Prologue

The hypnotizing beautiful perfect sphere was glowing bright, it was stunning and gracefully shining like a queen in the darkness. This night was supposed to be the best night, yet I end up full of tears and torn heart. My wrist felt sore, bearing the tight grip of my mother, she was trembling and restless. I could hear her harsh breaths. Her other hand was on my head pushing me to bend down. While could hear her hitched breath and silent cries.

"Shh," she kept on hushing me and telling me to keep calm, I shouldn't be afraid and everything was fine when I knew for myself that was a lie. She pushed me behind the trunk of an old tree, and she kept glancing everywhere.

"Zenith, can you hear me?" she whispered in my ears and I nodded. She bend down to level me and wiped my tears. "Listened my sweet pie, I need you to run." Her reddish eyes were bright and no hint of second thoughts or any held backs. "Remember when we played hide and seek last night?" I couldn't help my tears, they kept falling down my cheek. She looked behind her back before turning to me. "You were doing a great job back then, I couldn't find you, can you do it now?" Her smile seemed odd, it was weak, she nodded expecting me to do the same and I did.

"Mom," a cracked voice escaped from my lips, it was raspy and my throat hurt.

"Shh, at the count of three, you will run fast to the left side, and I will stay here, wait until you hide and I'll go find you, okay?" It was a lie, it was a lie, I knew it was a lie. I didn't understand, I was afraid of what was happening. A loud howl resounded and I jump into my mother's arm, I hugged her tight and cover my ears.

"That's nothing, don't mind it, now you need to run," she held both of my shoulders and looked into my eyes. "Don't ever let anyone find you," I shook my head and held her hand tight. I kept shaking my head, I couldn't leave her here alone, I am afraid to run alone.

"One," and her eyes started to pool with tears again, to my disappointment she hasn't changed her mind.

"Momma, no,"

"Two," she only answered, which broke my heart. I didn't understand, why did I have to run alone, why couldn't we run together? She forcefully removed my sweating palm from her arm.

"Three," and she pushed me, a strong and a loud howl resounded again, my mom ran in the right direction and I did run to the left. I ran as fast as I could until my lungs ran out of air. My sight went blurry and my heart tightened. My legs couldn't run anymore and it was aching badly. A piece of log came into my sight but it was too late to avoid it, my leg hit it causing me to fall. I wrapped my arms around myself before hitting the ground but I was wrong, I wasn't heading to the ground, it was a dead end. I closed my eyes and felt the harsh slap of air, my back arm hit the ground first and my head bump something hard. I silently cried in pain and I rolled over and stopped breathing to try to restrain the pain. The next thing I knew was the pain was fading, I tried to open my eyes but my eyelids were too heavy. I could not breath.