Prologue | The End

Thick rain pounded the sun-cracked cement. Though it was a winter evening, a strange warmth hung heavy in the air. The stars shone brightly here in the suburb—the relative solitude had been why her parents had moved away from the city nearly thirty years ago. As she surveyed the night sky from the safety of her covered porch, she saw but did not look at the driveway. It was the only exterior hint to the elegance within her modest home. A cherry tree grew from a meticulously landscaped plot in the center of the driveway—that tree had always been one of her favorite features of the property, often climbing it or reading in its shade when she had been young. Only one car was parked in the driveway—a green hatchback several decades old. Though she felt that she had grown up in it, the car really belonged to her nanny.

The house may not have been overly ornate, but it was well-kept by the nineteen-year-old living there. She had her nanny, of course, to help with the upkeep—but she prided herself on taking care of the property largely alone. Years ago, she had resigned herself to the fact that her widowed father cared more for his frequent business trips than his daughter. She missed him while he was abroad for weeks at a time, however nothing that she said ever seemed to leave an imprint on him. She barely even knew him anymore. After the accident, he had disengaged from his duties as a father and threw himself deeply into his work. She forgave him that—but that didn’t mean that she didn’t miss him. She told herself that her father had lost his wife and son that day—but she had lost her father too.

She began to make her way out into the night. The rain ran rivulets down her back. Her black hair was worn in a braid that ran to her lower back. Normally loose, her hair was presently braided. The rain was refreshing despite the chill it set in her. There was something somewhat mystical to the night—it was when the stars came out and the sounds of the city faded. The hooting of the owls had always drawn her to spend time in the evening air, though not typically this close to midnight. However, tonight held a rare significance—to her, at least.

“It’s cold out here, April.” April jumped a little, having been so absorbed in her own thoughts that she hadn’t noticed her nanny join her outside. Nicole had always taken good care of April, and though only originally charged with it until April turned 18, she had decided to stay with her until she found another family—but April knew that Nicole wasn’t really looking for a new job. Now almost 19, April hadn’t known Nicole to have a single interview in all that time. April had urged her to look for a new family a number of times—but she never seemed to want to leave the house. Not that April objected, of course. It was nice to have a friend around, even if the woman was two decades older. It had been almost six years since Nicole had been hired and April felt an unspoken kinship for the older woman.

April looked to the woman as a daughter looks at her mother, nodded slowly, and spoke softly. “I know—but I want to be out here tonight.” Nicole looked back at April with palpable sorrow before nodding her head. Less and less strict now that April had become an adult, Nicole was quickly becoming the nicest person April knew. She was a paragon of kindness and understanding that April strove to one day achieve.

“Well, don’t let me distract you.” The woman walked to her car and opened the door, beginning to search for something. April smiled despite herself. She saw through Nicole’s thinly veiled disguise—the other woman knew the importance of this evening. And she also knew April wanted to be alone—for now—but would want someone to talk to when she was ready.

April’s smile quickly faded, however, as she turned back towards the open garage made from little more than planks of wood and corrugated metal. It had been designed to comfortably house two cars, though since her father had sold his car, the carport held only a motorcycle. With trepidation, she began to walk towards it. A wind began to pick up, born out over the ocean and blowing past the city before it played with the folds of her thick fleece pajamas and jacket. She noticed that the rain was turning into a light snowfall—yet she persisted. It truly was starting to feel cold, yet she knew the coming sadness would distract her from her own temperature.

Numbness began to set in as she approached the yellow sports bike. This was her brother’s most prized possession—at least it had been. Every year on this night, she spent some time sitting with it in the carport. She would pull up the rickety stool that had once been used to maintain the bike, pick up a rag, sit down, and begin wiping the dust off of it. For a moment, she sat in silence just cleaning the motorcycle. Then—with uneasiness—she did the only thing that could come next: she began speaking to the vehicle.

