She looked up through the tops of the trees and squinted her eyes thinking she saw a winged figure flying through the sky. She shook her head and shrugged it off figuring that it was just a bird and continued walking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She ran and ran faster than she ever had before, but she could still hear it behind her. She smiled as she finally saw a light from the borderline of trees, but before she could reach it, everything. . . went. . . BLACK!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What happened next Blaire! What happened!"

A girl that looked about 18, with blonde hair, tied into a high ponytail, and bright green eyes that changed different shades when in the right lighting, stared at the small child, who was jumping up and down from anticipation, and smiled.

"Well~. . . You're just gonna have to wait till next time."

"Ehhh! Why?!"

Blaire smiled at how the child was reacting and glanced up to the figure behind them.

"Because it's time for you to go Maria."

Maria looked up to her with a questioning look on her face and turned to where Blaire was looking. A smile adorned her face as she saw who the figure was.

"Papa!"

The man watched as Maria started jumping up and down again and chuckled. He then turned to Blaire and thanked her for watching his child.

Blaire smiled as she watched the father and daughter pair walk away with Maria trying to repeat the story that was told to her to her father. She sighed and stood from the bench that she was previously sitting on. She looked around at her surroundings, and seeing that she was the only other 'person' there she sighed once more and started walking towards home. Little did she know that something was following her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Blaire started towards home, she felt as if something, or someone, was watching her. She stopped, and listened, watching, waiting for something to pop out at her. But as time passed she knew she was going to get no where and opened her mouth.

"Who's there! Show yourself!"

She was answered with silence, until she heard something. A chuckle. Blaire tensed up, waiting to see what would happen next.

"I'm warning you, show yourself! Now!"

"My my, pretty impatient aren't we?"

'Behind me?' Blaire turned and squinted her eyes, trying to see what was beyond the foliage, but found nothing. Another chuckle.

"So close, but not quite."

'What? Wher-’She turned to the front once again, eyes wide and almost jumped seeing a person not too far from where she was.

A man, and although the shadows were hiding his head, she could see that he was pale, but slightly built from what she could see with the dark shirt he was wearing underneath a dark green trench coat. She narrowed her eyes, wondering how she couldn't sense him.

"Who are you?!"

Again a chuckle; she wondered if this guy would stop chuckling and answer her questions.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out Blaire."

Blaire, with eyes narrowed and still cautious of the stranger in front of her, felt her heart beating faster. She started wondering how the h*** he knew her name when they've never met once before in her life, or at least of what she can remember.

"What do you want?!"

"Now, now, no need to be so snippy."

Even though she couldn't see his face, she had a deep feeling that he was mocking her. She scowled and said "Tell me now or else-"

"Or else what? You'll fry me? Don't think you'd want to do that, now would you my dear."

'What is he talking about?' With eyes still narrowed, she asked him and just like before, even though his face was concealed by shadows she could tell that he was grinning, quite maniacally too.

"Oh? What's this? The little birdie doesn't know what I'm talking about? Hehe. . . Hahahahahaha! That's even better!"

Still not knowing exactly what he was going on about, Blaire was getting even more freaked out as he continued laughing until it came to a dark, low chuckle. The man looked at Blaire once more with an evil smile.

"Well then I guess since you have no clue as to what I'm talking about, I think I'll be taking my leave."

"Wait!"

"I’ll be seeing you again soon. . . Little birdie. Hehehe. . ."

With an arm stretched out, Blaire watched as the man slowly disappeared into the darkness of the shadows. Her arm slowly came back to her side as she started wondering what the whole exchange she just had was about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaire came to a slow walk as she came to the borderline of trees where a small cabin resided at the close distance of a cliff. However it was far enough to walk around the cabin without being in any danger.

“I’m home!”

She was answered with silence as she walked further into the home. However as she did, the silence was interrupted with a cough. Blaire knew the source of the cough and hurried to it, where she entered a room and was greeted by a figure in bed.

The figure had heard Blaire and looked up from the window that they happened to be situated next to.

“Hey, I heard you come in. Welcome home.”

“Sara, what are you doing?! You know you’re not supposed to be out of bed!”

Sara, as Blaire had called her, had long dark blonde hair, with stunning blue eyes, that seemed to be able to look into ones soul if they stared long enough. She was fitted with a long white nightgown that looked as if it was water itself whenever it moved. Sara's face had dawned an apologetic expression and her breaths became short and labored as she turned to Blaire.

"I know. I'm sorry Blaire, but it just looked so beautiful outside, I just had to see it from the window, since I can't go outside."

Blaire sighed knowing that she wouldn't be able to change the fact that Sara had moved from her bed, where she should have been resting.

"You should have at least waited until I came home, you know how frail your body is right now."

Sara sighed in return and turned back to look out of the window and into the sky where the sun had just started to lower, though not enough to be considered a sunset.

"Yes Blaire, I know how weak my body is right now, but I just can't lie in bed all day. You know that."

Blaire sighed in defeat. She knew that Sara was right, that she needed to keep moving so body could slowly build back up.

"I know, it's just what if something happened and I wasn't there?! I don't know what I'd do if I lost you too."

