Prince Of Darkness

Chapter One

The winter Solstice is near. Already nobles began to flock the streets of the Fray. Of course they don't see the actual Fray. Instead they shop in the small part of the marketplace known as the Veil because it attempts to cover the horrors of the Fray. The Veil is a wonderful place. Giant malls and shopping plazas. Shiny, new buildings. It almost looks like a real city. There's even a nice little frozen lake with people skating on it and a bridge over it where young couples could be seen strolling along. It looks like the kind of city you would find in a snow globe. Everywhere you go there is joy on people's faces. 

The smile pasted on my face is fake and the crisp, clean clothes I wore were stolen from the mall a few Solstices ago. As I walked through the Veil, I saw aristocrats rushing to buy Solstice presents for their spoiled and bratty children. No one even notices me. If they had stopped for a second, they would've easily realized that I don't belong here, despite my clean clothes. They would take one look at me, my greasy, tangled brown hair braided down my back, my old, worn cloak that I wore everywhere, my dad's old boots that had now a hole in them, my dirty face and calloused hands and shun me. The most obvious give away would be my dark eyes. My eyes that held no hope, no happiness, no light. This marked me as of the Fray.

I walked on and saw children playing in the park by the lake, enjoying the snow, waiting for their parents to finish shopping. There were three children building snowmen and making snow angels. Several children were throwing snowballs at each other. Some were drinking hot cider or hot chocolate to warm up from the cold. I heard a few exclaiming that winter was their favorite season. I had to scoff at that. Imagine being that privileged. Winter in the Fray was absolutely brutal. Little to no heating, shortage of electricity, and of course the lack of game to hunt made it the hardest season to survive. But these children, they didn't have to worry about any of that. When they got cold, they just went inside their heated houses and had a hot meal waiting for them. 

As I walked, I focused my attention two teenage girls wearing matching hot pink beanies with a professional-looking camera that they probably got for Solstice. They were busy taking pictures of themselves in the most ridiculous poses. Someone should really tell them they looked like fools. They were so distracted that they barely noticed anyone else until some of the children started attacking them with snowballs. They screamed in frustration as their hair got wet. Their noses and faces flushed red and they started screaming about how their father was going to sue them. I had to laugh. They were at least sixteen and they were threatening to sue a bunch of eight year old kids. The upper class baffled me sometimes. The children just looked at the girls and stuck their tongues out and ran away laughing. 

Close by was a young boy with glasses, probably no older than ten, sitting on a bench by himself reading a thick book. He was completely fascinated by it. Occasionally, he would look up in delight as if he had just figured something out. I understood completely. There was a special kind of joy that only reading could bring. Unfortunately for me, reading was not something that I was able to do very often as books were expensive and utterly useless for everything, but kindling. My sister and I were two of the few in the Fray that could actually read. Our father had insisted on teaching us when we were younger. 

As I walked by the beanie girls, their mood shifted quickly as they noticed me. They gave me a once over, noting my appearance. They clearly noticed that I was of the Fray. I saw their expressions change from disgust at the children into those of disgust at me. They looked at each other and an evil smirk passed between them. They started to come closer towards me, but thankfully kept some distance between us because they probably thought I was contagious or something. 

"Ew, look at her hair," one of them exclaimed. She was the shorter one and had wavy black hair with horizontal white stripes across it. "It's so greasy and messy. And come on, braids like that went out of style years ago." Well come on now, not everyone has rich parents. And besides, take a look at your own hair, I didn't realize that zebra manes were in fashion. Of course, I didn't say this out loud because I didn't want to ruin this perfect opportunity.