Ravenswood

Chapter 1

"SARAH!" My mothers blood curdling scream sounded above the ringing in my ears. We were just talking a few moment ago about prom at the end of this year. I don't even know what we hit or what happened. 

A sharp pain radiated from the nape of my neck to my temple causing me to suck in a sharp breath. Everything hurt and the ringing in my ears pulsed viciously. I tried to look around but my vision was blurred, I felt a icy cold sensation start to prickle across my skin and my body begun to shake involuntarily. I was laying on my stomach, my face pressed painfully against something hard and cold. 

Again I tried to open my eyes and focus my vision, the only thing I could hear besides the high pitched ringing noise assaulting my ears was my own raspy breathing while my body trembled. My vision swayed in and out of focus, from what I could see in those brief moments of clarity, I was on the road, laying on my stomach with my arms sprawled out in front of me, most likely to try and break the impact. I strained to lift my head up a few centimeters and glanced forward towards my arms in shock, they were mangled beyond recognition, and I was fairly certain both of them where broken. Crimson blood oozed from the deep thick slashes along my forearms, coating the gravel around me. I could see my own muscle, ligaments and flesh staring back at me instantly making my stomach twist and turn, but I couldn't scream.

My breathing grew more raspy and my chest rattled painfully, I was struggling to take a deep enough breath, a gut wrenching pain settled in my upper abdomen with each inhale. My ribs must be broken. I needed to roll over.

I used all my strength in my legs to roll over onto my back, my arms flopped aimlessly with me, I was grateful that they were still attached.  My left leg was soaking wet yet warm, most likely from more of my own blood, I must have been bleeding on my legs somewhere as well, and judging from the amount of wetness I felt warming my skin soaking through my jeans, it was a lot. 

I coughed and spluttered as I looked up at the beautiful-clear black night sky above me, stars glistering blissfully down upon a scene it could not comprehend. I turned my head to the side to spit out the blood I had been choking on, desperately trying to take a full breath as a low wheezing sound started to escape my throat. My lungs burned for me to take a proper breath.

I moved my head side to side to try and get a glimpse of my parents. The road was dimly lit but a nearby street lamp flickered enough for me to notice the remnants of the now smashed black UTE. 

What did we hit? There were no other cars in sight.

"M-Mom" My weak voice croaked, breaking with the uncontrollable light convulsions my body was now experiencing. 

"Sarah?" My dad's distraught voice called from a few feet away. I couldn't bring myself lift my body up to look for him, all I could do was move my head side to side hoping to catch a glimpse of him. 

I heard the cracking and dragging of glass under his thick shoes as he hobbled over to where I lay... Dying. 

His face appeared in my line of vision as I coughed and wheezed, desperately trying to fill my lungs with the air they craved. 

"Sarah, honey, you're going to be okay" He kneeled down beside me hissing in pain while his voice was low and frantic. His once strong features now twisted in pain while his blue eyes looked down on me with an immeasurable broken emotion mixed with fury whilst welling up with tears. 

"M-Mom" I wheezed again, searching my father's face for an answer. 

"She's hurt, but she's okay and trapped in the car" He answered, scanning over my body and injuries, his eyes widened when he settled them back on mine. I could see it in his eyes. He knew I was going to die. Something dark flickered behind those navy blue eyes and if I could speak I would tell him to be strong. 

He grasped my hand in his and looked at me before he looked up at the sky and let out a frustrated scream that I swear would have shook the heavens. The cries of a father who watched helplessly as their child died.

"Okay listen to me Sarah, life is not what it seems or what you think it is, you are special and don't let anyone ever tell you any different, you need to go and live your life fully, don't be guilty, and know that we loved you very much, I wish I had more time to explain but I don't, just know that our legacy lies within you" He spoke frantically before he touched his forehead to mine, still clutching my hand in his as I started to cough and choke on my own blood.

I tried to comfort him and tell my dad that I loved him, but the words could not leave my lips. Strange that in the moments of death, all I could think about was how my death would effect my family.

I looked up at the sky again, welcoming death and not wanting to watch my father see his daughter die, anything to make the pain that radiated throughout my broken body stop. I wasn't scared. I took comfort in the fact that I was going to die. They say your life normally flashes before your eyes, so I closed mine and braced myself for the blissful peace that I knew would follow. I felt peace knowing my dad was here with me and that he any my mother would be okay.

"Et pro hac ipsa sacrifie" My fathers voice spoke, but the language that left his lips was not one I had ever heard before, I snapped my eyes open to find him touching his finger to my blood that coated the gravel around us. He then lifted his finger to my forehead and drew something on it, I couldn't quite make out what it was and at this point I was beginning to think I was hallucinating my final minutes of life, but this felt too real, the pain and panic in his eyes were far to vivid. I opened my mouth to try and speak but all that came out was a raspy wheeze.

"et hoc est meum ut essentia est, ama me de laqueo venantium et a love natus pulvis" A milky film glazed over my fathers eyes as the last word left his lips, and he slumped forward, his lifeless body leaning against my torso, making it a bit harder to control my laboured breathing.

I couldn't process what I had just seen and heard, panic started to course through my veins, this was it, this must be death. Warm tears streamed out the corners of my eyes and down my temples collecting in the hollow of my ears while I choked on my own sobs.

