Page 1 of Magic and Mayhem

Prologue

Have you ever had an out of body experience? One where you know that life is still passing you by, but you’re stuck in the moment and can’t seem to blink it away?

That’s my first memory.

I was walking through a realm of lights and sounds. People laughing, others crying, loud ringing, metal rides spinning. The heads of animals seem to invite me in just as much as they make me afraid.

Something was pulling me towards it, a voice in my head. At first, I thought it was my mother, telling me not to be afraid.

But then, there was something else, maybe even someone else. All I can recall for certain is that the voice was warm and safe, telling me to run to it and not to stray.

How did I get here?That’s a great question.

I remember being asleep, and then hearing music, like the sounds of a carnival. I was filled with so muchjoy that I couldn't help jumping from my bed and running into the darkness.

I’m certain there are stories warning children from running to the sounds they hear in the night, but none of those mattered then. All I could see, all I could feel, was the carnival.

It was magical, even in the distance, energy radiated from it in waves, calling to me. I ran so hard that I lost a shoe. I think I tried to turn back for it, but that new voice held my attention, snapping me back to the task at hand.

When I stepped onto the soil just outside the first tent, I remember the clap of thunder in the background. Pain sliced through my chest as I fell to my knees, but it disappeared just as quickly. That’s when I saw the lights.

They flashed around me like I was walking through the Milky Way. All sorts of painted faces, smiling people, and joy seemed to surround me. I was happy, I know that. But then the faces began to twist and I felt an urge to run deeper, to hide away.

The voice pulled me towards a tent with purple stripes on the outside, such a contrast from the red and yellow everywhere else. I felt like I was floating as I drifted closer to it, my hand reaching out as if in answer. I wanted to crawl into that space and curl up in the safety I knew it held within it. I don’t know how I knew, I just did.

Then, everything changed when my body collided with a man. The one I now call Master.

I was only a kid, eight years old when he looked down at me. His eyes were glazed over until our gazes met, and then it was as if he was snapped out of a trance.

He tilted his head and smiled. This one wasn’t filled with warmth or safety though, it was menacing as his hand latched around my arm. The man dragged me away,and as the sounds of civilization faded the deeper we ventured into the forest, a pressure began to build in my ears until they popped. It was at that moment that the world as I knew it vanished before my very eyes.

I fought and screamed and shouted, pleading for that voice inside my head that made me feel calm and protected. I needed them to do something because this couldn’t be how it ended. There was panic in my mind no longer coming from me. I could feel a presence there fighting too.

And then came the darkness, and everything about my life before that moment seemed to disappear from my mind. I was no longer able to remember where I came from, only that fateful night. It was all I had.

So I clung to it, and even now, I still hold that memory close. Because everything after that has been one of nightmares.

“You have that look in your eyes,” he said as he pulled me along. “You brought me back. It’s how I know you were made for us. This is your destiny.”

Present day

My keeper stays behind me, practically breathing down my neck as I walk from the library in town back to my house. The only escape I get from this hell on Earth is when I disappear into a different realm between the pages.

Master has tried to stop me from reading before; he says it fills my head with ideas that have no business being there.

He’s wrong—the books fill my head with things I need to know.

I was never allowed to go to school, but my keeper educated me enough to get by. She was the one who taught me to read. It wasn’t out of a sense of obligation, but more so that she wanted me to sit in silence and not bother her.

Her plan backfired when I really started to learn, though. I found that there was a whole world outside of this place I’m forced to call home. A place where people are happy and can make their own choices. I’ve read everything from fantasy to non-fiction, romance to different languages. It is allfascinating.

Picking up my pace with the books clutched tight to my chest, I try to put some space between me and the woman who never seems to be more than a breath away.

“Slow down, Evolet,” she chides, forcing me back into her little bubble once again.

I huff, and she glares at me. “I wouldn’t have to be so close if you didn’t pull stupid, childish stunts.”

My head hangs in shame because she’s right. Books have taught me a lot. The ones I held onto the most, like what I have in my hands now, are when the main female character runs away from her captor. I’ve tried to run so many times because of that. Yet, every time, they find me.

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