In Love With The Beast

Chapter 1

               Telford

"You can't undo the past"
Old aunt Em's ominous words had echoed in Arianas head long after she dropped her off at the airport. "A proverb of truth" she had called it.
Who spoke like that nowadays? Some goodbye.  Tightening her ponytail and futilely trying to tuck her forever- escaping brown curls behind her ears,she looked at her watch, then out the bus window at the tree lined countryside.
It seemed strange to see the sun. All she remembered was rain when she had lived in Britain ten years ago.
Trying to get comfortable, Ariana tucked her foot up on the seat, and rested her head against her knee as she looked out at the scenery flashing by.
A sign outside the window showed the miles before the buss reachesd Telford.
It'd be another twenty five minutes. She popped her ear buds in,and stared out the window across the rolling farm fields, trying to let the music from her phone distract her.
It didn't work.
Just when she felt the tension begin to ease from her shoulders and she started to get into the song, something caught her eye.
Black smoke billowed just near the top of a lush green hill. Ariana stared, her heart fluttering as an old memory began to take hold. She knew what that smoke meant. She'd seen it before,long ago.
Someone's house was burning.
Crap, carp crap, no I don't want to go there.
Her heart started racing and her stomach turned over, making her feel nauseous.
Dropping her knee, she gripped the seat in front of her, burying her face in her hands taking deep breathes, like the therapy to treat what had been called "panic attacks". It didn't matter what other people called it. To her, it was simply hell; like being sucked back in time against her will, to a place she never  wanted to revisit. So she breathed the way she'd been taught, slow breathe in, all the way, then slow breath out, all time chanting it's not real, it's not real in her head.
It helped clam her racing heart and made her feel more in control, but it didn't erase the memory.  Nothing on Earth could do that. Being back in England for the first time and seeing the strange smoke, made her feel six years old all over again.
She'd been in the living room coloring with new markers before bed when her mother told her to take them to the tree house her dad had built for her and play there until she called her in. That call never came. The blaze bounced horrific shadows around the inside of the tree House. The stinky black smoke slithered in and scared her little six year old self in ways the monsters under her bed never had.
Ariana shuddered and lurched upright, forcefully bringing herself back to the present.
Glancing around the now vacant bus, she wondered if the driver purposely left her until last. She'd watched the last few people get off at a school about fifteen minutes ago. They all looked the same,all pretty girls with blonde hair, not one of them thin, pale, and tall like her. They hadn't been friendly. Big surprise there... she was used to it. She tended to fly under the radar at best. So she handled them the way she always handled the once who instantly didn't like her for no reason she could come up with. Ariana avoided making eye contact and tired to appear immersed in the book she was reading. It wasn't that she didn't want to make friends. She'd just never really had any. Most kids in her age either didn't like her or didn't notice her.

It disturbed her that old  aunt Em sent away the letter with guardians papers to Uncle Charlie.
She'd been the one to move them all from Scotland to New York when she'd come to live with them, taking her away from the horrible tragedy of her parents' death, and now, she suddenly want me to go back? It didn't make any sense. It sort of sucked to leave her current high school. She lacked close friends, but also lacked enemies.
But she could still  understand why aunt Em gave the custody to uncle Charlie, Well all I can say is, she's definitely not her young I any longer, and she has started to forget things and become very tired the last few years.
Another weird thing that she couldn't seem to find a answer to was why aunt Em thought that Uncle Ben was the best person to take care of her, he lived so far from the civilization you only could come, or it felt like that anyway, and he's house where only a few houses away from the house where her parent die in the fire. It's just didn't make any sense!
She tried a few times before she left to corner her aunt and get her to explain part or all of it, but she always seemed to be busy.
While this wasn't exactly abnormal behaviour from her.
She couldn't figure out why, but she had a strong sense that something big was coming. Whether it was good or bad, she didn't know.
A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, pulling her mind out of the endless circle of questions in her head. She turned to look out the window, and was stunned to see the lage wolf she'd ever seen in her life. I didn't now that it lived wolf's here, and that they where so big?
The big wolf was running parallel with the bus. Pressing her face against the cool glass, her gaze focused intently on the curious sight. She watched it's graceful move as it jumped upp on a hill just ahead. As the bus passed by, the large wolf seemed to lock eyes with Ariana and she was mesmerized. She continued to watch the wolf until she couldn't see it anymore, then slumped back into her seat as the bus sped onward down the long road.
Telford. She gnawed at the cuticle on her thumbnail a little too hard and ripped the skin,drawing a wince from her. She couldn't help it, she always did this when she was nervous. She haven't been her since her parents died in the fire, and she hadn't seen uncle Charlie since two years ago.
The bus cruised and sign.
Telford.
Ari read the sign and took a deep breath.
Now I'm here.and it's no turning back.
The driver pulled to a halt in front of the bus- station.
The bus door slide open with a hiss. Ari gathered her two small suitcases, clambered down the aisle and finally, blessedly, off the bus.
"Welcome back to Telford, Ms. Swan"
Ari awkwardly spun around to face the voice, finding that a tall, man stood on the sidewalk next to a black car.
"Hi, uncle Charlie"
She said and smiled.
"So should we go?"
He turned around and marched to the cars other side, not checking to see if Ariana needed any help with her bags.
Huffing out of breath,Ari grapped her things and pulled her bags into the car, hearing the bus driver chuckle as he closed the door behind her. I'm spending the next three years here? What joy;

So this was the first part of "in love with the beast" I really hope that you enjoyed it :) and if you like the book don't forget to volt and comment;)