Preface:

The flashlight flew past Cole’s eyes, casting a white beam over his pasty features. His eyes flicked from left to right like a flighty rabbit. He had been hunted down since he’d left, and they’d finally backed him into a corner.
“Lance! Check the kitchen!” A gruff voice commanded, conjuring images of blood and death to mind.
Cole jerked in the pantry, desperate for a way out. This couldn’t be happening, not now, not when he was so close to escape. His panicked gaze fell on a rusty handle in the ceiling. It would make a lot of noise opening, but footsteps outside the door didn’t give him much choice. With great effort, he yanked it open and jumped up. Shouts of alarm sounded, and the pantry door was ripped off it’s old hinges just as the trapdoor closed. The shaft was small, and could barely fit Cole as he army crawled through it. He was nearing an opening as he heard the trapdoor bang open somewhere behind him. The young man swore, and scuttled towards the grate.
Prying open the rotting bars, he descended into the foggy night air, escaping certain death once again.

Chapter 1:

“Alissa! Are you coming or what?” I whipped my head around, searching for the person who’d called me. My best friend Lana was hanging out of her mom’s car, frantically waving to me. Her brown hair was flying madly around in the wind, and the sight was slightly comical.
“Yeah, hand on a minute.” I shoved my notebook into my already over-stuffed backpack and hopped off the railing. “Hey Lana, what’s up?” I asked, spitting my hair out of my mouth. She rolled her eyes at me, her slim body blocking the entrance to the car.
“Are you planning on taking all your books shopping?”
“No, are you planning on making me walk home?” I fired back. She laughed, and had a seat. “Thanks.” I clambered in after her, gagging slightly at the artificial pine smell that clung to the car. Trying not to breath, I took the seat next to her and buckled myself in. She immediately took out her iPod and handed me one of the tiny white earbuds. But the music she started playing sucked, so I shook my head and said, “No thanks.” Shrugging, she began mouthing the words to her song.
“Hi Alissa, how’s it going?” Came a voice from the front.
“Pretty good, thanks.” I replied to Lana’s mom. She turned around for a brief moment, her bubblegum pink lips stretching into a friendly smile. “
That’s great, dear.” I loved Lana’s mom, she was the sweetest thing since apple pie. There was only one real problem with her; she clung desperately onto her youth. I mean, she still shopped in the juniors section, had her hair dyed frequently and Lana told me that her mom was a hardcore advocate for plastic surgery.
“Lana sweetie, where to?” She asked loudly. Lana ignored her. “Lana? Uh, honey?” I nudged her, and with a huff she yanked out her earbuds.
“What mom?” She snapped.
“I asked where you wanted to me to take you.” Her mom repeated, her smile still as sweet as sugar. Oh, and another thing. Lana’s mom didn’t really know how to raise her daughter. It was hard to try and be a teenager while raising one, so she’d had to choose. And she chose to act more like a sister than a mom, which Lana hated with a passion. That is, when her mom was around. Her family had money coming out the wahzoo, and so her parents were away a lot on business.
“Ugh, I don’t know. I suppose we should swing by Alissa’s house so she can drop off her bag, which by the way Alissa,” She turned to me, “Is falling apart. You should really look into getting a new backpack.”
“Right, I’ll do that.” I said uncomfortably, knowing that I wouldn’t. My family didn’t have a lot of spare money lying around, due to the fact that my mom’s only profession was writing and she wasn’t very successful with that. It wasn’t her fault, she was a great writer, but no one would give her the time of day. Most of her books remained unknown, sitting pathetically on my bookshelf. I read her books repeatedly; the plots never seemed to grow old. My dad wasn’t with us anymore. He’d died a few years ago, and it was still really hard to think about. Without him to help support us, we barely scraped by.
“Then we need to go to the mall. It’s an e-mergency.” Lana continued dramatically.
“An emergency, huh? What do you need from there?”
“Stuff.”
“Like...?” Her mom prompted.
“Dresses! What’s with the third degree?” Lana exclaimed, looking put off.
“I just wanted to know what you were planning on spending my money on, sweetheart.” “Great, well now you know.” Lana settled back into her seat, ruffled. Rolling down my window, I breathed in the crisp winter air. I wanted out of this car. Luckily, we were soon pulling up next to my house.
“Come on in, Lana.” I invited her, nearly throwing myself out of the car. She eyed my little ranch house with disdain.
“Uh, no thanks. I’m just going to wait here.”
“Okay.” Sighing, I dragged my bag towards the house, alone. She never wanted to come in, and by now I should’ve accepted that fact. She was used to her mansion, and didn’t realize that size didn’t matter. I just hoped that she’d learn soon, because my house was one of my favorite places in the world. It should be, I stayed in it enough. You could say that I wasn’t very sociable, and because of that, I didn’t get out much.
“Hi mom!” I called, opening the door and depositing my backpack in the entryway.
“Hey munchkin!” She called back. I went into her room to give her a quick hug before leaving. My mom was sitting on her bed, typing furiously on her laptop. Her fiery red hair, exactly like mine except for without the curls, was messily pinned up on top of her hand. When I entered, she gave me a searching look. “Where are you running off to today?”
“How’d you know I was going somewhere?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe.
She gave a snort of laughter and turned back to her work. “It’s a mom thing. So, where are you going?”
I came in and sat on the bed next to her. “The mall. Lana wants to buy a new dress for the winter dance.”
“And you don’t?”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on going.”
My mom gave me a look. “Alissa, this is ridiculous. You need to get out more, mingle. You’ve always been a little shy, but ever since...well, it just has to stop.”
Pretending not to have noticed her slip, I gave a laugh. “You’re probably the only mom in the history of mom’s that has to force their teen get out of the house more.”
“Doubt it. Will you please go to the dance? For me?” She gave me a look that was impossible to resist.
“I-I don’t have anything to wear.” I protested weakly. In response, she leapt off the bed and grabbed for her wallet. Quickly, she counted out several bills and handed them to me.
“Mom, no, don’t...” It was too late. I looked at the bills in my hand, and my eyes nearly fell out of my head. “These are $50 bills!”
“Yeah, I don’t rightly know how much dresses can go for nowadays. I’d like the change back, though.”
“Sure, b-but-”
“I don’t want to hear it! Go have fun with Lana and buy a dress.”
Touched, I leaned over and gave her a hug. “Thanks mom, I will.”
“No problem. I love you!”
“Love you too!” I called over my shoulder as I left the room.


