Alice's Curse (Prologue) A young man and woman were racing through the dark midnight forest. The man, holding the woman's hand, was leading the woman away from a black smoking figure off in the distance behind them. "Faster!" The man yelled. "I can't! Take her!" The woman yelled back. The sound of a baby's wail echoed the wails of the recently aflame camp and everyone in it. The man pulled the woman faster with him, not wanting to let either one go. "Hang on; please." The man whispered back to the beautiful woman. They ran, and ran until the woman felt that her lungs were being pulled out from her chest. She let go of the man's hand and fell to both knees, holding the wrapped bundle close to her chest rocking it. The man stopped and looked back and went to her side. "Just a little farther, we can make it." The man placed a hand on her shoulder. The woman looked up with a tear stained face. "No, you two are going to make it." Her voice sounded frail like she herself will break into pieces before them. She looked down at the tiny infant and cried harder. She whispered to the baby over and over agin that she was sorry. The man had, had enough and picked up the woman like the day that they vowed to spend the rest or their lives together. That was when he felt his hands become wet. He looked down to see blood starting to soak through his wive's tan shirt. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, I trickle of blood spilling over the corner of her mouth. "I was not strong for you, either of you." She looked back down at the baby. The wails and cries in the distance go closer as the man looked back, the shadows have grown thicker with every drink, and taste of the crimson liquid. The man lay down his wife and took the baby from her arms into his. Dying amber eyes looked up to longing, sadden blue ones. "I will keep them busy. I won't go down with out a fight." She spoke. She started to cough up blood as she tried to look through he hazy vision. "Run." She said. The man placed a kiss over her blood covered lips and whispered, to his only, and last love that she will never be forgotten. He stood, and without turning back once took off at an inhuman speed. The only sound now was the whoosh of the wind that swirled around the running man. He paused and sniffed the air. He was very close now, almost out of the woods. He started running and saw the first few lights of the human world. He ran into the small village as quiet as possible. He looked around trying to find he house with the Red Cross on it. That was when he heard the cry of the shadows enter the village gates. The man was scared now. 'They weren't suppose to get pass them!' He ran to the center of the village and through the small cemetery gates. He ran pass the cold,old grey head stones and to the small wood and brick cottage that he knew, within the next hundred miles the beast following him would not get her. He placed the baby down on the platform landing in front of the door. He took a small pouch from his back pocket and placed it next to the baby who was now fast asleep. He heard the creature screech behind him and turned around to look. A huge mass of shadows lurked at the gates entrance. The man turned back to the baby and placed a kiss upon her head and tucked a note in the many bundles of blankets. He then tore a piece of the rags off, got up and ran away from the house back into the darkness of the woods. The beast hovered over the black iron gates. Deep red wine colored eyes peaked through the mass of shadows. the shadows then turned away to follow the running man, letting out a wail that to some ears sounded like the mournful cry of a woman. The second the last of the beast's shadows left, all the house lights flickered on and off, causing the villagers to come out. A man dress in the same color as the beast walked out of his house to see the infant on his porch. It wasn't snowing out but the night was freezing. The old man picked up the baby, that now started to cry. "Hush, little one everything's alright." He said to the child. He took one quick sweep of the graveyard and turned to head inside when his foot kicked the little pouch. He picked it up and brought the child in to keep her warm. After the baby had stopped crying the lights came back on and the baby fell asleep. The next morning the old man in the shadow dress took the baby to the villager's church. The baby, the moment the old man stepped in the doorway to enter, started to wail. He called another, even older man, in black to step outside. The baby's cries soften into tiny sniffles. The two men exchanged words and the man holding the baby slowly pulled down the blanket a bit, exposing the infant's soft pale skin. Right at the base of the baby's neck was a bright red colored sign. But what shocked the eldest of the two was the fatal looking scar that ran from the baby's left shoulder to the next. The eldest man looked up with a stern face. "Get rid of it." And walked back inside the church and started the morning mass. The old man standing there in the middle of the quiet street stood there with the baby in his arms. He looked down at her tiny eyes, and noticed something about the child that the man never minded to notice. He has seen them before. In old stories he read when he was a child in a far away place of heavenly lights and stone. He's even seen them recently even before the child appeared at his door steps. Wolf eyes. The old man covered the young child back up and hurried home quickly locking his door. He placed the baby on the spare bed he had in his back room. He paced the floor in front of the little girl while she watched with big amber eyes. The man stopped and looked at the child, who was still silently watching. The man turned around and watched the child behind his shoulder and grabbed a ruler from a nearby desk. He held it out in front of the baby's face and slowly moved it back and forth. Her small eyes narrowed tracking the ruler and reached out to snatch it out if his hands and give a tiny bite. She let out a tiny howl and continued to gnarl on the strip piece of wood. The old man sat down in the desk's chair and placed his elbows on it so he could lean back on them. That's when his arm nudged the small pouch he found with the little tot and picked it up. He opened the bag and took out the small contents in contained. There was a small letter, a golden chain necklace with an arrow pendent, a worn out picture of a young man and woman, a smooth black stone, that was warm to the touch. Suddenly the bag jumped out of the man's hand and fell to the ground. Something inside the bag moved around. The man felt the hairs in the back of his neck stand on edge. A black,silk, shadowy mist came up from the bag and went straight for the small child. The old man stood there shocked as the smoke wrapped around the child. The child gave a growl to the smoke and snapped her tiny jaw, the smoke entered the child's mouth. The child gave a tiny whine like she had tasted something bitter. The blinked a few times as the smoke cleared away. The man, jaw hung open, started as the child's eyes to a red wine color then back to it's original blazing amber. "Dear lord." The man whispered. The child then went back to chewing on the ruler until it broke. The man sat down and watched the child. He grabbed the letter and opened it up. The letter was written in Latin. As the man was half way through the letter, he covered his mouth with a hand and his eyes were pricked with tears. He looked at the child, taking in heavy sighs. "Alice." He said the child's name. He got and picked the baby up and sat back down rocking her, humming an old song that it's lyrics were lost so very long ago.