“Hey, Jason,” she began quietly enough that her voice wouldn’t carry to Nicole, “Guess it’s been another year, huh? I can’t believe how much harder it gets every year to cry. I miss you so much, but maybe after six years, I’ve finally cried you out.” She paused for a moment before posing a question: “Does that mean I miss you less?” The air was still. She sat in silence, cleaning the bike slowly and thoroughly as the snow fell but did not stick to the ground. Then she continued, now with a steady stream of tears and an equally unsteady voice. “I’ve… been taking classes to get my license on this old bike of yours. If it’s okay, I’d like to drive her around. It’ll make me feel closer to you, maybe. I don’t miss you less; I miss you more and more every day. I need to be with you… I need to be reminded of you.” “It’s so hard,” Nicole’s soft voice startled April once again. There was something about the night that made it difficult to notice people approaching. Nonetheless, April’s only major response was to stand up. “Life takes away our siblings and leaves us behind. And we can’t do anything about it.” April paused cleaning for half a second. Nicole was typically a rather cheerful person; it was rare for such sobriety to be present in the woman’s words. Then the words hit her. “You lost your brother too?” April’s voice was surprisingly steady. Nicole might not even know that she had been crying a moment ago, however she would not have minded if Nicole had brought it up. “My oldest sister. It was cancer, so we had a chance to say goodbye and arrange her affairs, at least. I know you never had that—but in some ways, I think cancer is worse. It’s all long and drawn out. In certain ways, it’s lucky that Jason died as quickly as he did. Less painful on his part—though more painful on yours…” she trailed off before hastily finishing with, “I don’t know; I’m rambling now.” She reached up to her face and wiped some tears away from her eyes. April hadn’t noticed the woman start to cry.

“Pain and goodbyes aren’t opposites.” April began. “I say goodbye to Jason every year. And it’s painful—but it’s a goodbye. Saying goodbye doesn’t erase the pain.” April regretted saying it—it sounded stupid and melodramatic now that it was out of her mouth, but Nicole nodded thoughtfully.

“I guess I never really thought about it like that.” A distant smile faded onto her face. “Thank you.” The two stood there silently for a moment looking at the motorcycle, and then silently embraced in a warm hug.

They split, and April chose to break the silence. “Do you want to help me wipe this down?” Nicole nodded and walked over to the cabinet with the rags in it, grabbed one, and began to walk back to the bike. Nicole bounced off the ceiling and landed on the ground with a loud crack. April blinked in horror and shock before she realized what was happening.

The earth lurched violently. She had been thrown into the driveway, but she was able to stand quickly, though she was uncertain of what to do. She ran back into the carport—towards Nicole. Her limbs were bent in abnormal directions, but if April could get her to the hospital, then maybe—a loud crack sounded from behind. April turned to see the tree that she loved so much land on Nicole’s car. Shards of broken glass sprayed across the cement. April put out a hand to a nearby structural beam just in time to prevent being thrown to the ground again from a second major tremor. Though the ground continued to shake, Nicole rolled herself over onto her back, favoring the compound fracture on her right arm. With her left hand, she tried to push herself up—and April was there to help her to her feet.

“We have to get out of here,” April said, not really certain how. The tree had fallen on the hood of the car, and even if they could both squeeze onto Jason’s bike, there was no way that Nicole would be able to hold on until they got to a hospital. She was out of her depth. She had to call for help.

April had left her phone inside—and Nicole rarely kept hers on her. Carefully, April guided Nicole to the stool, righted it, and sat her down in it. “Wait here,” she commanded as she turned to run inside—but never got the chance. Another large tremor sent them both to the ground again. April slid across the pavement, ripping her pajamas and skin. Nicole cried out in intense pain as she landed on her exposed bone. When April looked, pieces of the humerus were scattered across the ground.

That lurch had sent Jason’s bike sliding across the pavement too. April stood and began to stumble towards the house. There was an incredible pain in her ankle, but she knew she had to keep walking to get to a phone. That was when her house exploded, spewing burning wooden beams everywhere. Surrounding trees and houses were struck, and they began to catch fire. She was shocked. Everything from her life was now gone in the blink of an eye. Her father was out of the country. April was alone. She turned and stumbled back towards the carport. She still had Nicole.

She sat down next to Nicole, grateful to take some weight off of her ankle. “We’ll get you out of here. We’ll… I don’t know. I don’t know, Nicole!”

Nicole took a couple of jagged breaths and then said, “Go... get help. I’ll wait.” April nodded and was about to stand up again when Nicole said through gritted teeth, “In case you can’t come back, give my necklace to my sister. Tell her… what happened.”

April nodded and Nicole handed her the locket off of her neck. “Give this to… Chloe… My sister.” April placed the jewelry around her own neck before she crawled backwards. She could taste blood creeping down the side of her face and into her mouth, but she yet forced herself to stand up. She had to go get help. She moved towards the motorcycle. It had fallen on its side, and it was heavy—but she was able to right it with a struggle, barely paying attention to the scuffs it had sustained.

