly shake as her gaze was fixed on the rain, and she barely had her icy blue eyes on the road, and just looking at the rain was slowly bringing back something she wished not to remember. All Gemina wanted to do was look away, but she was too frightened to look away. Her heartbeats began to increase rapidly, and their beats followed along with the pattern of her breathing like the music she usually played on her piano. Gemina could barely find it in herself to move, especially as she was driving.

The turquoise Chevy began to swerve a little on the road, almost as if Gemina could've been drunk. Usually, she would've been able to drive on the road without a problem, but as of now in this weather, her driving was not looking too good… especially as she was now nearing a cliff.

At that moment, it was almost as if the icy blue-eyed girl just forgot about everything that happened a while ago and could only think about seeing what she saw. She barely noticed the Chevy speeding towards the cliff, but when Gemina finally noticed she tried to stop the car but it was too late. The Chevy was sent plummeting down the cliff and into the cold lake, and as it was, Gemina screamed. It wasn't long until the turquoise Chevy splashed into the lake, and when it did, it started to sink very fast since the windows were down. As everything around her began to fill with the cold water, all Gemina could do was freeze, and as she did, not only was the Chevy ultimately underwater now but so was she.

Gemina couldn't snap out of the state she was in, and because she couldn't, her life was now on the line. She didn't try to unbuckle her seatbelt, and she didn't try to get out of the car… all she did was sit frozen in her driver's seat. The icy blue-eyed girl could slowly feel as the water was burning inside her like an explosion was happening, but that wasn't powerful enough to snap her out of the state she was in. Not even a single sound was powerful enough to make its way out of the water for someone to hear.

Ever before her eyes, the icy blue-eyed girl saw as memories flashed before her eyes, and as they did, her life slowly drained like she was more of a pipe. She was too weak at that moment to even try to save herself, and nothing at that point would shake her to snap out of it... She was all alone with lacking beats of her heart.

The Chevy hit the lake's bed, and right as it did, the heartbeats faded into nothing but silence… The beating was never heard again.

The forest was asleep, and all seemed quiet and peaceful with nothing out of the ordinary happening… At least from what it looked like.

In the lake, something strange began to happen. At first, it looked like it usually did: steady and peaceful, but slowly something began to shine brightly, and little by little turned white. The water's surface looked like some sort of magic as it was formed in a big-looking circle, and it looked stunning. It was almost like the circle in the lake was trying to develop into a shining eye.

Then, something shot out of the lake and skyrocketed towards the sky that had the full moon. It was a ball of bright white light, and it almost looked like it could've been a piece of the full moon. When the glowing orb was barely seen in the sky, a splatter of light coursed. Then, a bigger ball of bright white light was sent plunging towards the forest floor away from where the humans were, and as it was, it looked almost like a shooting star. It was a sight to behold, and it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen.

After some time, the ball of bright white light then crashed to the surface, and when it did, the light enveloped a tiny part of the forest, and a gust of wind blew in all directions and almost sounded like a yowl. Trees creaked back as leaves twirled in many directions as it all happened, but the light and the wind eventually died down, well, almost for the light. On the forest floor, the bright light continued to dim slowly, and as it was, a figure was slowly forming, and it wasn't long until the light was gone and the figure was now seen.

It had four legs, a coat that was white as snow and looked very majestic. Lying on the ground with its eyes closed was a deer, and it was no ordinary deer. This deer was something more than that… something no one would've ever expected.

A/N- First of all I would like to say that if you took the time to read this then I thank you for that! This has been a fanfic I thought that I would never start on, but here we are now with my prologue for this fanfic! I love this movie, the sequel, and the books by Felix Salten so much and I'm super glad that I could finally have the chance to work on this! This fanfic is also dedicated to my grandma, as you saw above, and she has been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, and it was pretty hard for me to hear, but no matter what happens to her I'll always love her and she is the best grandmother anyone could ask for. Thank you once more for taking the chance to read this and I hope you continue to read it ^^