A bright light shot from my fathers body and hovered a few inches over my face, the light was a glowing white warmth in the sea of darkness that was this night. I coughed again, this time unable to spit out the blood collecting in my throat, I started to gurgle, choke and convulse as I stared at this bright light, unable to breathe.

The bright light shot into my chest at a speed so fast I could just about make out the direction in which it went. The contact sent my upper body lifting up off the ground in an unnatural position with my back arched towards the night sky as I took in a deep raspy full breath that satisfied the burn in my lungs and succumbed to the darkness around me. 

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I woke up with a gasp, clawing at my sheets and gasping for air as a thick sweat coated my body. I had this nightmare almost every night. I looked around my dark room clutching my chest and trying to calm my erratic breathing. 

Why was I still here when they are gone?

"Veridical hallucinations" That's what they call it when you hallucinate something while you are technically dying. They say that when the body is injured and been through a significant trauma resulting in blood loss, this deprives the brain of oxygen, and causes hallucinations. Basically, my brain was trying to comfort me in my time of death, or at least, that's what they tell me. 

I woke up in a hospital bed four days after the accident, only to be told that both my parents had died at the scene. They say my father and I were flung out of the vehicle and my mother remained trapped within and succumbed to her injuries before help arrived. It appears that we had swerved off the road and hit into the barrier. I can only imagine my father had tried to miss something, although I can't for the life of me recall what it was, it was like I had this mental block about it, one that I couldn't lift. The doctors tell me it's a form of PTSD, but I have this strange intuition about it telling me it was much more than that.

It took me two weeks and six rounds of Physio to be released from hospital. I sustained multiple injuries I was still recovering from. A broken arm, 40 stitches across my arms and legs, two broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a massive concussion are still the top of the list. They say I was lucky to be alive, but I beg to differ. 

Looking back as I sit here in the passenger seat of my grandmothers dodge driving towards Ravenswood, I wish nothing more than to have worn my seatbelt that night, or suggested a different restaurant for dinner, maybe something would have been different. Perhaps the entire ordeal would have been different or would never have happened at all. 

Wishful thinking.

"You're going to love Ravenswood" My grandmother smiled, placing her hand on my knee and giving it a slight reassuring squeeze. 

"Remind me why we have to move to a shitty town in the middle of nowhere?" I rolled my eyes, after everything that has happened, all I wanted to do was sit in our old home and mourn. I wanted to sit on the couch that held so much memory and shove my face with ice cream as I ugly cried through episode after episode of Dancing With The Stars, something we would watch as a family every Sunday night. 

"Because, it was what your parents wanted Sarah" My grandmother answered calmly, her navy blue eyes that mirrored my own stared back at me. I had no idea why my parents wanted me to live in this shitty town after they were gone, it was one of the many strange elements to their will, and because I was 17, I had no say in the matter. I would have much rather stayed in California. All I do know is that they lived together in this town before I was born, it was my mothers birth place and where she grew up. 

I let out a sigh and glared out the window, the old wooden sign with the word "Ravenswood" etched into it up ahead let me know we were about to enter the towns boarders. This town was really in the middle of no where, we had been driving through forestland for hours along the only road that led in and out of Ravenswood. I tried to do my research on the town before we moved and there wasn't much online.  

Great, just another shitty aspect to my already s**t life. 

Ravenswood was small, only containing around 7000 residents, with one highschool and one college. I shuddered at the thought of my first day tomorrow. I hated having all the attention that came with being the new girl. 

The town center was more quiet than I expected with people littered throughout the somewhat busy street. The few local stores had a really vintage look to them, I guess this town hasn't seen an upgrade in a couple decades. 

People stared at our car as we rode through town, I felt exposed and on display. The feeling was unsettling.

"How weird" I mumbled more to myself. 

"It's a small town, I guess they aren't used to strangers" My Grandmother snorted, I could tell she too was a bit unsettled by their wondering eyes, but I was pretty sure nothing could scare this women. She had always been a pillar of strength in our family, she single handedly raised my father after my grandfather died at a young age. 

We pulled up to the house we were staying in a couple miles away from the town center, the houses out here seemed to be well spaced out and some what private. I climbed out the car and stretched my hands above my head, my strawberry blonde locks wafted around my face as a light breeze whisked by. 

My eyes immediately snapped towards our only neighbors. Next to our home sat a magnificent Victorian style estate, it was massive stretching over a few acres and you could tell by the intricate architecture that it was old, dating back hundreds of years probably. 

I took a few strides towards the property, noticing the tall black iron gates that looked like iron branches and vines all twisted and pulled shut at the center with a strange symbol I had never quite seen before, instinctively I wanted to reach out and touch it, but something internally told me not to.  

Who locked their gates in such a small town anyway? The driveway seemed unkept, with shrubs growing over the gravel, at a first glance you would assume the place was empty, but the red BMW that sat in the driveway told me otherwise. 

"Sarah, help me with these bags" My grandmother yelled from the boot of the car pulling my attention. 

Author's Note

This book has me super excited, I actually dreamt this whole story and there are more twists and turns in this novel that will leave you on the edge of your seats!

I'm still finishing off my other novel "Him", and once I am done, this book will have my undivided attention. 

Follow this book for updates, you won't be disappointed. 

Much love

xoxo