Chapter One

Chapter 1

The girl stared out the window, oblivious to everything happening around her. She was watching a crow, black as ink on the pale branches of a skeletal tree. Gray clouds darkened the sky, and the faintest smile appeared on her pale lips. The bell rang, snapping her out of her trance. Slipping out of the classroom, she slid her black Bluetooth headphones over her ears and swung her backpack over her shoulder. It had begun to drizzle as she left school, but she didn't mind. Shaking her long, pale hair out of her eyes. she walked on. She stopped suddenly, her gaze fixed on something at her feet. It was a feather, the color of pure shadows with a tip the color of the moon. A raindrop landed on it as she picked it up, but she paid it no mind. Thunder clapped and lightning flashed, illuminating the grin on the girl's face. She sauntered down the sidewalk, her head nodding to her music and her hands resting in the pocket of her oversized black sweatshirt. She continued down a gravel path leading into a small woods, still unconcerned with the weather. She stopped at the front door of a large, old house and fished around in her backpack. Moments later, she pulled out a small silver key and stuck it in the door. Shaking the rain out of her hair, she walked in. Putting the key on a table by the door, she bounded up the stairs to a door with a small plaque reading 'Moon.' As she put her hand on the knob, something emerged from the shadows and brushed against her ankles, causing her to jump. She looked down to see a pure white cat with two mismatched eyes grinning up at her. She smiled and opened the door, allowing it to go in before her. As she entered, the caw of a crow echoed around the room. Light glinted off of the large, silver birdcage hanging in the corner of the room, a shining black crow with white-tipped feathers inside. Smiling at the open cage door and the key at the floor of the cage, she lifted the crow out of the cage and it landed next to the cat, who paid it no mind. The girl then opened the window and climbed on to the roof, her animal companions at her heels.