Prologue:
I never knew that I was fated to live a life of abnormality. I never knew that I would amount to being an anomaly of the human race. All I ever had been was normal. That’s all I ever was, and all I had ever thought I would be. It was my niche; the security blanket I felt would always be there to fall back upon. Never out there, never different, never unique; that was me. I blended with crowd. Standing in a room filled to the brim with a diversity of people even friends couldn’t notice me, or pick me out; like a single blade of grass in a pasture miles long. Suddenly, one day my normalcy was violently removed from skin, taking away my former self and leaving someone doomed to stand out, to be recognized, admired, and gawked at for something indistinguishable and unknown. Now residing in a universe of people I was the one universally different from the rest.

Unable to share the reason for such a drastic change in appearance, I was now faced with my two greatest fears: being noticed and having the fate of others resting on my shoulders. Being faced with these was not the problem, having them required of me was. I was living in a state of constant fear, fear of telling this dangerous secret, putting a band of beings at risk, and having my friends and family in a harm’s way.

I was not Raegan anymore. It seemed as if the girl I had been had never been in existence. Relatives and prior confidantes could no longer recognize me. Feeling like they didn’t know me anymore, they pulled away, making me feel like my only option, my only chance, to have my life still contain them was to plunge them headfirst into the awaiting risks by taking back the fallacy I had told. Letting them know the reason for my transformation would be acting of insanity, and, clearly, I was losing my sanity. Purposely putting the beings that were closest to me into the danger I was already submerged in was an act of selfishness. Protecting them was more important than feeling loved by these people who were once so sacred to me. Not telling them was a risk of losing them forever, throwing out the old and bringing in the new. From an outside view it was cruel, that’s all they would see, but if they could watch the hidden plot it would show one of care and compassion. Seeing my true-life story, they would believe it to be a work of fiction. If I decided to shed the light of truth that already shone on my accomplices, to proclaim to them the monster I had turned into, the only reaction I would expect to see is one of disbelief, quickly fading into imperishable terror.