“No way! Nu-uh! Next! Put it back!” Lana vetoed every dress I picked up.
“What’s wrong with this one?” I cried, thoroughly exasperated.
“Look at the plunging v-neck. You’re not that type of girl, trust me.” Thoughtfully, she fingered a green silken dress. “I like the wrap around style...what do you think? Too clingy?”
“It’s fine, they’re all fine!” I told her.
“No they’re not. Don’t you care at all what you look like?” She debated over the dress for a few more seconds before hanging it back on the rack.
“Well, I did.” I muttered. Lana went through an entire rack of clothes, criticizing each one to death. “Lana, stop.” I finally burst out, stopping her latest tirade on an innocent looking purple dress. “What’s wrong with any of these?”
“Haven’t you been listening?”
“Yes, I have. You can’t be that picky, or you won’t ever find a dress that meets your radical standards!”
“Radical standards? Really, Alissa?” Lana raised an eyebrow.
“That’s so not the point.” I reminded her.
“Okay, well, this store sucks. Let’s try another one.”
“But we’ve been in four! My feet are getting really sore, here.” I griped, refusing to move. She smiled and bounced up and down. Clearly her own feet weren’t bothering her. “You know what they say, 5th time’s the charm!”
As she left the store, I groaned and got to my feet, following her. “Who says that?”
She continued on, ignoring me, but finally picked a store and darted inside. “Yes, the dresses in here are much better than they were in the others.” Lana said, seemingly satisfied with the array of clothes.
“That’s just dandy.”
She must’ve noticed the potent amount of sarcasm in my tone, because she rounded on me. “This is a fun experience! You better lighten up and enjoy it or you’ll never have any fun.” She hissed, her face inches from mine.
“Oh yes, and having you scream at me is so very much fun.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well it can’t be more fun than sitting here listening to you complain.”
“We haven’t sat down the entire time! You bounce around too much for that!” I retorted. Her glare was fierce, and it admittedly made me back down a little.
“You know what, maybe we should look for dresses separately.” I watched as she bit her lip.
“Fine. But don’t buy anything tragic!”
Laughing, I said, “I’ll do my best not to.” Then, finally, I made a break for the exit.

The mall was much bigger than I’d bargained for, and I’d gotten lost several times before finally finding a map.
“They need more of these.” I mumbled to myself, scanning the illuminated board. It listed a clothing store not too far from where I was, so I made that the first stop on the list. Walking in, I felt a good vibe. It was crowded, but the people seemed agreeable. At least they weren’t holding the clothes up to the light and criticizing them. I meandered over and began shuffling through a rack of dresses. Most of them were either too flashy or too frilly. But there were the rare few that once I touched, I couldn’t let go of. I had to decide on one, so I went for the one in my left hand. Dress in hand, I went over and shut myself up in the dressing room. I quickly stripped off my clothes and pulled the dress on over my head. It’ll probably look horrible on me...I don’t want to look. But I did, and-not to sound conceited-the sight in the mirror stole my breath away.
It wasn’t so much that I looked beautiful, just that it was so different from how I’m used to dressing. The dress cascaded down to my ankles, flowing with every movement I made. It was a silky silver material, like someone had captured moonlight and put it on a dress. The silver ended where a dark blue bodice laced up from the waist, making the dress strapless. My red hair, even up as it was right now, stood out in stark contrast to the dark colors, but in a good way. I could easily picture myself dancing in a garden under a full moon, skin glowing and hair floating around me. That was all it took-I had to have it. After changing back into my regular clothes, I went up to the cashier and paid for the garment. I only had $20 left over for my mom to have when all was said and done.
My bag hanging around my wrist, I left the store to find Lana. “Oh my God, sorry!” I cried as I ran into someone.
He barely took a step back when I hit him. When he looked at me, my heart skipped a few beats.
“It’s no problem, I didn’t see you.” He said. His voice was smoother than the dress I’d just purchased, and goosebumps spread up my arms.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
The boy, who looked to be my age, grinned. His entire face lit up with the one motion. It seemed impossible for his glacier blue eyes to become more gorgeous, but they did. “I think I should be the one asking you that. But, yeah, I’m fine.”
“Okay, good. Sorry, again.”
“It’s no problem.” With another smile, he continued on. I stared after him for a solid minute, slack-jawed. Whoever that boy had been, he made me feel something I hadn’t ever. I shook off my remaining shivers and strode off towards the highest retail store, where I correctly guessed Lana was.

After the day at the mall, and my mom going nuts over the dress I’d bought (she couldn’t stop gushing over it), I was pretty tired. I didn’t know how the dance tomorrow was going to go, but I felt somewhat more confident about my appearance. Butterflies dancing in my stomach, I turned off my bedside lamp and snuggled under my covers. One face haunted my thoughts though, as I drifted off to sleep. That boy. The boy with the icy eyes.