Prologue

Shaw

"Shh, here he comes."

The murmurs grow as I walk down the crowded street. I can feel their eyes on me, their whispers floating in the air like an invisible weight I can't shake. It's been months since the road accident that scarred my face, but the stares and the hushed words still haunt me, reminding me of what I have lost.

That fateful night did not just scar my face and leave me looking like a monster, it also left my brother and me orphaned and yet all anyone seems to focus on is the physical scars it left on me.

In the span of a few months, I have gone from a normal resident of Sweetheart Falls to the town's freak. I've become an outsider in my town, a spectacle for others to gawk at and judge.

Ignore them!

I put my head down and push open the door to the convenience store, feeling everyone's eyes on me when I step in. I don't look up even when I grab a basket and walk straight to the shelves. I just need to grab everything I came here for and get the hell out before I draw more attention to myself. I start grabbing a can of beans from the shelf when I catch venomous words thrown my way by a familiar voice.

"I saw him walk in here just now, where the heck did that ugly monster go?"

The same voice that has been a thorn in my side for weeks. While everyone in town gawked at my scars and judged me with only their eyes, there is one person who has not been shy in voicing his thoughts. Tommy and I graduated from the same high school last year and we are both one of the few kids who tower over everyone else at six-foot-four. He's let this little fact get to his head, falling into the illusion that his size makes him invincible.

Ignore. Ignore. Ignore!

I clench my jaw and force myself to focus on the task at hand, grabbing the can of beans a little too hard and tossing it into the basket.

"I heard his face is so screwed up that even surgery can't fix. I would never come out in the daytime if I had a face like that!" chimes another voice and I try to block them out, but their sneers and jeers echo in my ears, repeating in my mind over and over again.

Their words lash out like venomous arrows aimed to wound and break me and I feel every stab.

"Oh, there he is," calls out Tommy. I don't need to look up to see he's being flanked by his little group of delinquents. "If you ask me, he should be living with the bears and wolves in the mountain. An animal like him is not fit to be living with the rest of us. What do you think boys?"

His group murmurs in agreement but neither of them says a word to antagonize me, suddenly timid. Perhaps they can feel my control snapping by the second.

Ignore them!

I am grabbing another can of beans when the next words hit me. "I bet his own mother would gag if she saw how ugly he looks now–"

Everything happens in a blur. Something dark and vengeful surges through my veins and causes me to snap. I drop the basket with a loud thud and spin with fury burning in my eyes. It takes me mere seconds to reach the cocky guy and I watch as the smile drops from his lips when my hand closes around his throat, lifting him off the floor. He barely has time to react as his back slaps hard against the shelf and sends items flying to the floor.

I feel the fast drum of his pulse against my hand as he slaps it in an attempt to get me to let go, but I don't budge. My eyes burn with fury as I stare at the sheet-white face and terrified brown eyes in front of me. The tension from earlier has now been replaced by fear– thick and suffocating with its weight.

"Say that again!" I growl, my voice so deep it's foreign even to my own ears. "I fucking dare you!"

Tommy's previously cocky expression is now a mask of shock and terror as he tries to free my tight grip, but it's ironclad. There is something dark and sinister in me begging to show this man and his little followers what a monster truly looks like.

They've been practically begging for me to react. The monster... Oh, he's dark, bitter, and angry.

"Let go of him!" someone yells from behind me, and I see the fight slowly fade in Tommy's eyes as they slowly start turning glassy. I let go of him and watch the man drop to the floor with a loud thud. I stare at the kneeling Tommy who's coughing and gasping for breath even as tears trail down his cheeks. His eyes are red when he looks up and instead of a mocking glare, there is plain, undiluted fear swimming in them. The fearful expression stays even as he crawls away from me and to his friends with twin expressions of horror at what just happened.

When I turn around, it's to find everyone else watching me. A mix of fear and unease dance in their gaze as if they have seen something in me they cannot comprehend.

I raise my hand, ready to defend my actions and point out that the asshole was asking for it but the fear I read in their eyes tells me whatever comes out of my mouth is not going to make a difference. These people have already made up their minds on who, or rather what, I am.

A monster.

An animal too unsuitable—too unstable—to be around people.

My face hardens as I stare at the people who've judged me on my appearance even as something dark wraps its arms around my heart. As I walk forward, they all jump out of my way with some hiding behind the shelves when I approach the door.

Overwhelmed by their apprehension and the realization that I have become someone to be feared, I turn on my heels and bolt out of the store, desperate to escape the suffocating atmosphere. The door slams shut behind me as I sprint away.

In the distance, the mountains with their vastness and solitude seem to beckon at me and the answer is as clear as day. I know where I need to go.

It's better for myself and everyone if this monster lives with its kind.