Post by NotAlice on Nov 1, 2010 14:55:41 GMT -5
I had a plan. I changed it yesterday. I didn't like it so I trashed that too today. I stared at a blank screen and thought what the #£*% am I supposed to write about? ... I think say last years plan lying on the floor and thought why not? So, it's white roses again, but by a different name, changing the people's names because I don't want a Piper and a Wyatt again, and it's hopefully going to have a few very different twist to it.
By December (hopfully *crosses fingers*) I'll be able to compare what I did last year to what I've done this year, and it'll be interesting to see since they're both from the same plan.
I've wrote the prologue though it is taken a - lot- from another book with my own bits added to it and jumbled around a bit. But it fits, it's a different angle to last years, and it's a start which I doubt I'd have made on my own and I'd still be staring at a blank screen without doing it. Cheating? I don't care. Here it is.
Prologue
Air hissed through the silence. Tendrils of smoke began to curl past the window seams, its color sickly, luminous.
Hayley O'Reilly tugged free one of the two white ash stakes strapped to her jeans and clenched it tight. On the opposite side of the room, a little girl slept on, oblivious to the smoky slivers of evil beginning to slip past the window. Hayley hoped that she remained unaware. Remained asleep and alive.
But if Leah’s premonition was right – and her grandmother’s premonitions usually were – this child would be the next to go missing. They’d done everything they could to prevent that. They’d nailed the windows shut, had cops patrolling close by, and warding stones had been placed around the child’s bed to prevent any form of magic coming close.
But these wards weren’t designed to stop evil itself – and that’s what was seeping into this room tonight.
Her stomach began to churn. Though she’d spent the last ten years hunting the rogue elements of the supernatural community who preyed on humans, she’d never come across anything that went after kids the way this thing did.
Had never met anything that did to them what this thing did.
Her hand clenched tighter around the stake and she could feel her knuckles turning white. Her breathing remained relatively steady and her gaze never wavered from the wisps of vile smoke.
Hayley was prepared to do anything she could to stop this child being the next addition to a long list of missing children that had been growing over the last few years, though if taken, this child would be only the second to go missing in England – the evil’s latest playground.
This child would not join that list.
The evil stayed low to the ground, hovering just above the carpet, almost blending in to the purple-y-grey color in the dim light of the room. It seemed to stop to get it’s bearings before makings its way towards where the young girl slept. If it were even possible, Hayley’s grip tightened further around the stake. Thankfully, the evil hadn’t noticed her yet. Or perhaps it had but merely considered her a nuisance rather than a threat. Whatever it thought, it headed in the opposite direction.
As it neared the bed Hayley hoped desperately that the warding stones would be of some use. She closed her eyes briefly, fighting tears, trying not to relive the moment the night before when they’d stepped into that old factory and found the body of the first missing child. She’d been missing for over a week and each passing day had made the chances of finding her alive grow thinner and thinner. She couldn’t have been dead long when they had found her; the small pool of blood beside her head was still sticky and fresh. The missing four year old, Leonie, had appeared completely unmarked except for two small puncture wounds on her neck, and a single slashed-through circle on her wrist that had become the killer’s signature mark. Though she had certainly been drained of blood, it was, however, not blood loss that had killed her; though it was only those who had been trained to focus their psychic talents would ever see that.
The evil had stolen her soul – had ripped it from her body between the beats of her heart. She had died quickly but in pain. Horrible, horrible pain. The evil had then drained her to make it look like that was how she had died. Either way, they could not simply go to the police and say they had found the body. Whether it had been a missing child or not, the secrecy of the supernatural world had to remain their top priority. Even the police who patrolled outside tonight knew no more than what they had been told in Leah’s anonymous phone call – which wasn’t a lot.
At the foot of the bed the smoke stopped and hovered. Hayley watched as it began to draw together. Find shape. It became a scantily clad male figure, darkness upon darkness, yet undeniably handsome, somehow.
While Hayley still couldn’t get her head around the thought of anyone wanting to harm a child so young, she still couldn’t deny that this man before her held the same sense of deeply entrenched corruption that she had felt in the bedrooms of every other child who had been taken.
The man stepped towards the child. Hayley tensed but fought the urge to move, sensing the show wasn’t over yet. Her fingers ached with the force of her grip on the stake though she still had no idea whether it would actually kill the soul sucking blood sucker or not. At the very least it would do some serious damage and allow her time to call for reinforcements.
A cold smile touched them man’s bloodless lips as he moved closer towards the child. The warding stones flared briefly from where they were hidden but stuttered out. Hayley made her move.
The soul sucker spun and snarled softly, and the malevolence in her dark eyes overwhelmed any lingering impression of beauty. With an inhuman growl he lunged for the child. Hayley flung her hand out, thrusting a ball of kinetic energy to try and throw the man away from the child. It bounced off the wards.
The man laughed, cold and heartlessly. Hayley stood almost grief-stricken. Her own magic had failed her. Her attempt to keep the child safe had only succeeded in keeping the villain safe, and putting the young girl in more danger. Her eyes met his. In the dark depths she saw the promise of retribution. A chill chased through her soul.
The man’s form began to disintegrate again and he lunged over the child. The girl began to fade with him. Hayley let out a cry and threw the stake towards the fast fading form. It passed straight through, hitting a mirror and shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces. A commotion could be heard from the bedroom across from the child’s. Hayley panicked.
Smoke, more than there was before, drifted back out of the cracks in the window frame.
Hayley glanced toward the bedroom door. Hurried footsteps were drawing nearer. She needed to get out. Beyond the window she could see the smoke of it climbed over the neighbouring fence. There wasn’t a policeman in sight.
She fumbled with the window catch but, of course, it was useless as she had made sure to nail it down earlier. There was only one option left. She took two steps back, breathed deep, and ran, throwing another blast of kinetic energy towards the window. The sound of smashing glass matched the sound of the door being slammed open. As she hit the ground the screaming began.
Hayley didn’t wait to see if she’d been seen, she merely ran and the fence, scaling it easily. She could still make out the shape of the smoke ahead of her as she sprinted down the alley, her footsteps a lone echo in the empty night.
Ahead, street lights shimmered and traffic rolled. The evil turned into another side alley and Haley followed. The creature she chased wanted seclusion and darkness – at least for the moment.
))
