1 Prologue

My name is Rachel Rodriguez. I am sixteen years old. I am a Canadian by birth, I grew up in Alaska. I had a hard time making friends, and I always ended up saying the wrong things. I had trouble reconciling my life with those of my friends or at least to their lives or as I perceive them to be.

Charles and Camilla are orphans brought up by their grandmother and aunts. Francis' mother was only seventeen when she had him. A thin blooded capricious girl with red hair and a rich daddy. Bunny had an American childhood, the son of a Clemson football star who became a banker. He had four brothers and no sisters.

After Middle School, I went to a High School in San-Antonio . And during my two years there, I studied ancient Greek. I loved the language, you see…And everyday after lessons, I would bury myself in books, back home.

Sadly enough, I had no parents. Yes. You would be wondering how I cared for myself up to this age. Did I go to an orphanage? No…Not at all.

I actually had a relative, who brought me up from my infant years.

I lived with my old grandaunt 'Dame old Tabitha ' as they referred to her, on a frozen island in a mansion. The only property she had . She wanted me to have all she didn't have in her days. Sound Education…Wealth…Get married to a responsible man…

She worked her old bones to the core to make sure I had everything. She was my mom and dad. She made sure I didn't lack anything, even if she had to sacrifice her wellbeing.

When I was three years of age, my old grandaunt buried me in thousands of books . She used to say " Since you don't know how to make friends, then make friends with your books " And I did. Books became my friends…solace.

One one happy April Afternoon, when I was five , my old grandaunt brought me along with her to the lake , where other villagers fetched water from.

As I dipped my favorite cup into the lake, I heard an enormous roar and the shrill scream of my grandaunt. A grizzly bear appeared from the woods and attacked the villagers. I watched as the bear killed everyone except for me. I didn't know why it left me.

For Revenge…?! Or because I was too small, and couldn't count as a snack?

I stood there too surprised to even blink or move a muscle. The bear turned around after having its fill and left. I was left to watch the remains of my grandaunt and the other villagers.

Then it started snowing hard and covered the remains after about four hours. The relatives came along with the security when their family members didn't come back home.

The villagers all tearfully asked me what happened, since I was the only survivor, but I couldn't speak. The securities thought I had developed a trauma, and escorted me back to my home, the only mansion away from civilization

They consoled me and coaxed me to speak, but I couldn't hear a word they said. I was left alone, after they became tired.

I was left alone in the empty mansion. I tossed and turned on my bed, but I couldn't sleep a wink. Everytime I close my eyes, I was back at the frozen lake. It kept haunting me , to the extent I developed insomnia. I could only sleep in the afternoon.

But walking through it all was one thing; walking away, unfortunately has proved to be quite another, and though once I thought I had left that frozen lake on that April afternoon,long ago,now I'm not so sure.

Now the security and villagers have departed and life has grown quiet around me,I have come to realize that while for years I might have imagined myself to be somewhere else in reality. But it wasn't an imaginative reality but reality itself.

A million-zillion miles from nowhere was where it had begun and where it had ended,after my bizarre childhood in the mountains. I suppose at one time in my life I have heard many stories, but this is the only story I'll never be able to tell, or so I thought.