"The Last Petal Falls" (Twisted Pages: Story #1) (COMPLETED)

TLPF. Prologue & Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

The heat is unbearable, intense. Flames lick the side of the wood cutter's family cottage, smoke wafting up into the dark skies as glittering stars hang overhead. Ravonette watches with an ache in her chest, and tears stinging in her eyes as she stares at what is left of her home that she's known all her life.

The straw thatched roof hissing as the hearth collapses inside, causing the cottage to cave in on itself and tumble down. Ravonette puts a hand to her mouth to cut off the horrific scream that dares to claw up her throat like a predator. She has to look away, knowing deep down in heart, where her gut has never been wrong before, embedded into her soul like a brand from a fire iron poker, she knows that her family is gone.

If only I hadn't of gone to the river to be alone, to pray for my upcoming nuptials. How foolish they must think of me now, as I sit here near their remains that have turned to ash.

Ravonette stands near the tree line that is cut in a circle to have enough room to center around the tiny village that is now nothing but ashes as well. Her dark brown eyes skirt around the few homes and with a heavy heart, has to turn away from the gruesome sight. Someone had massacred these people. She didn't know who, but she was determined to find out.

With now no family and no longer a husband that she was not keen about marrying, there was no one to stand in her way of extracting revenge on those that had dared to harm her family. Ravonette's father had died in a horse accident three years ago, leaving Ravonette, her ailing mother, and two little brothers that hadn't even been able to become men.

Ravonette coughs as she has to move away from the village circle and farther into the trees. She picks up the hem of her heavy skirts and tries not to drag her feet as she moves back towards the river, the only solstice that she can now find after learning that the smoke signals had came from the direction of her village.

She stumbles on root and her stockings are torn as she begins to pick up the pace, racing through the trees, tripping and banging her stocking feet, as she moves with the grace of a farmer to the river.

***

Once she gets to the river, her black hair whips across her face with the sudden breeze. She shudders, pulling the flimsy blue shawl closer around her bare shoulders, as she stares out at the calm water. She closes her eyes, tilts back her head, and let's out a hoarse cry of anguish that is so high pitched that it sends a few birds scattering from their nests, nestled high up in the branches of the sycamore trees all around her.

"Father..." She chokes on a gasp as her howling turns to sobs that wrack her whole body. She opens her eyes and collapses, tears streaming down her reddened cheeks. "Forgive me, I could not save them in time."

Bowing her head, now on her knees, she does what she did earlier while she was praying. Folding her hands against her thighs, she whispers the Serenity Prayer and continues to say sovereign prayers for forgiveness and that justice will be served, all throughout the night until morning breaks over the horizon, does she stand.

Ravonette wipes her eyes, tears that are dried against her warm cheeks, and she turns to the left, and moves across the path that stops near the edge of the trees. The Forbidden Forest looms and appears dark against the beauty of the dawn.

Tilting back her head, her chin raised high, she heads into the thickets of the trees.

I will find my family's murderer and destroy him before he takes anymore lives that do not belong to him. I will avenge our family, Father. I will do it, no matter the cost.