Criticism is appreciated. There is an enunciation guide in here and I am still in the process of adding to this. Suggestions are also welcomed, and feel free to be blunt!

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Enunciation and character information

The children:

Lina Way: Aged 21
Milo Way: Aged 20
Mia Way: Aged 19
Leania Way: Aged 18
Kiata Way: Aged 17
Azalea Way: Aged 16
Sparrow Way: Aged 15
Lyca Way: Aged 13
Jaybird Way: Aged 12

Other:

Mariana: Aged 14

Lina Way (Lin-e-ah)
Milo Way (My-low)
Mia Way (Me-ah)
Leania Way (Lie-an-ah)
Kiata Way (Key-at-ah)
Azalea Way (Ah-say-la)
Sparrow Way (Spare-row)
Lyca Way (Lie-ca)
Jaybird Way (J-bird)
Mariana (Mare-e-an-nah)


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Prologue

Nine sisters sitting in a lonesome wood with only the wild around them. They no longer had a home to call their own. Their parents had been murdered brutally in front of them, and then their simple little farm had been burned to the ground. They had barely escaped the hungry flames, licking at their heels. Night was approaching swiftly, and even the youngest sister, Jaybird, whom had not even reached her teenage years yet, knew better than to be in the open in the woods at night.
The sisters stood up, Jaybird shaky on her aching feet and twisted ankle.
”There are no regrets," she murmured, shivering in the cooling air.

"Come on Jaybird, we have to find shelter before night!" the eldest of her sisters spoke in a worried but impatient tone.
Jaybird nodded and hurried after her sisters, pulling her short brown hair from it's pigtails as she ran.
"Uh!" Jaybird tripped over a form on the ground. She turned to look at what it was and instantly regretted it.
"No!" Her scream echoed among the trees. She heard feet pounding against the fall leaves, creating a steady "crunch crunch" noise.
"Jaybird, there you ar-" her sister's sentence ended abruptly as she inhaled sharply, noticing the body of Tethyzxiva, the fifth youngest sister, "Tethys," she whispered.

Jaybird resisted the urge to sob and failed. Her sister scooped her up in her arms and held her close as she ran away, back to the others, "shh, shh," her sister consoled, "we have a nice little refuge we found. It's an abandoned cottage with a nice little fireplace. No malevolent creature is going to get us," Jaybird relaxed a little, even managing to force a smile as her sister used one of her favorite words.
"I wish that Mom and Dad and Tethys were here, Lina," Jaybird whispered, crying.
"I know, I know, little Jaybird," Lina consoled.

Four screams pierced the night, sickening crunching sounds following. The sound of sniffling and crying suddenly resounded in front of the duo.
"What happened?" the eldest sister, Lina, whom had been cradling Jaybird, suddenly set her on her feet again.
"I-It killed Kiata, Mia, Leania, and Milo," a terrified voice said.
Three figures stepped from the shadows, the remaining three youngest daughters.

3:00 A.M. the same night (October 20th)
Jaybird stirred slightly as she heard a muffled groan, and the next thing she knew, she was being shook awake, Lyca sat next to her, panicked brown eyes staring into her own.
"Jaybird, it's back! It took Lina!"
That woke Jaybird up. She was on her feet in a flash. The only ones left out of the original nine were the youngest four.
That same night they fled the cottage and took refuge in a barn, much like the one their parents had been murdered and burned in.

Chapter one
Jaybird’s Journal



October 21st, 2006

Our parents and sisters are dead and it is morning. Nice to know we made it through another night; though all of us seem to be getting less and less sleep. We trudge through the day, fleeing from place to place, slowly dying of starvation; we scrounge what food we can, as we have already gone through what little we brought from home. I have likely starved the most, saving what I can and putting it in my little bag.

I have always hated morning. Now it’s my refuge. Every second of day is a precious gift.
"Lyca, Azalea, Sparrow, Li-" I began the wake up calls but cut myself short, a single tear escaping my eye and rolling down my cheek as I thought of five of my sisters whom I would never see again. Lost in the forest. Dead. I saw Azalea shudder as I broke off, I myself shuddering. It would be nearly impossible to tell which of us was next to die. Which would fall to the creature in the woods? We swore we would never go back in there ever again, yet today we had to go back into the horrible dark woods full of hungry creatures that think that we’d make a yummy meal. I am filled with fear just thinking about it.

