Chapter 1- Amara

Wondering through the woods I remembered the first time I ran in here. That was the worst and the best day of my life all at once.

I am Amara Cross and I am sixteen years old. I just got into eleventh grade.. I skipped a grade being the nerd I am. So now, I am in the same grade as my older sister Elena.

Elena and I moved in with our father Robert Cross this year. By that, I mean Elena moved in with our father and I moved to a cabin in the woods.

Robert lives in Greycoast. It's a small town surrounded by thick woods and you can barely see the sun due to the clouds covering the sky almost every day. But I love it here. I have my own little heaven in the woods waiting for me, so I was quite excited for the move.

Elena and I lived with our mother Emma till now in Esterden. This place is a total opposite of Greycoast. It's hot there most of the time through the year. I love the warmth in Esterden though. We used to spend our summer in Greycoast every year, which never felt like summer to be honest.

My parents got divorced when I was barely a month old. They got married when they were just out of school at the age of eighteen.

Teen love and all that crap.

My mom was pregnant with Elena at that time. They used to live in Esterden, a warm place with lots of beach. Almost eight months after their marriage, my sister was born. One kid is not that much of a problem for a low income family. They managed pretty well. But after about three months, my mom got pregnant with me and that's when things started going downhill. They were not ready for a second child. They were barely managing with the first one.

When I was born, the situation got far worse. With so less money and two kids to raise, their relationship snapped. They were not ready to handle the pressure. They started fighting a lot and eventually ended up getting divorced. That’s what everyone tells me. I was too little to know anything back then.

My father moved to Greycoast and my mother stayed in Esterden. I for the part, became a bitter memory of their almost perfect past.

But that was just the start of the problems. My mother wouldn't look at me and my father, he did not even consider me as his daughter, a living breathing person even. Elena, she hated me for breaking her perfect family.

I was a kid back then, barely a month old at that time and couldn't take care of myself. That's when Uncle Dale and Aunt Claire stepped in. Uncle Dale is father's older brother. He is eight years older than my father. Aunt Clair is his wife. They took me in. They have a son, Alec. Alec is two months older than me. So, we practically grew up as twins.

If it wasn't for uncle, aunt and Alec, I wouldn't be here. Robert, Emma and Elena are just my family on papers but my real family is uncle, aunty and Alec.

My parents refused to let Uncle and Aunt officially adopt me. Nobody knows the reason why. Maybe they wanted to see me suffer more. Who knows what goes on in their twisted minds.

The summer ritual however was compulsory for us from when we turned five and four. I didn't want to go there as father practically ignored my existence whenever I was there. I always felt lonely and unwanted in that house.

I never understood why they would send me there if they don’t want to see me. I mean I was happy being away from their scowling, loathing faces.

I used to take care of myself. Dad used to smile at Elena and would never give me the time of the day. He would take her to eat outside, to the movies and I would be home alone starving or eating anything I can find in the kitchen, which they made sure not to leave much.

But, I would still wait for them in hope to be noticed just once maybe.

I studied hard and got good grades so that mom and dad would praise me. I made myself perfect in extracurricular as well but, it was all a waste of effort.

The year I turned ten, we went to Greycoast as usual for the summer break. It was almost the end of the summer break.

On that particular night, my father came home early from work. Elena was staying at her summer friends Leah and Mia Butler's house. Dad went in the kitchen and started drinking. I was watching him from the small storage room door which I would get as a bedroom over the summer every year.

After an hour or so he stood up and started walking towards me.

That was the first time he looked me in the eye. The emotions in his eyes were not what I wanted to see though. His eyes were full of hate and that hate was directed towards me.

He stood right in front of me and started shouting at me, "Because of you my family broke. Because of you Emma left me. I wish you were never born, then we would have been one happy family. I will make you suffer for everything you put us through."

And with that said he slammed his fist on the wall, an inch beside my head and stormed in his room.

I started crying from being utterly freaked out. I didn't knew back then that he hated me so much. I always used to think he is simply mad at me about something but hate, it was a whole different level.

And I did the most rational thing a scared ten year old could think of. I ran out of the house and into the woods that were surrounding it. It was raining at that time as the summer break was about to end. I ran aimlessly in the woods, tears streaming down my face.

After sometime, it got harder to see as it was getting dark and the woods were dense. Only little light passed through the canopy of trees.

I tripped on a tree root and fell face first, hitting my head on a rock in the process. Everything became woozy after that. My head hurt like hell and I was in and out of consciousness. I thought I would die there with nobody to look for me. Even if they did try to find me, what was the possibility that some wild animal wouldn’t eat me up first? I mean it’s a freaking jungle for crying out loud.

I thought I was done for.