Prologue

The road was completely silent. Nothing moved except for the tall grass swaying noiselessly in
the bitter wind, which was very unusual during the summer months in California. Slowly, a steady
screeching noise came around the previously empty corner. A small child, on a tiny red tricycle. She
laughed to herself, as her old tricycle seemed to struggle for another 10 feet. She pushed forward,
unwilling to give in to the old age and incompetence of her metal steed. However, with one last,
loud “Snap!” the bike stopped altogether.
The girl’s smile faded immediately as she dismounted and bent down to investigate the problem.
The tricycle had been her grandmother’s, and Grandma Ruth had ridden it when she was a child. It
was extremely old. It therefore, came as no surprise when she saw that the old, rusted wheel rim in
the front had broken off, rendering the little bike incapable of another ride. Pulling the broken thing
to the side of the dirt road, Cory realized that she was going to have to walk home. She had been
riding for half the day at least, and had no idea how far her tricycle had taken her; but without
another thought, she turned around, and made her way slowly in the direction of the corner she had
just come around.
She had been walking for what seemed like days, which in reality might have been a mere hour,
when shadows began to stretch menacingly across the gravel of the road, and Cory could see the
sun sinking nearer and nearer to the horizon. Just as she felt the first thread of fear sink in, she saw
headlights in the distance, and she scrambled to the side of the road to let the car pass. As the
headlights came closer, however, the car slowed and then pulled over to the side of the road
opposite to the spot where Cory was cowering. Her mind working quickly, Cory remembered what
her mother had told her countless times about talking to strangers. She wasn’t supposed to at all, but
what choice did she have? Maybe this stranger would bring her home.
A door opened, and a tall silhouette emerged. It glided towards her on silent feet. Before she
realized what was happening, the shadow of a person had picked her up by her waist, and was
carrying her back to the car, without a single word. Cory was terrified, but the stranger’s cold grasp,
and way she seemed to speak now, in a low, hurried whisper, kept her from uttering a sound. The
woman continued her strange murmuring as she opened the car door and climbed gracefully inside,
setting Cory on her lap. In the dim light of the car, Cory could see her captor now. The stranger had
stormy grey eyes, raven-black, waste-length hair and pale, white skin. Nothing about her
appearance was in the least bit comforting, but she was more beautiful than anyone Cory had ever
seen. Her hands, that now placed Cory in the passenger seat, with unsettling gentleness, were
perfect. The skin stretched tightly across them was oddly translucent, almost like wax paper.
Still without speaking aloud, the strange woman steered the car back onto the road, and began to
drive away from Cory’s destination, leading her even farther away from home.