"Time to wake up," I called quietly. Not waiting for them to stir, I got up and looked around the spacious barn we had collapsed and fallen asleep in last night, a mound of alfalfa serving as our bed.
I peered outside, trying to see through the thick morning fog.
Movement in the tiny house next to the barn startled me. "Lyca, Azalea, Sparrow!" I scrambled back to them and shook Lyca, realizing that Azalea was awake, and at the same time looking wildly around the barn for Sparrow.
Lyca stirred uneasily in her slumber.

"Come on! Someone's coming!" a door slammed shut nearby. “I knew it!” Lyca’s sudden awakening startled me, and I fell backwards from my awkward crouch, dust covering my jeans. Lyca stood at her full height now, wide awake. “Good morning,” Lyca muttered, going back to her quiet self. I never quite understood why she was like that, but oh well, people are people. I knew that Lyca was not a morning person, much like me, so that and the recent deaths of our sisters must be the cause of it. She is one of the new ‘eldest’ sisters now, as are my other two sisters in our small group.

Young but smart Azalea is now the eldest child. She seems burdened with her sudden advancement in ranking among us Way sisters. I wish we still had Lina to carry that burden, as from what I can tell, it is a heavy one to carry.
Now the second oldest, Sparrow is not the brightest person in the group, but she is very cheerful, and obviously an optimist. Lyca on the other hand, is a pessimist, and since the accident she has not been joking around nearly as much as she normally would.

As Lyca stepped away from me Sparrow dropped from the rafters into the mounds of alfalfa that we had fallen asleep in. I couldn’t help but laugh as she flailed, trying to escape the straw-like material. When she finally escaped, she lay at my feet, looking up at us upside down.
“So,” Sparrow said, “glad I dropped in?”
I nodded and gestured to the broken window I had noticed last night, as it let in an icy breeze, even on the warmest of nights like the single one we had spent here.
I cast a glance at my sisters and began hurrying toward a window that seemed to have been long broken. An icy morning breeze caressed my face, causing me to shiver as I began climbing out the window, careful to avoid any pieces of glass that had remained over time.
The other three remaining Way sisters followed Jaybird carefully but swiftly out the window, we managed to get Azalea out just as the barn door opened on hinges that needed to be oiled, creating a horrible squealing noise of metal on metal.

We pressed ourselves against the wooden wall and shivered in the icy wind and fog, a light drizzle beginning to fall. The freezing droplets splashed over our bodies, the cold penetrating our very hearts and minds. After a moment we decided that we should leave. I agreed, and that was that, we left, first creeping along the side of the wooden barn, Sparrow peered in through the window and nodded to us once, there was only one man. As I snuck past the window a glanced in, wondering what this man looked like. As it turned out, it was a boy no older than Sparrow! I couldn’t believe my eyes, and Lyca poked me in the side to get me to keep going, laughter glimmering in her brown eyes.

We finally got across. Sparrow led us from here and I remembered the path we took in the case that we would have to return to the barn.
I won’t put it in here, but I have made maps and made them into little scrolls that hang around our necks. Each of my sisters accepted hers graciously and quickly put them on. Lyca tied hers around a belt loop and grinned at me, tilting her head slightly.
As I put my scroll-map around my neck I could have sworn I heard voices nearby us.
I glanced around, fear beginning to creep over me. Is the creature here? Did it find us? Which of us is it going to eat first? I resisted the urge to vomit even though my stomach was completely empty.

“Jay?” Lyca’s voice broke into a daydream I didn’t realize I had been having.
“Just a dream,” I reassured myself, taking the quarter of an apple that Lyca held out to me. “Or was it?” I asked myself, listening to the forest.
“Lyc,” I began, using my nickname for Lyca, “do you think It is following us?”
Lyca’s eyes seemed to glaze as she thought of our lost sisters. “I don’t know, Jaybird, but I know that as long as we are together It cannot hurt us.”
We had taken to calling the creature It, but the subject was forced, and none of us spoke of it casually.
I nodded and broke my apple quarter in half, eating it slowly and nervously, I began reaching toward my little bag to put the other half in there, but Azalea’s hand stopped me.
“No, Jay. You of all of us need to eat. You need your strength.” Her voice was firm, and her glazed eyes were, as always, stubborn.
I nodded and slowly finished the first half of my apple before beginning on the second half. Lyca stayed close to me, observing for the rest of the day. There were no encounters with It that day.

