Ravenworth Academy

Prologue





The very first funeral I've ever gone to was for my mum and dad. I remember it because everyone was crying really hard.



Well, everyone except me.



At first, everyone offered me their condolences, telling me that it's okay to cry. But watching my uncle's carry my parents' caskets into the ground was the day I made my insides close up, suffocating me.



With a curt nod to everyone in the vicinity, I ran away, ignoring my name on their lips. After that day, I'd wear an emotionless mask everywhere I went, receiving looks of pity and concern. But soon enough, the rumors started. My relatives, friends, and anyone I had even considered close to me started to get suspicious of my parents' deaths, wondering who really killed them. They started to look at me differently, their once friendly faces becoming distorted with disdain and horror. others took my side, but even they started to doubt me.



I admit that I never really thought about it, I was much too shocked to come to terms with any of it. People outright detest me, almost as if I killed them. I never really got sad over them, now that I think about it. I don't remember the last time time I cried; maybe that was the reason why they started to treat me like that. But I guess it was just a matter of time until someone was really fired up.



First it was the whispering, then the writing on the walls, the throwing of the stones, and then finally they started to hurt me. Out of all the times that it happened, I have never cried and I think that only made them more angry. Most of the time I came home, I had lots of bruises. Sure they stung, but what surprised me the most was how I was so calm with all this. I didn't like it that they did those things, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter, it happened so often that even I began to think that I killed them.



When I heard about this school in London, England, I thought that maybe I could get a new start there, where no one could be mad at me for something that I didn't do. So, considering all that, I moved.