The Forsaken Prophecy

Chapter One

Rowen hated the cold. She pulled her puffy black jacket tighter around her skinny frame and shivered. Tucking a strand of her brunette hair behind her ear, she blew into her white mittens in the hopes of warming her hands further.

"Oh, stop it," her best friend, Marie, said, shoving her and laughing. "It's not even that cold!"

"You're kidding, right?" asked Rowen incredulously, gasping as a strong, frigid wind buffered the girls. The felt a snowball crumble against her back and whirled on her heel.

"Jason Lindonson, I swear to God—"

Her other best friend, the aforementioned Jason, tackled her into a snowdrift. She squealed and landed a punch on his arm, yelling, "You ass!"

"That's an insult to donkeys," Maria noted as Jason hollered, "OW!"

He leapt to his feet and began attacking Maria and Rowen with snowballs. The three friends ran, laughing and screeching, down the street.

Part of the reason why the trio was so close was the fact that they all lived in the same neighborhood. At first, it had just been Rowen and Maria. Jason had moved to Tell City in second grade. While the other boys played soccer and tag football, some even braving the full-sized basketball hoops, Jason sat quietly on the steps every day and read a book about robots. Maria, who had wanted to improve her braiding skills, had joined him, accompanied by her victim, Rowen. From there, their friendship blossomed.

Rowen spotted a tall, hulking figure on the other side of the street and herded her friends into an alley.

"What?" hissed Jason.

"Kenneth," Rowen hissed. Her friends nodded and stayed quiet.

Kenneth was a bully from high school. While his shallow insults usually bounced off of Rowen, Kenneth had recently discovered the truth about her father's disappearance, and quickly incorporated it into his daily round of "torture the nerds." He called Jason gay (as if it was an insult), spewed filth at Maria about her sex life (as if it existed), and hit Rowen with jabs about her father and family.

Today, they were not so lucky as to avoid him.

"Oh, look," a familiar, sneering voice said happily. It wasn't an "Oh, boy, presents!" kind of happy. It was more like an "I get to forget about my own shitty life situation by torturing you" cat and mouse happy.

"A gay boy, a slut, and a bastard child. All hiding in the alley like a bunch of rats."

Jason grabbed at Rowen's wrist as she stood, but even he knew to not get in Rowen's way when she was about to unleash her inner monster. He helped Maria up and held her close as Rowen retorted, "Firstly, you don't get to decide Jason's sexuality. He gets to choose that. And being gay isn't an insult. That's super homophobic." Rowen leaned forward and said in her most patronizing tone, "That means you're scared of gay people."

"I know what that means!" Kenneth snapped. "Why would I be afraid of fags like him?"

"Let's move on to your second invalid point," said Rowen, refusing to bend to Kenneth's taunts. "Maria's sex life is not your business. And I wish you luck in finding one boy from our school who has had sex with her. It's probably you who wants to sleep with her. Keep dreaming, idiot."

Kenneth opened his mouth to protest or spit out a lame comeback, Rowen wasn't sure. But she plowed onward.

"Thirdly, you can't be a bastard child if your dad stuck around until you were fourteen and you are fully aware of your identity. I'm abandoned, not a bastard. Do your friggin' research."