We remain,
Jaybird Way

October 22nd, 2006

We slept among the reeds by a stream. I don’t know what this thing is capable of, and neither do my sisters. We set up things to alert us of something approaching from any direction. There were no disturbances during the night.
Did It change It’s mind about hunting us? Is It just playing with us? These are only two of the thousands of questions running through my head. I jump at every noise, terrified. My thoughts are jumbled, but this journal, to write it all out, helps me sort through it all. I don’t know what I’ll do if It kills another of my sisters.
Tethyzxiva’s limp body runs through my mind, often leaving me shuddering each time.
We are following the stream that we slept by last night. As I write this we are preparing to leave again, as we stopped to rest our aching feet.

I never thought water from a stream could taste so bad!
We have been making occasional stops all day to drink some of the water from the stream. I remembered something I heard a while ago, and made them filter the water with my nightgown, as I realized I wouldn’t need it anymore. Wow, were they surprised when they saw the dirt that filtered out!
We have found food in abundance here. There are many fruit trees, and my little bag of food is getting heavier by the day. Now we take turns carrying it, and Lyca has figured out how to weave reeds together to make another. I’ve been helping her as we walk, and we’re making considerable progress with it. I pull reeds as neatly as I can from the muddy ground and when we next stop I wash them off with the water we filter from my nightgown. Then we set off again and I give the reeds to Lyca, whom then weaves them into her bag.
That’s all I can write for now. We are beginning our trek again and I must help Lyca with the reed-bags.

We remain,
Jaybird Way



October 25th, 2006

I have not slept since my last journal entry, and am falling asleep as I write. It is the middle of the day, and I think we are going to stop and actually sleep tonight. The stream ended approximately ten miles ago, and we are all parched. Lyca and I have finished the bag and we are taking turns carrying it as well as the other food bag. I pluck fruits that I recognize as safe from the trees and plants around us, though not with as much energy as I did yesterday. The bag is quite heavy now, and whenever I find something edible we eat it right away, since food is becoming scarce.

I fear for our safety, because in the night we are unable to sleep. Our reaction time is slowing considerably, and we need sleep badly. I keep falling asleep as we walk, waking only when I trip over a root or rock, and sometimes even air. My sisters laugh half-heartedly, though it’s quickly diminishing from even that. I think that the fear of death is beginning to get to them, penetrating their minds.

I miss mother and father, Tethys, Lina, the others, and sleeping through the night. Whenever I drift into sleep I have horrible nightmares. For some reason a girl in all black comes and saves us. I don’t know why, and we’re wearing some form of jewelry with a stone on it. The stones are weird, like they are almost pulsating and glowing. The dreams scare me, and they are just another reason to stay awake.

I am excited that we are going to stop and sleep now, but I can’t help but feel anxious that something important is going to happen, and that we might miss it.

We remain,
Jaybird Way

Chapter 2
Jaybird’s Journal


October 26th, 2006

I don’t know about the others, but I slept fitfully, never fully drifting into unconsciousness. I fear for us, and that thing that I felt anxiety about yesterday. Like a pit in my stomach. It is getting cold, and I fear that we may freeze to death. What will we do if one of us gets frostbite? What if one of us loses a finger or toe to the cold? I suppose I’m overreacting. It doesn’t get that cold in California, after all! Of course, we have no cold-weather clothes.

On another note, we are reaching the end of the trees, and should soon arrive at a little cottage that a friend of ours lives in. As I write we are arriving.
Oh my…
The cottage has been burned to the ground, and the stench of death clings to the place, bringing back horrible memories of Tethyzxiva’s death and the foul stench that clung to her instead of the scent of pine needles and the stream that we used to go and fish in.
I never truly realized how much I missed the variety of scents that clung to my sisters from their daily activities.

