independent. | Jace Wayland

prologue

Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere, No Where Near New York.

Thursday, 3:07 p.m

Mr Cartwright slammed his suitcase shut and carried it out into the small hallway.

"Are you ready?" He asked his wife, and Mrs Cartwright came out of the living room, tugging on her coat.

"My things are already in the car, get yours in and I'll get Y/n. Hurry." Both turned in opposite directions, the man towards the front door and the woman to the room of their 7 year old daughter. She opened the door tenderly and peered in. Splayed on the floor were teddies and blankets and a quilt propped up by a long cardboard tube to resemble a tent of some kind.

Mrs Cartwright heard a light playful giggle from beneath the blanket and a small head popped out.

"Look mummy, I made a fought!" The child laughed and Mrs Cartwright took two swift steps and scooped up her daughter and placed her on her feet.

"That's lovely Y/n but we have to go now. Grab a teddy you want to keep." She ushered and Y/n reached for the teddy bear on her small unmade bed and clutched it to her chest.

The child watched her mother leave the room and quickly followed, struggling to keep up with her small legs. She often remained silent when her mother and father were like this stressed and a little on edge, which was rather often. She knew they weren't mad at her, but she didn't want them to get mad if she were to annoy them so she kept quiet and hugged the bear with all her might.

"Come Y/n." Her mother picked her up, she hadn't realised she'd been dordiling, and the child clutched to her mothers chest as she jogged out the small cottage and got into the already started car where her father waited.

"But- but what about our h-house." The child squeaked, looking back and forth to her mother and father in the backseat. Neither adult answered or even looked at the girl so she slumped back and felt a few warm tears slip down her face. She held her teddy with all her might and pulled her knees to her chest. She fell asleep soon after that.

"You don't need to worry, they won't follow us over the border." She opened her eyes slightly, but not all the way at her fathers words, he was still driving but the sun had well set.

"But you can't guarantee that. They will follow us until we fall off the face of the earth. They will kill us, Eli, they'll take her too." Her mothers words struck a spark of panic in the young girl's chest.

"Who'll take me mama? Who will kill you? Don't let them take me!" She said all at once and her mother spun in her chair in the passenger seat to comfort her child.

But she never got the chance. Another set of headlights sped into view and Y/n watched as her mothers mouth opened but never heard what she said. The two vehicles collided and everything broke at that moment.

When Y/n opened her small blue eyes again, her parents were dead and she had to lie in a pool of her own blood and broken glass. Too small, too damaged, too scared to do anything else. Then she moved for the door, her bloody hands clutching the handle and she pulled.