Chapter 1

A couple of hours ago twenty-year-old University graduate Avalyn Monroe arrived in her hometown. She was tired, exhausted and drained from all the intense studying she'd had to do just to drive out of that mass stretch of land with a Master's and Bachelor's degree. Everything went well but what ruined the day that was supposed to be one of the best of her life was the absence of her family, but she understood that they lived far from where she was. To travel there would be costly and her family wasn't the richest in their suburban neighbourhood.

Regardless, the thought of finally meeting her family made her happy. How she dearly missed them couldn't be described with mere words. On her drive in an old, beaten-up Toyota Civic, back to her childhood home, she stopped by the nearest convenience store to grab a few snacks and trinkets.

When she arrived she and the cashier, an old woman called Beverly Hynes, spent hours catching up before she hit the road again. A box of her favourite cookies was on the passenger seat at the front. Shortly she saw her pale yellow bungalow come into view, the brown roof in need of a paint job made her shake her head.

Ava alighted after parking on the sidewalk. She left everything behind in the vehicle and dashed off to the house, she used her spare key to open the door that came free with a low creak. The hall that came to a dead end lined with paintings done by her sister was empty, but she would later end up in the living room where shocking discoveries awaited. Truly, they were shocking.

Jamal Emanuel shoved Christian Pryce away. The woman old enough to be his mother had been giving him oral sex. This wouldn't have been as bad as it seems if he wasn't the fiancé of the girl standing under the threshold holding a bouquet of roses, her mouth agape and eyes bulging from their sockets. Not to mention Christian Pryce is her biological mother.

“A-ava? Babe! You're back? Why didn't you call? I would've come to meet you at Bev's store.” brushing off what he just did the male zipped his denim jeans and walked to Avalyn.

She stood there unable to find words to describe what just happened. Not even the cat sitting comfortably on the window could make sense of what is happening.

“You know I missed you—”

“Don't...don't touch me!” a slap graced his cheek. The roses as a show of love fell to the ground soundlessly to later be stomped on by grey sneakers.

“Ava!” her mother was furious as she stormed over. “How dare you slap my fiancé!” she bellowed at her daughter, pulling Jamal into her arms and his face between her breasts.

“Guys, what is going on?” Anastasia Monroe stumbled into the room heavily pregnant. Her stepfather is behind her to help her balance. “Ava? Sister, you're back!”

“Oh my fucking God...” she covered her mouth as she began tearing up. “First I came home and saw mom giving the man I'm supposed to marry a blowjob and now this? Ana, you're barely eighteen! Why are you pregnant?” the response was like a red hot knife cutting through her soul, all the way up the middle.

“So? I'm eighteen, it's legal. Besides, Ricardo will take care of me. We're getting married, Ava. Our mom's wedding will take place on the same day, too. Isn't that awesome? I want you to be my maid of honour!” Anastasia hugged her sister, resting her head on her shoulder and placing a little kiss of affection on her neck. “I missed you sister. I'm glad you're home.”

She gently removed her sister's arms from around her, backing away to process this new information. “Can someone just explain what's happening? Everything from the start to finish!”

And they did. Barefaced and unapologetically.

For three years Jamal and her mother had been in a romantic relationship behind her back, for two years her stepfather and sister had been together. As for how this came about, Christian accused her daughter of stealing the man she fell in love with first. Anastasia had fallen for Ricardo unexpectedly and what happened had just happened. Their behaviour, on top of that, was nonchalant.

By this time Avalyn was sobbing nonstop, the pain of the betrayal was heavy. Her head throbbed and the migraine thrived, her stomach churned and her heart bled. She looked at each of their faces, from her mother's irritated look, to her stepfather's cold eyes, to her naive sister's worried ones and then to Jamal's. Hell, he didn't even dare to look into her eyes. Every promise he made to her he broke, he knows that.

Why would he look at her?

“You, um, you'll need to stay in an apartment for a while. We already gave your room to Anastasia's son, so there's no place for you here.” Christian stared her down with disgust rotating in her eyes.

Ava thought of all the things she wanted to say to them but deep inside, she wasn't surprised. She was expecting something like this. Red flags are called red flags for a reason. She'd always felt like an outcast, but she had no clarification—till now that is. With her head held down in shame she left, her heart broken and pride damaged. Now she sat in her car roasting under the merciless sun crying her eyes out, they didn't even call her back. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒇.

Avalyn left the house and headed to Smittsville Lookout, a mountain summit she used to often visit. She came out of the azure vehicle and climbed the wall that prevented all goers from going to the edge where a waterfall lies. Now on the other side, she thought about all the things that just happened, time moves so fast nowadays. 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒃𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉. 𝑯𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒚 𝒖𝒑, 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐. 𝑼𝒏𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒔.

She was thinking of her next step from now since she no longer has a family when a loud crash called for attention, something came straight through the fence and landed on the ground, her head whipped to the side where she saw a man rolling on the ground wounded.

He was clutching his stomach as he groaned in pain, a crisp white Polo shirt now a blood-soaked mess. And boy, was he bleeding excessively all over the limestone. The man—who looked young, probably late teens—coughed up blood and scratched the ground, he paused for a moment and tilted his head back. As if he knew Ava was standing there. When their eyes met she admitted to herself those were the most beautiful green eyes she's ever seen. Instinctively she moved to help him but two large dogs bounded out of the forest and pounced on the kid, his screams of agony were the last thing she heard before falling on her back.

Not unconscious, but the gruesomeness made her knees buckle and lose balance. Ava tried gathering her thoughts but two pairs of piercing amber eyes were on her in seconds. At the speed of light, the predators that now up close looked a lot like wolves jumped across the river, poured gallons of water down into an abyss, to meet her and growled viciously. Ava screamed in terror. She knew exactly what those creatures were. There had been uncountable sightings of them around town. However, she has never witnessed one for herself. And she'll agree that they are indeed more terrifying in person.

But screw that. These unhinged beings are going to unalive her! And so, one spontaneous decision later and she was falling over a hundred feet to her demise. The creatures howled as they watched her do this, but at least their jobs were done. After using random bushes to sweep the ground, covering their tracks, they took body parts from the deceased victim and disappeared into the darkness they came from.

Hours later a redhead girl gasped for air after waking up on a log. Her skin was bluish-grey, her lips quivered from the cold and her body shivered. She looked around her surroundings, the display on the water's surface told her it was night. And the moon was full. Cold and hungry, the girl pulled herself out of the water wincing when she felt pain in her left arm. Ava was soaking wet, the water ran down her body and pelted the grass-covered dirt. For minutes she stood in the dark confused and scared to the bone, her memories would eventually return. She turned to her right and looked up at the waterfall, then she made a run for it. She didn't care where she ended up. She just had to get the hell outta that place and fast.

What she failed to realize was that a gang of the same species that attacked her and the beautiful blonde male earlier was at the summit doing an inspection. And one of them, the one that towered over all of them easily, one that made them look like puppies, had her floral scarf in his large paw sniffing. His red eyes shone brightly through the night and seconds later a mixture of a growl and hiss ripped through the air. She heard that loud and clear, and she knew that if that thing caught she'd be dead as hell.

That night she vowed never to return to Oklahoma City again. But she, eventually, would. Once more, her name is Avalyn Monroe, and this is her tainted fairytale.