Kiata smelling of the many fruits she picked and Mia always with the scent of vegetables that she tended so lovingly. Milo helped father with the crops. She had just cut her hair short to look like a boy’s, but it made her look even more feminine. Lina planted the fruits for Kiata. I remember that was Lina’s favorite job, to carefully plant the seeds at a very exact distance from each other. She was definitely a perfectionist; though that was one of the things we loved about her. While they did that, Azalea, Sparrow, Lyca, and I would be inside with mother, whom taught us our lessons. It is amazing how in two days a life that we deemed enjoyable could be ruined, never to return to normal.

I have but one question before we bury anyone that had burned in the cottage fire.
Why is this creature so determined to take away all that we love?

We remain,
Jaybird Way



October 26th, 2006

We have just finished burying the single body we found in the ashes of a cottage. I did not know her, and neither did Lyca, but Sparrow and Azalea knew the corpse. It is amazing how Sparrow was able to recognize the body, even though it had gone crispy critter. Not only is it amazing, but is amazingly disturbing. Though I find it very interesting, my sisters do not.

I am frightened, though I know my sisters are too.
Will we be the next to be crispy-critter-ed? It is a horrible thought to think, but somehow enjoyable, as if knowing that we could just stop this now could be a solution.
Please, someone find us soon! Hopefully that someone won’t be It.

We remain,
Jaybird Way



October 27th, 2006

My wish came true. The second part was partially true.
It found us and tried to kill us. The creature was indescribable, but it was obviously intelligent by the way it carried itself. It was also obvious that it was starving, and we must be like a steak under a ravenous wolf’s nose. Just out of reach, though.
As it lunged toward us, as any hungry creature would do, it became apparent that it was aiming at me, the smallest and easiest target.
It moved too fast for my eyes to follow, and I had no time to react as It’s powerful thigh muscles propelled it at me.

At what seemed like the last second, a blast or dark light emitted from the bushes behind us, and I instinctively turned to face the new form. To my surprise before me stood a girl with long reddish brown hair and a pale face with dark freckles spattered across it.
“Come, before it wakes again!” the girl turned and stepped back into the foliage.
I ran toward the bushes, my sisters following me. Sparrow led Azalea, whom did obviously not like being treated like a helpless little blind girl.

We followed her for what seemed like a mile before we arrived at a stump in the middle of a clearing. I stared blankly at the girl before me. She stepped onto a rock next to the stump and dropped into the hollow tree stump. I was startled by the suddenness of it, and slowly edged toward the hollow stump that served as what seemed to be a secret entrance. I stepped upon the rock like she had and peered into the hole, sighing, I inhaled and held my breath while I jumped into the unknown below.

It felt like I was falling slowly for a long time. I inhaled and exhaled normally, surprised at the ease of it while falling. I could not find an identifying feature on the sides of the hole besides for the root of a tree every few feet.
I could hear my sisters jump in after me, but when I looked up I could not see them, only the blackness that surrounded me as I fell.
When I finally reached the bottom it knocked the wind from me, and I lay there stunned for a few seconds before getting up and stepping aside just as my sisters landed in a heap.

The girl stood there in front of us, and while I stared at her, my sisters rose and stood beside me. The girl nodded and turned her back on me, beginning to walk. I followed her obediently, and she led us through a maze of cold tunnels. The farther we walked, the warmer it became, which surprised me. Shouldn’t the tunnels of earth have gotten colder?
We finally arrived at a small wooden door, which we all crawled through.

The room on the other side of the door was surprisingly quaint.
It consisted of five beds, a dresser, a table, chairs, counter, pantry, and a storage box.
The beds were all lined up on the wall opposite us, and a tarp attached to four poles above them kept earth from falling on anyone that might be sleeping there.
The dresser stood centered against the wall to our left. The table in the middle of the room was surrounded by five wooden chairs. The storage box, artistically carved and painted, sat next to the beds. A seal kept intruders from easily opening it without waking the room’s occupants.

“I am Marianna.”
The girl’s voice startled me, and I turned to look at her. Marianna stood next to the box that I had been studying.
Before I could say anything she dropped to her knees and took a knife from her pocket, sliding the handle into a hole into the seal. The box popped open and she pulled out four stones. I stared, wide-eyed. They were the stones from my dreams! The only difference being that they did not glow.

