• Chapter 1: Loss And Discovery

    The young girl stood outside in the pouring rain. She stared at the sky, wondering ‘Why me?’ Less than an hour ago, she had been on her way home from school. She was a sophomore in high school, and had been having a bad week. She couldn’t wait to get home and lock herself in her room.

    When she got home, it was eerily quiet. She went into the house, and saw a horrible image; her mother was lying in a pool of blood. The girl rushed to her mothers side and slowly turned her over, exposing the damage of the wounds in her mother abdomen.

    “Mother?” she asked slowly.

    “Levina…” her mother said softly.

    “Mom!” Levi yelled, chocking on tears.

    “Levi… I love you…” her mother whispered before she closed her eyes forever.

    “Mom!!” Levi screamed, no longer holding back her tears. She held her mothers body close to her. Her mother was the only family she had left. Now that she was gone, Levi was all alone. She ran.

    That’s how she ended up here, crying in the rain. Levi fell to the ground and started sobbing uncontrollably. A hand touched her back, when she didn’t respond; she was taken up into a pair of warm, gentle arms. She cried on the strangers shoulder for a long time, until she ran out of tears, and was only producing dry sobs…

    The stranger picked her up and carried her slowly into a house, careful not to disturb her and send her into another round of sobs. Levi looked up, seeing the stranger for the first time. She couldn’t see his face, the lighting was bad in the house, but she could see dark hair and pale skin.

    “Wh-Who are you?” She chocked out. Her throat had been rubbed raw from all her crying.

    “My name is Unis…” The man said softly, like if he spoke louder, it would frighten the girl.

    “My name is Levi…” she responded softly, thinking it would be wrong to keep her name from the man who had shown her so much kindness.

    “So… Would it be wrong to ask why you were crying?” He asked, looking at her with a look of pure curiosity. Levi went deathly still. The little color that was there drained from her face. Her eyes went to the floor and stared blankly, trying not to overflow with tears.

    “It’s ok, I’m sure-” Levi cut him off abruptly

    “Don’t say it’s ok! It’ll never be ok never again… You didn’t see her, lying in a pool of her own blood! You didn’t hear the pain in her voice as when she said her goodbye…” Levi put her head in her hands, upset because she was over come with the memories of finding her mother, and because she had yelled at the man who was so kind to her. Yet, in a way, she felt better to have gotten out all of the emotions that she held inside. Now she was slowly being over come by numbness. She felt calmer, slightly. Unis put his arms around her in a gentle hug. Levi leaned against him and closed her eyes, the numbness almost completely consuming her.

    “I’ll show you to your room. From the looks of it, you don’t have a place to stay.” He said, answering her questioning glance at the mention of a room.

    “Thank you…” Levi bowed her head in respect and thanks, the rest of her body completely numb. Unis walked her to her room and showed her around. To Levi’s surprise, the room was for a girl. It was large, lager than her old room. It had a full bathroom connected to it. The walls in the room were a dark maroon with black lining. The room had matching maroon carpet and a large bed on the far wall. The bed had black covers, and no head or back board. On the wall that went into the bathroom was a make-up counter with a huge mirror. There was a closet off to the right of the door. Unis lead Levi to her bed and helped her sit down.

    “Do you want to go get your things, or do you want me to get it?” He asked her.

    “Could you get it? I need to make plans for the funeral…” She answered meekly.

    “Funeral?” He asked.

    “Yes, my mother was murdered, and I don’t want to leave her lying on the floor…” Levi answered a small amount of venom in her voice.

    “Don’t you want to catch whoever murdered your mother?”

    “No. I’ll let them live with the fact that they killed an innocent woman.” She replied.

    A Few Months Later…

    After the funeral, Levi started living with Unis and his younger brother Alfraun. Alfraun was sixteen and homeschooled by Unis, who was nineteen. Levi stopped going to the public high school, and began going to an online high school. It had been nine weeks since her mother had died.

    “LEVI!!” Al yelled as he bounded into her room. Although he was older than her, Al was still a child inside and out. Al bounced on Levi’s bed, trying to get the lap top away from her.

    “Al!” she yelled, but her anger melted into laughter at his cuteness.

    “Al, I swear, I’ll never finish high school until you give it back! Plus, I won’t be able to help you with your home work!” she yelled. That got his attention. She started giggling as the look of pure terror and sadness appeared on his face.

    “But Levi-chan! I wanna play!!” He looked at her with puppy-dog eyes. It almost worked.

    “Al, let me finish my home work, and then we’ll play.” Levi told the boy.

    “Alright…” Al got up and walked out of her room, closing the door behind him. Levi put down her computer and got up. She was actually already finished with her homework, and had just needed an excuse to get rid of him. Levi picked up her pillow, sticking her hand under where it had been, and began moving what was under it. It was starting to become full and she could see the tips of small used razor blades sticking out. They all had dried blood on their edges. She looked at them with sad, disgusted eyes. She looked at her mothers picture as she threw all of the razors into the trash can.

    Levi picked up her mothers picture and went into the bathroom. She put her mother’s picture on the counter and picked up a new razor. She sat on the edge of the bath tub, her feet inside and her arms dangling, in case she made a mess. She placed the sharp edge of the razor on her upper thigh, and dragged it slowly across her pale skin. A line of crimson appeared. A piece of pain disappeared. She carved into her leg until it was a bloody mess. She had long before stopped feeling pain. She brought the blade up to her arm and started dragging it. When she was done, she noticed that the word “ALONE” was carved into the flesh of her left arm. She started feeling dizzy, her head was light. The blood dripped into the tub, which was a half inch full of crimson. She looked to the walls to see that they had splatters of blood on them; her blood. There was a crash. The door flew open. She was so light. She felt like she was floating. Unis was there. She saw herself lying in the bathtub, blood everywhere. Levi was on the ceiling, floating higher and higher. She saw Unis check her bloodied wrists for a pulse. She saw him quickly rip pieces from his shirt and wrap them around her arm and legs. She was going down toward her body. ‘No!’ She thought, she didn’t want to go back! She was so close! She was happy like this, so light and carefree. She was being pulled closer when the force let up a little and she was able to go higher. Unis looked worried. He picked her up and ran towards her bed, laying her on it and picking up her wrist, searching for a pulse. He found one, but it was shallow and weak. She wasn’t going to make it. In a rash decision, he picked up her head, exposing her neck. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her neck and opened his mouth. Then, he bit. Levi was back in her body, and she was on fire. She was experiencing pain so excruciating that she couldn’t take it. Levi heard screaming, like that of someone in such horrible pain, anyone with a heart would kill them. Then she realized the horrid sound came from her. The pain eventually subsided a little, then Levi was overcome by cold. She passed out.