The Secrets of Autumn · Prologue

Chapter 1 · November Stark · November
As soon as my eyes flip open I smell something burnt. I sit on top of my new bed and look around for any trace of anything burning with no avail. I shrug it off ang go back to sleep again. However, curiosity wins over me and I can't stand trying to sleep with that feeling.

I get up and wince at the cold marble floor, it was too cold, at least for what my memory recalled. It stings. I look down to see anything weird at all, but I just notice some fragments that seem to ice shards. When I blink they dissappear and some cold water takes its place. I'm in a puddle.

Maybe I was just having some of my common morning hallucinations. Nevertheless, I hadn't had one since... well... since the incident. I didn't really believe would have another one to be honest. I tiptoe through the floor toward the door, careful not to wake anyone from their sleep.

I suddenly see smoke coming into the room. The smell becomes horrendous, as if rotting flesh and scorched bodies were mixed together. The scent is stronger every second. My heart pounds faster, as if it was trying to fly out from my chest.

When I reach the doorframe, I look to the left, through the dense smoke: nothing. Then, as my eyes turn toward the right, I wish that my head wouldn't make that move.

What my eyes see its horrible: a girl is laid down on coals set on fire in the middle of the living room. Her delicate fingers around a bouquet of black roses with thorns, her hands bleeding. I feel like I could save her, heal her, I really do, but that's impossible, she is already dying, her face is red and splotchy, and her dark hair is burning slowly. What probably spooks me the most is that she is lying still, not moving or screaming, almost peacefully.

Then it happens: her eyes open and her head turns toward me, her eyes are blue, a hue that I've only seen once. That's when I know that my sweet friend April is gone for good.

A tear runs down my left eye. I feel a hand cover my mouth and I, instinctively try to scream and close my eyes shut. Calm down I chide myself. As I do, I open my eyes and confusion washes over my brain:

I'm sitting in my bed, cold sweat running from my forehead. Never had an hallucination like this before: It seemed more like a... vision?

I shrug it off. Maybe it was just a dream, or a nightmare for that matter.

I think you need to know me better to understand me. See, I'm an orphan. My father left my mother as soon as she told him she was pregnant, she died when I was born, and since nobody had a clue of who my father was, so the doctors made up my name. Since I was born in November first, they decided to name me November (apparently they ran out of names and could just come up with the month I was born in). Now, to my surname, Stark, I suppose that was my biological mother's last name.

I was put up on Foster Care. I was adopted soon enough, when I was 1 year and 2 months, to be precise. It seemed that my current foster parents had fallen in love with me, so they chose to adopt me. I was pretty charming, I must admit. That's the past. Let's get back to the present.

Now.

Unfortunately, my adoptive mother, Mrs. Darkclock, just died in a car accident two days ago, and my adoptive father had died several years ago due to lung cancer. I had some rotten luck.

Naturally, I was put up on Foster Care once again. I was quite troublesome if I didn't trust on people, and I still didn't trust my new foster parents.

At least April, the real daughter from the Darkclock family was assigned to the same family as I was. After all, we were the same same age, and we loved each other as brother and sister. She was the only one I trusted in this world. At least by now. People call me November Darkclock, but I prefer my real surname, or at least the one which I'm legally known for.

So that's me, I'm November Stark, a 14 year old orphan, living in a new home. Waiting for the unexpected. I stand up and go ahead to take a shower. I clean myself thoroughly as always and then look at myself in the mirror. My hair is maple colored, a little darker than golden, and I have green eyes. I wouldn't consider myself neither skinny, nor chubby. I would say I'm average, if there is such thing as that.

I smile, not because of my looks, but because I innocently think that if I smile towards life, it will smile back to me. I dress up, and then walk to April's room. She's still asleep. That lazy girl. I shake her slightly and her eyes immediately open. For once, I actually believe that we can make it together through our first day of school. I look towards the window and see a giant bird-like creature with talons over a tree, its back facing me.

"Everything's gonna be fine" I sooth April. However, I feel my stomach getting into a knot, as I somehow now that I'm wrong.