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A Thousand and One Miles

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Synopsis
The past few years have been rough for Harlow. Following a series of life changing events, she finds herself running away from sunny Southern California to the rolling fields and small town of St. Dalton Montana. Plagued by night terrors and anxiety, she considered it a perfect hide away. Unfortunately, she soon learns that St. Dalton has greater secrets then just hiding her away; and not all fairy tales remain within the boundaries of a story book. Tossed into a world she never believed in, she quickly learns of the secrets of the world that was always there. There she is forced to come to terms with her past, and what her future was always meant to be.
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Chapter 1 - Prologue

"Please?"

"No."

"Please!"

"NO!"

"Please Sawyer- ppllleeeeaaasssseeee?" With a glare, he looked to his older sister. With a seven year age difference, people tended to believe that Sawyer was the obnoxious sibling yet sixty seven percent of the time it was his older sister who held the title. He wished he could have compared her to their older brother, Skylar. But being ten years older than him, Sawyer rarely saw his brother anymore. That was just how the army worked.

Sawyer scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Fine." His older sister smiled at him, holding her phone up. The two leaned in close, smiling as she took the photo. "Aw- thanks baby brother!" She reached over and ruffed up his hair. He let out an annoyed groan and leaned away from her, though there was only so much space in their business class seating. "Stop it- Sage, stop." He swatted at her hand until she pulled away.

"Relax baby brother." She wore a smirk, going on "You can't say that you don't love it- that you don't love me." Sawyer rolled his eyes, turning off his phone as he did. He then shoved it into his pocket, and closed his eyes. The quicker he fell asleep the better.

"Good afternoon passenger's, this is your captain speaking and welcome to Delta flight 1384 on route from JFK to LAX. Our estimated taxi time is twenty minutes, while our flight time is four hours and forty five minutes. If the wind is on our side, which it seems that it is, then we should be arriving to LAX at the nice dinner time of five thirty."

Peaking his eyes open, he glanced out the window to his left. He and his sister had fought over who would get the aisle seat. Though he loved the window seat, he loved annoying his sister- who adored aisle seats. He lost the fight in the long run, but the satisfaction that he had annoyed the eighteen year old was enough of a win for him. Closing his eyes again, he took a deep breath.

"You two okay back there?" From the middle crack of the seats in front of them, their mother snuck a peek back to them. "Just fine mom." Sawyer waved towards his sister, "What she said." With his eyes still closed. Their mom smiled and nodded her head. Facing forward, she reached over and grabbed her husband's hand.

~~~

Sawyer groaned as he woke up. "Sawyer, come on, wake up!" Groggy, he slowly re-entered consciousness. As he lifted his head, he noticed the worry etched on his sister's face. "Did you get him up?!" Their mother peaked through the crack again.

"Yeah, mom, I did." Relief flooded her face. "Okay good, now get down!" Sawyer frowned, not understanding.

"What's going on?!" He was forced down by his sister, taking the brace position. That's when he finally registered the other noises around him.

"Brace! Brace! Brace! Heads down, stay down!"

Between the flight attendants screams, his sister's voice over powered them. "There's something wrong with the plane- I don't know what but they say we're losing air and can't land normally."

His heart was pounding in his ears, as he glanced over to his sister. Her eyes were closed,stay hairs from her haphazard bun sticking to her sweat covered forehead.

This was real, it was actually happening.

Taking a chance, he sat up a little bit and glanced out the window. The ground was rising at them, fast and at an angle. Years of family trips had taught him that this wasn't normal. It looked as if they were going towards a field of some sort, but he didn't keep his head up to see anymore. His nerves got the best of him. Leaning back over his knees, he closed his eyes.

~~~

Noises. Loud noises, near and far. The smell was unlike anything she had ever smelt. She had no definition on how to explain it. Her head hurt, in fact her whole body hurt.

She hung to one side, and with the slow, small motion felt with her hand, her seatbelt. It kept her cradled to the seat, amazingly. It was as she cracked her eyes open, Sage realized her eyelashes were crusted closed. Though it hurt she forced them to open. To her right, was long field grass. Like something from a movie. To her left, a black cloud floated above her. Colors flicker against the clouds. She realized then that most of the noises and sounds came from behind her. Slowly, she turned her head but was unable to see anything from her current spot due to her chair.

Her body was in so much pain. With her good hand, her left arm was fully numb, she fumbled to unlock her seatbelt. With a small click, the seatbelt released her to fall to the ground. It was a delayed pain, but as she laid there her whole body shuttered in pain.

She needed to see it.

Rolling on the adrenaline that was now filling her body, she landed on her stomach. Using her one good arm, like Anakin in episode 3, she pulled herself up. With silent determination, she was able to get her head past the chair.

Looking to all the sounds and smells, she froze. The fiery flames colored her face and she realized that the noises that were near her, were cries.

There was so much to take in. So much to see. Her eyes scanned, looking for three specific people. When she failed to spot them, her screams started. Everything from her lips to her throat were dry and it pained her to use her voice. But she didn't give up. She continued to call out, even as sirens blared out and begun to fill the air. Help was coming, but she still called for her family in the hope they would respond.

It all hurt, so much.