Prelude

Jade

It happened when I was six, two days before my most awaited day of the year. Christmas.

Snow covered the entire lawn, the cold breeze sipped through my skin as I walked with a shivering body.

I remembered being the happiest kid in the neighborhood this afternoon after my Dad finally allowed me to build a snowman on our front yard. But when the sun finally bid goodbye and darkness lord over the starless sky, my perfect little world collapsed before my eyes.

A visitor came and joined us for dinner. I kept smiling at him but his face looked too stiff that he refused to give me even a smirk. His eyes were the bluest shade of blue I had ever seen, and just like the ocean, it was nothing but cold and mysterious to me.

Everything was fine despite my parents acting very uneasy in front of our guest. I heard he was my father's Boss' only son, and he came for business. Despite him being way younger than my parents, I felt my parents' fear towards him, as if the man holds immense power than could make everyone bow to him.

And to beg him for mercy.

"You know what I came here for... don't you?" the man asked, his deep voice brought horror to my parents' faces.

Dad glanced my way as if what they were discussing had something to do with me. Confused, my brows furrowed as I spoke. "Did you borrow money from them because I'm always sick, Daddy?"

I saw Dad's Adam's apple bobbed up and down before he tried to force a smile. "N--No, sweetheart--"

"They took something more precious, little girl," the man cut my father off before his cold pair of blue eyes drifted towards my direction. "And they're gonna pay for it my way."

I screamed when he suddenly flipped the table over with one hand. Mom was fast enough to get me and take me outside while Dad tried to grab his rifle to shoot our guest, but just when we were about to leave, the man grabbed my mother by her hair and dragged her back inside the house.

The cold winter air blew my red locks as I stood outside with my heart banging loudly inside my chest like a wild animal begging to come out of its cage. It wasn't the weather that made me shiver. It was the man inside our home who mercilessly slaughtered my entire family that caused my whole body to tremble.

I saw how his body grew into something I never knew existed, and the sight of his monstrous image almost made me lose all my strength.

"Run, Jade!" my mother screamed one last time before the whole place went dead silent.

My tears rolled down my cheeks like waterfalls while I kept my widened eyes on our front door, waiting for the beast to come and get me next.

Yes, it was a beast. Furry, about eight feet tall beast with sharp claws and gold rims.

No one believed me especially when I told them that the beast took one look at me before he disappeared in the woods, but I know what I saw, and I know that he was real. As to why he spared my life after he killed everyone in my family with no remorse, remained a mystery to me.

A mystery I didn't know would unfold before my eyes as I walk towards the beast's lair to share a bed with him...