"Samuel! Stop running so far, you know mum and dad don't want us wandering the forest this late!" With a sigh the ten year old boy named Samuel rested on a boulder while another boy frantically scrambled to catch up. Samuel looked around the forest a huge smile on his face. He loved it outside, the smells, and feeling of the wind kissing his face softly almost like a caress from his mother when she thought he was asleep during the night. Samuel was a rather good looking boy with a number of the older girls fawning over him in the schoolhouse. He had eye length dark blonde hair that lightened in the summer and turned to almost brown in the winter. His face was in the middle between pale and tanned with freckles dancing lightly across the bridge of his nose and dusting his cheeks. When he smiled dimples and the sparkle in his ocean blue eyes was the cause for more than one compliment to his mother about good genes. His body was the average for a ten year old but when he was swimming in the lake it was shown that he was more toned than said average having already lost the baby-fat of boyhood and chiseling out a toned stomach and chest area. The boy was also not in the gangly annoying stage of puberty that caused many problems such as the dreaded colt legs issue or the emaciated look some of the boys in the village had. All in all he was a good looking boy whose future was as bright as the sun.

"Chris, you are moving far to slow, we would already be on our way back home now if you would hurry up!" Chris was Samuel's brother if you couldn't tell and the two boys were very similar in looks other than that Chris had his father's bright green eyes and tanned much more easily. At the age of eight he was already starting to chisel out like Samuel, a testament to the hard work blacksmiths provided to the community. Together the two were the envy of the mother's of the village and favorites among the Sunday church school. 

Samuel clapped his brother on the shoulders and pointed out the way to go before jumping off the boulder and into the dirt shooting a grin back at Chris to catch him if he could. Off he went crashing through the leaves and twigs, jumping small creeks and depressions in the earth. He loved this feeling, it was so freeing just a boy and nature, an epic dance that could continue on forever if boys weren't forced to end up resting. The forest around him was quiet and seren-- wait... What was that? He stopped so suddenly that Chris almost didn't see him from struggling to keep up. Suddenly the sound came again, almost like... Yes, it was a flute, a flute being played with such beauty and skill that Samuel felt himself entranced with the playing. Wait, he was entranced! He couldn't move, what was happening? Why was he suddenly drawn to start moving to his left? Panicking Samuel looked to his right and saw his brother in the same issue, limbs not obeying the orders two pre-teen brains were sending. After a few moments of struggle all brain activity ceased and both boys were nothing more than zombies being herded.

After a time the two were brought into a clearing where a tall male stood in pure black clothing playing the flute that started this whole mess. He was grinning as the two boys walked to the clearing and when they stood in front of him he stopped. 

Almost instantly the two boys snapped out of the trance they had been put in and looked around wondering what happened. The man in black put a hand on Chris's shoulder and spoke in whispers. "Welcome to the end and start of your new life boys." Without a second warning the man put his hands around Chris's neck and squeezed until he passed out. Samuel watched wide-eyed and ran for his life. Another whisper and the man was standing right in front of him the smile still on his pale face, a face paler than death itself, and eyes burning like fire. Samuel tried to scream but he found he couldn't get a word out. The man nuzzled Samuel's neck with his nose and the poor boy heard the sniffs as the pale man took in his scent. He shuddered as he felt the mans tongue lick back up his throat then -did- scream when he felt a horrible pain in his neck. The pain was horrible, the worst he had felt in his young life and he throat ripped itself apart as a gut-wrenching scream soared over the treetops to be heard by no one. Slowly Samuel felt his life slipping away, getting weaker and weaker until his eyes rolled back into his head and his life passed away.

He came to-- Wait, came to, an hour later but everything was different, for one he had this horrible feeling in his throat. It was so dry, he needed something to drink! Anything to drink! He jumped up and his senses overloaded as smells and sounds bombarded the poor boy. A hand went to his shoulder and Samuel looked right back into the man in black's burning red eyes, the man who had killed him. But wait, if he had killed him then how was he alive and why was his senses so strong all of a sudden. Not wanting to look, but his curiosity getting the better of him he looked down at himself and almost recoiled. His clothes were covered in red blood, torn and ripped showing his skin which was much paler than it had been before... Before he was killed. As he looked back up the man was walking away, Chris across his shoulder. Samuel took two steps or what he felt were two steps and ended up beside the man. Sighing the man signaled no with a shake of his head and pointed the opposite way while taking off again. But Samuel felt an almost overwhelming urge to follow him and besides he still had Chris! 

Without hesitating he caught up again and this time the man dropped Chris on the ground and grabbed Samuel by the collar throwing him into a tree. Not understanding what was happening Samuel tried to go and hug the man to get him to stop but this only infuriated his killer even more. For the next hour Samuel was beaten very badly to the point where he could not even stand. The heartless man picked Chris back up spit beside Samuel's head and headed North. Samuel tried once more to get up and even managed to but fell back into the ground after the first step. He wasn't going anywhere with his injuries and he felt his world go black once more.