Prologue

I had never thought I would die like this. Despite that small fact, I could see the irony in the situation.

He held out a pale hand, and when I did not take it, slapping it quickly across my face. I could feel the skin smart, and I raised my own hand to my cheek. The scar that was only just starting to heal along the edge of my eye had opened up again, and blood seeped onto my fingers, hot and sticky.

Breathe.

The room was dark, and small, and my claustrophobia had set in as soon as he had placed me here.

Breathe.

Don't retaliate.

'Temperance Brennan. World famous anthropologist. What a fitting setting, isn't it?'

I glanced at the walls, and through the gloom I could see the bones, sticking from the walls. This was truly the pit of death.

'Do you know how you will die?' he asked me. I bit my tongue and shook my head.

Don't retaliate.

'Do you know what's it's like to have every bone cut from your body?' Another shake. 'No? Do you know what it's like to have it done when you're still awake?'

Hi. This is a new story based on the Temperance Brennan novels by Kathy Reichs. First in the category! :) Hopefully now that the summer holidays are coming up in Australia, I'll have time to write a lot. I hope you like it. Please review, and fans of the books, please be assured, I am a Ryan/Tempe fan. Also, fans of the TV show Bones, be warned, this is hardly anything like the TV show, but it is still a brilliant series, and I hope this will be a good story. Thanks.

Arawynne