The ground shook less now but the fires were still burning. A heavy wind blew in, rattling the corrugated metal roof of the carport. Its shaking was the last that the beam could sustain. April watched in horror as the ceiling collapsed on Nicole. She moved back towards it, but the ground split open and sucked the lumber and cement and bone fragments into a deep chasm. Nicole was the last to fall in, but she had no life left in her. All April could do for a moment was stand there, next to the motorbike, surrounded by her destroyed life. Everything had happened so quickly that the gravity of the loss had yet to sink in.

A flash of white light brighter than the explosion drew her eyes. The sounds of destruction dimmed for a moment. April blinked and a woman stood in front of her. A white cloak hid her face, but light brown curls poked out from beneath the hood. April was transfixed. As the stranger stepped towards April, she reached out to April’s forehead with two fingers, whispering something—but the words didn’t touch the air. The words grew and manifested in the depths of April’s own mind. She knew, somehow, that they came from the stranger—for she did not know the significance of the words: “Darkness and Empathy.”

April blinked when the cool fingers touched her forehead. And just as suddenly, the woman was gone. It would have been a great luxury if April could have stayed to question what she had just been party to—but she lacked time to question it. The fires encircling her were beginning to crawl ever-inward. Exploring what had just happened would need to happen later. A second, smaller explosion a little closer to where she stood sent some of the cement flying. She instinctively covered her head with her arm as she knocked the kickstand up, mounted the motorcycle and sped towards the city.

Although the snow had stopped falling, the air rushing past her on the motorbike was quite icy. The air helped her ignore her scrapes, but she feared that she would hit a patch of ice on the road. April had to dodge the abandoned cars littering the road, too, as the fires continued to explode up from what must have been gas lines under the road. She wasn’t sure where she would go. The destruction was more far-ranging than just her property. It was as if a bomb had dropped on her town. With her careful maneuvering, she had almost no time or ability to plan what to do once she got into the city. She needed to find a hospital—or a police station—or a telephone—or some help—or... something. To be quite honest, she felt at the end of her abilities. She knew that she had to find Chloe. But she didn’t even know how to explain what had happened. Her head was beginning to hurt, and she was feeling the need to eat.

Suddenly she realized that there was some sort of large and shadowy canine keeping pace with her. It was more than canine—it was vulpine if anything. But it was larger. Its black hair was greasy and a pair of vibrant violet eyes peered from behind its shaggy coat.

April felt her hunger grow suddenly. She wanted to bite into a raw steak. She wanted to eat until she was stuffed. She pushed away the hunger. She had never cared for meat—why would she want some now? A second shadow wolf joined them on April’s other side for a moment before it lunged at a neighbor that she did not know. It began to dig into the human’s flesh. She felt both sad and fulfilled. She pushed that away. Why should she feel fulfilled? Suddenly a thought occurred to her—what if this wolf was waiting to pounce on her? She sped up to try to get away, but the wolf outmatched her pace. It was faster than she was, and soon disappeared around a corner, leaving April with no choice but to follow into the misty evening.

Leaning into a particularly sharp corner, she had to force the bike to come to a quick stop by spinning it perpendicular to the street—the wolf was standing still in the middle of the road. Its mysterious beady eyes stared back placidly into hers. April knew that her life was over. She would never be able to find this Chloe Parker. This was where it all ended. She would never see her father again—but perhaps she would soon be reunited with Jason. If that’s how death even worked. She had truthfully never thought much about it.

Then—suddenly—she realized that she wanted to find a way out of this. She needed to survive this. She had to try to get to her father, or wait for him to return to New York—though how? And where would he go? The vulpine creature cocked its head sideways as April’s confusion and anxiety began to overwhelm her. The wolf’s face was a mirror for her confusion. Then, with no real warning, the creature rushed at her. There was nothing that she could do. The creature’s mind was set and she had no way to defend herself. She gripped the bike’s handles more tightly and revved the engine, about to rush away as quickly as possible—ready to lead a chase.

The wolf rushed past her. The wolf had chosen to spare her life. With one last look back down the street—one last glance at the smoke rising from where her house had once stood—her resolve to get to New York City thickened. She may have had no idea how to find Nicole’s sister—and even less of an idea of how to explain what she had witnessed—but somehow she knew that she must meet these promises. Despite all that she had lost—somehow she had to go on. She was just grateful that Jason was with her.