Tampering with Fate

Prologue

A terror filled scream pierced the darkness of the lonely castle. It was silenced moments later by gentle hushing and a warm embrace. Xavier was used to Blaze waking up from nightmares at least once a night. He had never seen her so vulnerable as she was when she woke up. As carefully as he could he took her irritated hands and held them still before she started to rub them against the sheets to clean off the blood that was only there in her mind.

Some ways off her brother sat staring out the orphanage window. His eyes shadowed from lack of sleep, but he made no effort to lay down. Anton looked frail and upset, much the opposite of the determined to carry on boy he was come morning. He was making the most effort to move on, despite the fact it had only been a few months since his youngest sister's untimely death. Finally he stood and walked to his empty room to sleep. He was now the only one sleeping in that room.

The front door to the orphanage creaked open as a figure slipped out into the not quite cold and not quite warm spring night. Her feet moving silently as her green hair caressed her pretty but worried face. Zannia headed to a small house not to far from the orphanage, her feet carrying her there almost without her consent. The house was small and simple, only one person lived there. She raised a delicate hand about to knock on the door, but then lowered it changing her mind out of fear she might wake him up.

But the boy inside was not asleep. Amon lay on the small bed staring at the ceiling and seeing nothing but Neoma. He sat up and hung his head. His stinging eyes darted about the room. To him this was not a home, it was a prison. Zannia had made him move there after she had carefully groomed the house removing anything he might use to harm himself. She didn't trust him or his judgement at this time. As much as it frustrated him how much she worried, he was grateful for it, because he didn't trust himself either. He was tampering with things best left alone, and he knew it.

And as morning began to rise Blaze fell back into uneasy sleep with Xavier sleeping at a bed no more than two feet from her side. Anton finally drifted off, needing the energy to be there for his only remaining sister. Zannia found her way back to the orphanage to rest her tired eyes even if only for a moment. While Amon lay awake until sheer exhaustion brought him to the mercy of sleep.

But while they slept, others still lurked about. Some were far off, some closer than they realized. They wheren't all aware of them yet, but they would find out soon enough. One figure cried out of pain they couldn't escape, another lay in a comfortable bed unsure of why they where awake, and another talked loudly to themselves in the dead of night. 

Given some time their paths will cross and everything will change, not necessarily for the better.