I stepped forward as Marianna rose, and she turned to me, approaching slowly.
“I know not your name, but I recognize the glow around you. You must be one of the four.”
Her words startled me, “Four?” I asked, curiosity showing on my face.
She did not answer me. Instead she held out one of the gems that she had pulled from the box.
As soon as the smooth and icy jewel passed from her hand to mine, a tingling sensation went through my hand. I stared in awe as the stone began to pulsate, and when I blinked, a long, thin chain had appeared.

“Definitely one of the four,” Marianna laughed, turning to my sisters, she gave them each their gemstones.
I began thinking and realized why I had recognized the stones here and in my dream.
I studied my stone and came up with its name. “Agate,” I murmured the name and a tingling sensation filled me.
After I figured out the name of my stone I latched the necklace around my neck and studied my other sister’s stones. I had always been the best at science.
“Ammolite,” I said, identifying Lyca’s stone. Hers came attached to a thin chain, like mine, but hers was short for a bracelet.

I began studying Sparrow’s next, and quickly found its name, “Moonstone.”
Sparrow’s came in the form of an anklet, which after I said the gem’s name she began to put on.
Azalea’s was a Fire Opal that came embedded in a gold ring. She was able to identify it before me, and I somehow felt safer. A new sense of power seemed to course through me, scaring me but it was pleasurable at the same time.

“Sleep,” Marianna’s voice broke into my thoughts, and we each nodded, leaving our new jewelry on as we approached the beds, sliding under the covers.
The others are fast asleep now, and only Marianna and I remain awake. She is working on a project that I know nothing of while I write this. Here she comes, telling me to go to sleep as she crawls under the covers of her bed.

We remain,
Jaybird Way



Chapter 3
Jaybird’s Journal


October 28th, 2009

I awoke at dawn, as per the usual on our ‘trip’, if you could even call it that. It was more of an escape. As I write my sisters stir. Marianna was up before me, and an amazing smell is coming from the counter where Marianna seems to be cooking something wonderful. I have asked her many questions about the strange stones she has given us, but all she will say is for us to wait and see.
Azalea is waking, already in the process of sitting up.

Never in my wildest fantasies have I dreamt of something as horrible as this story of death and woe. What has happened to the lives we deemed perfect. The lives we loved and would never even dream of being destroyed.
I must go for now, Marianna has finished preparing food and I must go wake the others.

More later,
Jaybird Way


October 28th, 2009
Later

Marianna made something called a ‘Dutch baby.’ I don’t know how she cooked it, as there is no oven here, but it was really good. It looked kind of like a pancake, but tasted a lot better. I hope we can eat them again tomorrow or something.
Okay, now for the description of the rest of the day.

After our (delicious) breakfast, we changed into some clothes that Marianna handed us; they consisted of tight black long-sleeved shirts and tight black jeans. Our shoes were sturdy but comfortable slippers that were padded on the inside but rough on the outside.
Anyways, we changed and then Marianna began explaining the stones to us.
My stone, an Agate, represents technology. Marianna left the room, and a few minutes later came back in, holding something enclosed in her fingers. As soon as she entered the room a murmuring entered my mind and I jumped to my feet, having been sitting at the table.
“What was that?”
“The power of your stone,” she replied.
“What?” I think all four of us stared at Marianna.
“Your gem and your willpower allow you to harness technology.”

“Ammolite,” Marianna began, standing up. She nodded at Lyca, whom stayed sitting. Marianna drew her finger across the back of her hand, and a thin line of blood began to appear. “Is pain,” Lyca finished the sentence, rubbing the back of her hand like someone had cut her.
“Empathy,” Marianna corrected.
“What about the Moonstone?” Sparrow asked, grinning.
“Air,” Marianna replied, a breeze caressing her face as Sparrow concentrated.

Azalea’s Fire Opal glowed brightly in the dim room, lighting up my face, but nothing happened.
“My ring isn’t working,” I heard Azalea murmur, obviously a bit annoyed.
“Oh, don’t worry, it is,” Marianna replied almost immediately, smiling.
Marianna mouthed something that I couldn’t make out, but Azalea seemed to catch it, “What?” I heard her say. I’m not even sure what Marianna said, but Azalea seemed to hear it.
I looked around at my sisters and realized that they had confused looks upon their faces as well.
“Sound,” Azalea informed us, realizing our confusion.

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I shall add more soon!