Sara looked back at Blaire, and smiled kindly.

"You're not going to lose me anytime soon. Even you should know that sis."

Blaire looked back at her, but said nothing. Both her and Sara knew that her body wouldn't be able to take much more, but they both never wanted to admit the truth that was lying and waiting for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two weeks. It's been two weeks. Two weeks since that man came. Two weeks that Blaire has had those words of his stuck in her head. Two weeks that Blaire has had the feeling of something bad happening.

Ever since that man randomly appeared, Blaire has had a gut feeling that it wasn't the last and only time that she would see him. In fact, she knew that she was going to be getting another visit from him one day soon. And unfortunately for her, that day was nearing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaire was walking through like any other day that she had. But she felt like something was amiss. She had a feeling that something was going to happen, and whatever it was couldn't be good.

As she walked on, Blaire noticed that it was quiet in the forest, almost too quiet. In fact it felt unnaturally quiet, there were no birds chirping, creature scurrying, even the wind wasn't blowing, all she could hear was silence.

As Blaire walked deeper in, she started feeling very uneasy about the unnatural silence. She tried walking quicker, in hopes to reach the town that was on the other side of the forest faster. But every time she did, she felt like she was getting nowhere.

Finally through the silence, she heard something, something from up above. She looked, and thought she saw a black flying figure, but brushed it off thinking it was a crow. Though as she kept walking she started wondering that if it was a crow, why wasn't it making any sounds?

Blaire suddenly stopped, thinking she heard a snap. She turned, trying to pinpoint the noise, but all she could hear was silence, and as she continued to try she felt a chill crawl up her back. Now she knew, she knew something was there, something was watching her.

"Who's there?! I know you're there! Show yourself!"

That's when she heard it; a chuckle. Blaire tensed, she knew that chuckle, despite only hearing it in one encounter. Blaire narrowed her eyes as she scanned the trees around her, until she found the source of the noise.

"You."

"Hehe. My, my, seems like you haven't forgotten me, little birdie."

"How could I? Especially with that annoying chuckle of yours."

Despite not being able to see him through the shadows, Blaire had a feeling that he had something up his sleeves.

"Tsk, tsk,  best cooperate my dear, you wouldn't want something to happen to that sweet adorable sister of yours not would you?"

Blaire felt herself bristle. Now she didn't care where or who he was. How dare he bring her sister into something that she didn't belong in!

"Whoever you are, keep Sara out of this! Whatever you want with me, she has nothing to do with this!"

"Au contraire, in fact she does. She's what keeps your powers in check. The powers that I need."

At this point Blaire was so confused. Powers? What powers could she possibly have? As far as she knew she was an ordinary girl.

"Oh? What's this? You're dear sister didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

She could just feel him grinning with malice.

"That you're not human!"

With those four words, Blaire felt as if her brain shut down, wondering exactly what the h*** he was talking about.

"What do you mean?! Of course I'm human!"

"Heh. Of course you are Blaire. But then why don't you explain your extreme attraction to fire? Or the fact that you always wish you could jump off that little cliff of yours at home and fly? And how about you explain to my those tattoos on your back, when you obviously have no idea how you got them in the first place?"

Blaire felt stunned, confused, angry, and violated that he knew all of those facts, when they've only met once. And the fact that that meeting, wasn't even that much of a pleasant one.

"I see that you don't know the answers to those questions? Oh well, but to put it simply, like I said, you're. not. human."

Blaire had enough, and to be honest with herself, she's never been in this kind of situation. But then again who has? Where some stranger would randomly come up to you and tell you that you're not human? She didn’t think she knew what anyone would do in her current situation. Plus she didn't know what to do either, she was in full on panic at this point. So she did the last thing that she thought she would ever do. She ran. Ran away as fast as she could from this man.

"Hehehe. . . Hahahaha! You know you can't run from me forever Blaire. I will get those powers of yours if it's the last thing I do! But if that's how you want it, then let's start the game!"

She didn't look back, no matter where or how fast she was running, she knew he was right behind her.

"You know I'll catch you little birdie! The prey can never escape their hunter!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She felt like she had been running for hours when she knew she hadn’t been. She didn't care if her legs were on fire. She didn't care if her breath was almost nonexistent at this point. All she cared about was getting away from that madman and back home. But she knew he was still behind her. She could hear him and something that seemed to sound like wings, flapping and snapping branches and trees. She didn't dare look back, fearing that he right on top of her, or that if she did she'll and fall and it would be the end for her. So she kept her eyes forward hoping she would see the borderline of trees any minute, where she would be home free and be able to get help. Precautiously her eyes darted from left to right, looking out for something that might jump out at her and make her lose her pace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She smiled as she finally saw a shining light, she knew that it had to be the borderline between the town and the forest. She took the chance to finally look back to see if that man was still following her, and was relieved when she saw nothing behind her, thinking that she had lost him. But as she turned her head back forward to greet the light beyond the trees, her smile faltered. Because as soon as her hand went past the last of the trees, she heard a whisper, her senses stopped and all she saw and knew from then on was darkness. But the three words that were whispered would forever be engraved in her mind.

"Oh the irony"

. . . .To be continued. . . .