Prologue
This book is not your everyday romance. Its provocative. It is categorized as DARK ROMANCE for a reason. It will not be for everyone. If you have certain triggers or sensitivities common to the dark romance genre, please take all the wàrningsseriously. It contains dubious content. Fórced fàntasies. An anti hero that you might not like. A mind fûck. And other kinds of things that may make you uncomfortable. This story is strictly based on MF/couple, but it MIGHT also have some MMF scenes.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author. Scarred Knight © A. Gupta 2021. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Hope you enjoy the journey...
Prologue I
Scarlett
The big bad man is here. At first I thought he was my papa and that he would save me from the monsters under my bed. But then every time he was near, Mama tells me to hide. And I conclude that he was the monster. And he was. I had seen him hit Mama. He hits her and she cries. I want to go out there and help her. And I also want to beat the big bad man, but I promised Mama that I won’t come out of my hiding place until she comes to get me.
There are so many places to hide in this big house. Mama and I always look for new places, in case the monster finds me. At one time the monster tried to hurt me but Mama saved me, but I didn't like it. Because it got Mama hurt. The monster is cruel to everyone. I once saw him hurting a boy. But unlike me and Mama, the boy didn't cry. He stood there and stared back at the monster with his bright blue eyes glaring at him. I imagined that the boy was a knight, come here to save us just like in all the stories my Mama tells me. But it never happened. And instead of that the boy started to scare me too.
Now there are two monsters. And I hide from them both.
Prologue II
Alex
Eleven years ago…
I walked down the quiet hallways of the school, there was no one around as all the students were in the class. Me? I don’t like to sit there and have all the children peek at me like I was some kind of freak. And the teachers, they look at me with pity as if by staring at me they would know the history behind the scar that marred my face.
At first the children had tried to pick on me, making jokes and bullying me like they do with other smaller and weaker kids, but since my brothers decided to pay them back they don’t even look at me directly, although they whisper loudly enough what they thought about me. The old ones know what would happen to them if they tried anything— they just have to look at us. Even at fourteen I came close in height to my eldest brother who’s the tallest one in the school. But the new ones- they don’t know what Carter Brothers would do if anything happened to one of us. So the old ones warn the newbies to stay away from us.
It’s good, but its not enough. Because, sometimes I crave the fight, sometimes I just want to beat the s**t out of these little fuckers for pointing fingers at me when they didn’t even know what I have been through. Their nightmares consists of losing a new toy and not getting to eat the last slice of a pizza, not when someone takes away your innocence. They think that getting low marks is horrible, they don’t know that seeing your brothers getting punished for something you did is horrendous. They don’t know how the real world works, the world beyond their big houses and expensive clothes. That there is someone suffering from hunger, pain and other terrible things at this very moment without any escape. They don’t know how it feels when someone takes a blade to your f*****g face and all you can do is just stay still swallow your tears and pain because it will only give the monsters hurting you the satisfaction of breaking you down.
I turned down another quiet hallway, which wasn’t quiet as I heard the sniffles coming from somewhere. Someone was crying. Hiding and crying. I had been used to that sound until I met my father. My real Dad, Jared Carter. My eyes danced around the place looking for that someone. My feet moved automatically, my gaze searching. As I followed the sound and started to climb the stairs, I realised from where the sound was coming.
Retreating, I rounded the stairs and looked under them. And there was my query. A small girl. She was sitting with her knees to her chest and her hands were wrapped around her knees as she cried with her head down. I wanted to turn away and leave her to cry. I had never been comfortable with girls, or maybe it was due to the fact of where I came from. But before I could take a step back she looked up. And, I froze. I froze with one foot behind me. Those grey eyes filled with tears blinked at me, dark lashes spiked wet. Framed by jet black hair, pale cheeks were decorated with streaks of her tears and were flushed pink.
With the back of her hand she swiped at her nose and tilted her head sideways. I wanted to turn my face so she wouldn’t have to look at my scar. But, her next words stopped me. “Did someone hurt you?” She asked, her voice soft with childish enquiry.
My whole body was prepared for flight, I wanted to run away from her scrutinizing gaze. In the last five years since I had come to live here in Willow Creek, I hadn’t seen her once. She looked younger than Maddox and so very innocent. For a moment I feared if being in my presence would scar her too. “Why are you hiding?” I asked.
Her lower lip jutted out and there was a slight catch in her words as she said, “But, you found me.” I shrugged, not explaining to her that there was a need inside me that was searching for something and because of that I always find things that I wasn’t even looking for. “Did you know I was here?” She asked with her eyes narrowed. She looked cute.
“I followed your sound of crying.” I replied ready to turn away and leave her behind and before I could stop myself the words left my mouth, “I am good at finding things.” I didn’t know why I added that.
She tilted her head to the side, looking at me like I had all the answers in the world. “Will you always find me like this?” She questioned, her grey eyes looking directly into my green ones, which most people can’t do because of the scar that always gets their attention first.
“Are you planning to hide like this?” I questioned back.
She shrugged. “May be.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like people. They hurt others.” She was quiet intelligent for someone this small. “So I hide. But then, sometimes I fall asleep and my Mama finds me.” She came out of her hiding position and stood in front of me, then looking up at me with those grey eyes, she asked, “Will you find me?” I turned around without answering her. She was stupid little girl. There was no hiding from this cruel world. “Hey, answer me. Please… I could get lost, you know..” Her footsteps echoed in the otherwise silent corridor as she came after me. “Please… I am afraid of the monsters.”
I heard the tears in her voice and against my better judgement I turned around to look at her. She stood there in the middle of the school hallway with tears streaming down her cheeks and lower lip wobbling. And I did what I shouldn’t have. “Fine.”
She came running toward me. “Promise?” She held out her pinkie finger.
This was so f*****g stupid. But still I intertwined my pinkie with hers. “Promise, I’ll always find you.” And then, because I cared and I didn’t know why, I said, “You shouldn’t talk to strangers.”
“But I already know you.” She replied and then ran off. Looking over her shoulder, she giggled, “Find me.”
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