ASH HAVEN, NEW HAMPSHIRE. A quaint little town in a quaint little state filled with quaint little people in their quaint storybook houses.

Not even those quaint little people who had lived there their entire lives knew of the darkness that seeped deep within the roots of every tree and tainted the very soil they walked on.

Even she had been fooled into thinking everything was normal in Ash Haven.

Normal.

She really, really missed normal.

Normal people didn't find themselves running through the woods, shoes discarded, blood-matted hair whipping in the wind and getting snagged on branches.

She could hear the beast behind her. They both knew she could never outrun it but it taunted her anyway. That was the problem with these things; they were never taught to not play with their food.

And because the universe decided she could never get a break, her already bleeding foot stepped on a jagged rock that some god somewhere probably placed in that exact spot just for her. She cried out, falling to the ground.

That's how she found herself lying on the forest floor. Her feet burned. Her lungs burned. Her eyes burned from the tears that wouldn't stop. She let them close just so she could see the man whose image had been ingrained on her brain the moment she met him.

She wanted to fight. She wanted to get up and give the beast circling her every last bit of fight in her. But she laid there, thinking of the man with the honey blonde hair with eyes to match. Thinking of the times with him when things were normal.

Normal. She missed normal.

A/N: Hiii, everyone. Bea here. This idea has been in my head for YEARS and here I am finally writing it. I really want to use this as a way to try my hand at writing something a little darker than what I would normally do and I hope you love it! The first full chapter should be up in a day or two, and hopefully I will be able to update weekly after that. Please let me know what you think!