I look around my small bedroom. There is only one escape route left to me. I had already tried to sneak down the stairs only to find that my stepfather had locked the dead bolt he put on my door when we had moved into the house nine years before. I grab the Godstone necklace that my grand mother had given me for my eighth birthday ten years ago and hang it around my neck. My name is Ardessa Carter. Today I turn eighteen and tomorrow, I marry a man that I have never met. I pushed my window up and remove the screen. Throwing my bag down to the grass below I climbed out into the tree next to my window. If I'm lucky I can make it far enough into the forest that they will not come after me.

"I'm sorry but I can't and won't marry him. I have to go. Goodbye, Markus." I whisper as I gaze up at the window next to mine. My stepbrother, Markus, is my only friend in this town and my only regret as well. I grab my bag off the damp grass and start to run for the forest of shadows. I had always been told that it was the domain of the werewolves and any woman that wondered into the forest was lost forever. I don't even hesitate as I cross an invisible border. The Godstone that is nestled between my larg breasts begins to heat up and I feel that as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Finally I will escape this waking nightmare. What the future holds for me i do not know. Nor do I care really. I am Finally free of the abuse that shaped my childhood.