Chapter 1

"

Emma jumped backwards and covered her mouth to hide her scream. She shook in fear as the mysterious man looked at the window as if he could see through it into the car. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. Her hands covered her mouth. She was really frightened.

Then, the man just pulled out a cigar, went around the car, and walked away, his head nodding rhythmically.

Emma watched him leave to the distance.

"Phew!" She breathed out. "Wrong call."

Her parents came out of the building at that point, making her relieved expression turn to that of excitement and anticipation.

"Hey baby!" Her mother greeted as she entered the car.

"You guys are late." Emma pouted.

"We are so sorry." Her dad apologized with a smile. "As a sincere apology, how about we extend the time spent at Princess Paradise by a day?"

"Really? I'll really love that, dad." Emma squealed in delight.

"Anything for you, Princess." Her mother said, stretching her hands to the back and ruffling her hair.

"Then, let's go." She commanded, stretching her hand upwards, like a commander going into battle.

Her parents laughed, as her dad deftly drove the car from the parking lot and into the street, then to the highway. They moved through the night. Husband, Wife and Daughter.

"Ooh, princess paradise, princess paradise…" Emma sang as her father drove through the windy, uphill road, on the way to the airport.

Then, when they had almost traversed the hilly road, things suddenly went downhill. 

The car suddenly went into autopilot mode. It locked the family in and locked the driver out. Then, it sped up, making a beeline for the sharp turn in front of them. At this point they were pretty much up the canyon. A swerve off the road would send them dropping and tumbling a hundred or so feet to the ground.

Emma's dad went into emergency mode. He took out a pen and began to furiously stab at the dashboard. 

It frightened Emma.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, don't worry about it, baby. Everything will be okay." Her mom answered, trying to dispel her curiosity with a casual wave of the hand and an amused smile. As if her husband was making a stupid joke.

But Emma would not have been their daughter if she wasn't smart enough to pick out the suspicious use of words.

"Everything will be okay?" She repeated. " Is everything not okay?"

She looked at the fast approaching sharp turn and asked.

"Are we going to die?"

Her mother sighed. She moved to join their daughter in the back and hugged her tight and whispered into her ears.

"Don't worry. Your dad will never let that happen, okay? Just believe me when I say everything will be okay, okay? We will be just fine. You, me and daddy." She consoled and tried to convince her daughter and herself at the same time.

Her father was in hyper mode. His goal was to puncture through the dashboard and hotwire the circuits. That would put the car back in manual drive mode.

The car increased in speed, advancing towards the edge. He roared and hit the same spot on the dashboard again. This time it gave way. He looked up with sense of emergency to get a glimpse at how little time they had left.

It was too late.

The car sped off the road, glide through the air and…

"I love you!" her father said, staring at his wife and daughter.

"Aaaaaaahhh!!" Emma screamed herself awake. She sat up, drenched in her own sweat and looked around her. She was in her small one room apartment, not in a car. She looked at herself to confirm she was not a nine-year-old again.

"Stupid dream." She hissed, pissed at the constant reminder of the accident that had ruined her life sixteen years back. Just as she wondered if she should lay down and go back to sleep with the hopes of having a dreamless sleep this time, her radio rang itself to life, making sure she knew that the time was now six in the morning.

"Already? I slept ten yesterday but it only feels like I have been asleep for two hours." She grumbled. She did not feel well-rested. Her shoulder still ached.

"I had this horrible dream for hours?" She shook her head and stood. She tweaked the radio frequency to her favorite morning radio host.

The radio began speaking.

*Good morning, beautiful people of upper downtown, central downtown and down-downtown Las Casa.*

"Good morning, Ghost." She responded in greeting to the man in the radio.

*It feels good to be awake this morning again, doesn't it?*

"I wish!" Emma mumbled in response.

*Even if you feel like it ain't, I want you to know that today really is going to be a great, marvelous day. Just take it from me.*

The host's encouragement made her chuckle. Even though he said so everyday and she heard him say it same time everyday, she had yet to experience a great, marvelous day. Still she would rather believe him than succumb to her own pitiful, self-loathing, demons.

*To all y'all listening right now, I welcome y'all to another daily dose of Allen's Early Morning Moves and Grooves. I am your forever-favorite host, Allen…*

Emma did her business and went about preparing for work as she listened to Allen's smooth voice as he introduced and played song after song, until it was seven, and he had to close up the show.

*Well, that's my time people. Until tomorrow morning, same time, same frequency, I remain your ever-loving motivational speaker, friend and host, Allen. Have a beautiful day, guys.*