1 Prologue: Annalise

I don't want to go to hell.

Why the thought remained, so bold and clear, so desperate and telling, was a mystery to Annalise Blackwell.

Playing with the words, tossing around the simple concept, she wondered what it meant. What was "hell"? Why didn't she want to go there? Surely, no such place could be of such torture that she would give up the chance to see a new world. A world of, say, flowers and bees. A world that had animals and trees. A world that had an ocean. What is an ocean, Annalise thought, is it pretty?

The mere hope of one day being blessed enough to witness such beautiful miracles of science made Annalise's heart do a flip. Her mind was transported to a different place, a different sight, a different purpose. And for one small, yet wonderful moment in time, Annalise Blackwell was truly, honestly, genuinely, happy.

But somehow, someway, those unrelenting, grim words never left her head.

I don't want to go to hell.