The Shadows

Chapter One

Standing in the middle of a busy airport was one half of a lost soul. Onlookers could say she looked like she despised the world, but she had great reason to. The young girl never had the best luck, always deeming to find trouble no matter where she goes and this time is no exception, but let's start from the beginning.

The young girl never had loving parents. The two claiming to be her parents always seemed to hate the girl for reasons she could never know. This created a toxic environment for the girl to grow up in.

While other kids in her classes were going on family vacations, she was learning to cook so she wouldn't get punished.

While other kids were getting praised for their achievements, she was getting yelled at for things she didn't do right.

The punishments, or as her parents liked to call them, life lessons, grew in severity as she got older. Instead of getting slapped for messing up their dinner, she would now spend days recovering after the lesson, attempting to find the strength to continue on. But she never gave up hope on a better life.

She would dream about having a loving family that would praise her for good grades and take her to get ice cream as an reward. About having older brothers to annoy her and she would claim to hate, but secretly loved them to death.

She soon realized that this dream would never come true, and gave up hope of ever escaping. Instead, she worked day and night to become a better version of herself. If she couldn't protect herself, why not protect others in her same position? So that's what she did.

She trained to become a killer, but not a normal one. No, she became the most feared assassin in the world, yet she stayed in the house that hated her very existence. Her reasoning for staying was that she didn't know if she could continue doing what she loved without the hatred from her family fueling her.

If only she knew how she would flourish out of their grasps, she might have left earlier. Yet no story comes without hardships and Annabella's is not the exception.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It started as a normal day for Annabella. Getting yelled at to wake up and get their food cooked by her so called parents.

"Wake up! Where's our food?!" John, her 'dad' yelled while banging on her door. She had luckily remembered to lock it the night before so he could not come in. It had happened before, but Annabella liked to pretend it didn't.

As she got up from her sad excuse for a bed, she yelled back to him "I'm coming." Annabella waited until she heard his footsteps go down the stairs before she tiredly dragged herself up and went to her closet that held the little amount of clothes she owned in that house. She had more, just not in the house where her alcoholic parents could get to them and sell them.

Grabbing a tattered hoodie and a pair of jeans that had seen better days, she opened her door and began to head downstairs into the kitchen. She quickly started to put together eggs and toast along with coffee for her mother and father. Once she finished, she knew that she would not be allowed to eat, so she headed outside to begin her journey to school.

Annabella went to a fairly big school, which made it easier to blend in with the crowd. She did not like to be the center of attention and only had one friend in which she confided everything in. Sadly, her friend did not attend her school or even live in the same country. Isabella Rossi was her name, but how they meet is a story for a different time.

Annabella made her way around the crowd of teenagers to get to her class before the bell rang. She dreaded the day as she had a fight later that night in the Underground which was the most famous fight club around the entire country. She happened to be the best fighter they had so she often had several fights in one night, but she had to push through or she wouldn't have any food to eat.

The day passed as slowly as she expected it to, and by the time she received the text from her manager Henry about the fights she was doing that night, she was ready to cancel them. Of course she couldn't do that as it would look bad on her and Henry, but it's the thought that counts.

She had three fights tonight against the Hammer, Thorn and Poison. They were higher up on the fight ladder, but still nowhere near Annabella. She went by Shadow in the underground world. It was a well known and feared name amongst some of the highest criminal groups. Even mafias had heard of the havoc and chaos that name brought along.

She replied that she would be there tonight and went to lunch. She didn't have any food with her, but she had some money so she headed to the cafeteria to grab something. After getting an apple and some water, she headed towards the library to get what little homework she had to do finished.

As she sat down to do her homework, she got called down to the office. This was highly unusual for her, but she did not question it. Hurrying to throw her food into her bag, she went towards the office as fast as she could without being noticed that much by the other students.

Once she entered, she saw that her father was sitting in the chair across from the principal. She felt a pit of dread form in her stomach. She began questioning everything she had done that day in hopes of figuring out what she had done wrong except not waking up early enough. Annabella came up empty though, and sat down in the chair beside her father once she was directed to by the principal.

"I have called you down here today because your father has informed us that you are moving. I just wanted to formally thank you for being such a great student and wish you the best of luck at your new school," the principal stated once she had sat down.

Annabella was shocked. They were moving again? She had a feeling as to why they were moving, and could feel the impending doom of the punishment waiting for her. She also knew that she would now for sure have to cancel her fights for the night.

She nodded and thanked him before her father said it was time to go. She got up with her head down and followed him out of the school. Once outside, he grabbed her arm and whispered to her,

"This is your fault. If you didn't scream so loud then the neighbors wouldn't have heard. You're in for it when we get home."

She knew better than to speak in a moment like this, so she stayed quiet and got into the rundown truck he owned and began to mentally prepare herself for the next few hours. She knew that the rest of the day would be pain filled for her and that there was no escaping.

Or so she thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they arrived back home, she rushed in knowing that if she made them wait it would turn out worse for her. As soon as she stepped inside, a glass cup was thrown at her. She didn't move out of the way in time so it hit her shoulder. Annabella now had glass stuck in her shoulder, and she would not be able to get it out for a few hours at the least.

"This is all your fault! If you would just have been quieter then we could have stayed." Her mother, Christy, yelled at her while beginning her punishment. The punches and kicks came at her from what seemed like hours.

After they had finished, they told her to pack up the house while they went out. Annabella knew she needed to get out no matter what it took. She slowly got up and made her way to her measly bedroom. What she needed to escape was in there, hidden under the floorboards where her two abusers could not find it.

It seemed to take hours to reach her room, which in reality was only 10 minutes due to how injured she was. She went straight to the loose floorboard as soon as she was in there and grabbed the thing that guaranteed her escape. A burner phone with only one number saved on it. She quickly opened the phone and dialed the number.

"Hey Isa? I need to call in that favor."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just hours later, Annabella stood in the middle of the busy airport waiting for the plane that would be her saving grace to be called.

She was one the phone with her manager telling him what had happened. He of course was disappointed, but understood and said he was wanting to move anyway. They worked out the details and he said goodbye and hung up.

This was Annabella's new start.