Chapter 1: Prologue

Prologue: My Name Is Selene

My name is Selene.

That's my name, the rest of it hardly matters. You can tell who I am from my colouring, it's distinctive in more ways than one. The way people look at me in the street, equal measures of reverence and disgust; has made me someone I'm not altogether proud with. I have friends, sure, but love has always avoided me.

I see real families almost every day, and the way the parents smile at their kids almost breaks my heart. Because I can never have that. Not when your parents are too wrapped up in themselves to see how much they hurt their kids. As sad as it is, that is my life.

I could live with it, if the same treatment wasn't extended to my brother. There is a degree of responsibility with younger sibling, and I would take the weight of the world for my brother. We are like chalk and cheese, he's snarky and I'm shy, but that doesn't mean I love him any less. We are two halves of the same whole, both tall and blonde with sharp chins. It looks better on him than it does on me.

Love is not something I expect. My friends continue to surprise me with it, however, in the thoughtful Christmas gifts and notes passed between us in classes. Their parents are much more reluctant to begin with, but they don't say out loud. If I wasn't so good at reading their eyes, then I wouldn't know. And they warm up, and now many of them seem more like family to me than my own parents ever have.

Right now, I am sitting on my bed, my four-poster bed, in my massive bedroom in my massive house. I suppose that's one of the better attributes to my life - money, something I never need worry about. I'm not stupid enough to regret having that.

But something feels like change. The electric feel of the atmosphere I am sitting in, the humid tones of the air, it all hints to something I can't quite place my finger on. Every time I try to name it, it slips through my fingers.

Again, it's best if I ignore it.

So, I do.

And that was my first mistake.