Turn of Darkness: Book One: Diaries of Nicole Johnson

Prologue

His eyes.

Tears spill and splatter to the floor in soft crescendos. I look up to the darkening sky and realize it's my own blood being washed away by the rain. Folds of satin and dark velvet pool to the carpet of leaves as the piano sings softly to my soul, crying for me to return home.

Home is gone; not even a memory is left.

Eyes as red as rubies. Rubies as red as blood. They scatter to the floor in a beautiful longing.

Life and death. Death begets life. I spin, my skirts twirling softly around my legs. My face lifts in a smile as I silently retreat within.

He's a monster. I am but a child.

The girl pleads for me behind the pane of glass caging me. She reaches an arm out imploringly, but I am spun away in the dance of life.

Life: what cruelty.

His eyes are hard, never sparing a moment of mercy. His hands are harder, but I don't feel them anymore. I am safe in the cage that is my mind. There, I can float to the music of my soul. There, I am free.

We dance as they spill in like a welcoming tide to retrieve me. Everything is slow, everything is orchestrated in perfect timing and harmony. There's a distant echo of a growl, then a cry as I welcome the death-giving wood. The merciful wood. The girl is free and runs to the slow track of the music, always the music, always the stillness.

Her gown is white as death. Merciful death. Life-begetting death. It flows behind her as a rolling fog. With each note of the piano, her feet touch the ground. My life is born of music and fog; of the welcoming dark forest of the night. I slip to the floor where the fog covers me in a shroud.

The red eyed monster reaches out a hand, reaching through the veil, but to no avail. I am already gone to a place where not a soul can touch me. The only music will be mine. I will not dance to his melody more.

I sit down to my piano and play the song of my soul. My hand finds the girl's.

"I will not let go again. You are safe with me," I tell her. She sits beside me as we play the song of his downfall.