Prologue

My parents told me it was the most beautiful winter the world would ever see again. I never understood what they meant and I have no way of asking them.

It was December, the snow had covered everything with its cold white layer, causing the Christmas spirit to overflow into people's homes and they would share the warmth or a hot drink with those who needed it; the Alvarens celebrated throughout this month with pompous lunches and dinners, inviting family, friends and acquaintances; sometimes they closed the entire street and everyone put the pot on. This was the month in which the whole family gathered in one of the houses of the children of the patriarchs and celebrated with happiness.

Although this year the unspoken rule had been broken; my parents, brother and uncles Tomas and Jenny had decided to celebrate the month on their own, with me of course. The extended Alvaren family had a little obsession with me, I noticed it since I can remember, they liked to ignore me, they did it with a strange pleasure that always caused me the same discomfort, sometimes I could see in the eyes of dad or mom the fear of leaving me alone when we had participated in the traditional meetings in which I could easily go hungry or be trapped in some desolate and dark place in a mysterious way if one of those two was too distracted.

By age nineteen and after a frustrating postponement of the fifth semester in dance school due to a broken leg in the summer, I managed to enrol in a studio where instructors from the same school were teaching.

I was leaving the studio a little late, the neoclassical stage was the one that cost me the most sacrifice and I was enthusiastic about the idea of personifying a character worthy of drama and praise. Staying until after eight o'clock was the best I could do to get a scholarship too.

I was able to fit into the bright pink coat that my grandmother had given me the previous Christmas; I am not sure if she was quite saucy about it but I really like it, I am a 'pinky girl' in the good sense of the word. I started my journey home with renewed energy.

Suddenly I remembered that I had to buy a cake, I had promised my little brother Nico, I just had to change my usual way, I would lose a little time between the windows of the mall, but it would be fun.

Nico was a little eight-year-old boy who kept ordering things from me; in order to delay meals so I wouldn't eat alone. I smiled at the thought, my little brother was a very clever rascal who would not stop pulling out green hairs from all of us when he grew up.

I let out a chuckle as I turned onto a quiet street leading to the main door of the mall, sighed determinedly as I noticed the cupcake windows on the second floor, the bakery was crowded with people.

"You're going to pay for this, Nico", I muttered.

I was crossing the entrance gate, suddenly the ground shook strongly and a light so bright appeared in the sky that it blinded us all, the sky was covered with shooting stars that began to fall towards us next to debris and fire, explosions in the sky were as equal as those on the land.

We all thought it was some kind of war when we saw troops appear from buildings, even others started arriving in transports and started shooting at the sky.

Are those tanks of war?

I thought in astonishment not knowing where to hide; suddenly, people began to fall from the sky in flames, I could only think that it was a plane or a helicopter that had been shot down or perhaps they were falling from the buildings. I started to run towards the mall, some store could protect me.

"Not her!", someone suddenly shouted behind my back, something exploded very close to me, hurling me into the air; the sound left me dazed and deaf.

The screams seemed far away, the ground didn't seem to reach me and a shadow was coming towards me covering me or crushing me; we started to roll on the snow, the explosions surrounded us with a furious frenzy and my mind went out.

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