Rowan's parents had woken him up in the middle of the night to play hide and seek. This is strange because they don't usually play hide and seek in the middle of the night, and usually Rowan goes to hide while his mom and dad count to ten.
This time it's different; they don't wait to count to ten. His mom is putting him in a cupboard while his dad paces back and forth, and it scares him because his dad looks angry, vigilant, ready to punch anyone.
His mom, on the other hand, looks scared, but she's trying her best not to show that fear.
"I want you to stay in here, okay? Don't move until I come get you, or if the place is very quiet and you don't hear from us for a very long time, then make a run for it and look for help, okay?"
"Mom, what's going on?" Eight-year-old Rowan asks her because it doesn't look like everything's okay; everything looks completely wrong. Something's not right at all.
"What do you mean? Of course everything's fine; we're playing hide and seek."
"But this isn't how we normally play hide and seek," he whines, and now his mom can see the fear in her son's eyes, and she knows how smart Rowan is. He's very smart, and he knows something is wrong.
So his mom places her hand on her son's cheeks. "Everything's going to be fine, Rowie, I promise you. Just listen to what mommy says, okay? It'll all be over soon."
Rowan nods, does as his mom says, gets into the wooden cupboard, and sits there while he looks up at his mom.
"Mr Ziggy will keep you company while you're here." His mom pinches Rowan's cheek, and Rowan looks at Mr Ziggy, a stuffed zebra he's had since he was a baby. His mom just stands there admiring him, but then she snaps out of it, remembering the real reason her son is in a cupboard.
"Okay, I'll be back soon, okay? Do not move." He nods. "I love you."
"I love you too," Rowan says, smiling. His mom quickly closes the door because she knows that the longer she stays, the more she'll want to just pick him up and run, but running won't do anything; they have to end this once and for all.
She places her hand on the cupboard, and she whispers something- a cloaking spell; the cupboard will only be hidden to the ones who don't live in this house. So it will definitely keep him safe.
As soon as she's done with the spell, someone breaks the front door down so effortlessly. They didn't have to kick it multiple times; they didn't even have to touch it. It's almost like they used magic.
The person they hid Rowan from is here.
As soon as Rowan heard the sound, he knew that something was wrong. So he quickly looks through the gap between the cupboard door. He can't see much, but he does spot the person who broke into his home.
He has sharp werewolf sight, so of course he can see him through the tiny hole.
"If it isn't the Lockwoods." The man says in a foreign accent; he's not from here, he sounds European, and he looks European as well.
He's beautiful but monstrous at the same time; Rowan has never seen this kind of man before.
He's tall, has pale skin, long white hair, full lips, long nails but not claws like his father sometimes has, and his eyes- they're blue? No, they're like silver. He looks like a mythical creature.
Rowan and his family would be considered mythical creatures by humans, but still this one looks different.
"You didn't think you could hide from me, did you?"
"Get out of here!" His father growls, and his claws sprout up; his large fangs do too, and his eyes change from brown to a golden colour.
"I'm only here for the child; there doesn't have to be a fight."
"You will never have him!" His mom yells.
"Oh, I will have him. Your son is different; he won't be received well by other creatures, that's why you chose to run away from civilisation to come here, right?"
Rowan doesn't understand; he thought they were here because his parents loved the landscape and his dad always wanted to be a farmer.
What's this man saying? Is he here to kill him?
"With me, your son won't be subjected to prejudice; he will be-"
"Evil like you so that he'd be feared more." his dad cuts the beautiful monster off.
The monster smiles.
"At least no one will dare discriminate against him."
His dad scoffs. "You're sick; you're not coming near him," he growls louder. They both look ready for a fight, ready to defend him.
"Okay then, I didn't want to fight, but it seems you people do, so if you want to fight, let's fight."
And so his father runs toward the vampire, and they're fighting; the whole house is shaken up by violence, and that makes Rowan hold Ziggy the Zebra tightly, and he hopes that his dad wins. His dad is a werewolf; he knows that he's going to win; he's strong.
His mom, on the other hand, helps his dad; she casts a spell creating a beautiful glowing lasso that she uses to trap him from the back while his dad brings out a gold sword to stab him with it. They think they're going to win this fight.
His mom holds tight so he doesn't escape, and his dad raises the sword to slay the beast.
But they don't succeed because the monster has a trick up his sleeve; using magic, he blasts the parents away from him. They go flying toward the wall, crashing into tables and decorations.
Rowan stays in there shaking. He. He can't see much, but he knows it's going down, and he should be very careful not to make any kind of sound.
"I didn't want to do this. But you forced me to," the beast says. He doesn't sound calm and charming anymore; he sounds angry as hell.
So he stretches both his hands, and when he does, his parents start floating in the air; now Rowan can see. This monster can do magic like his mom. But why does Rowan feel there's more to all this?
"You asked for this." The monster says, and the both of them fly toward him. They go through his hands, and they're no longer struggling; they're no longer shaking. They stay still, moaning in pain. They look like they're in serious pain, but of course they are. This monster has his hands in their chests.
"Goodbye, Lockwoods." And so he removes his hands, and then they both fall to the ground. They're dead. Rowan watches his parents' lifeless bodies, then looks up at the man. He sees two glowing hearts in his bloody hands.
Rowan gasps, but he quickly slaps his mouth with his hand.
"Hello," the monster says, "Is someone here?"
Rowan stays as still as a statue, trying his best not to move. His mouth is covered because he thinks his mouth will betray him.
"Is no one here?" the monster says so quietly. Rowan isn't going to answer; he's going to stay here if he has to. He wishes his mother had taught him magic; if he knew magic, then he would have been out of here by now.
But he doesn't know any magic tricks; he doesn't even know any spells.
The monster drops the hearts like they're nothing to him, and he just walks away. Rowan stays still to hear the footsteps leave.
He stays that way for a few seconds, tears rolling down his eyes; he just wants to hug his parents. They're dead, they're really dead. That man killed him.
After a few minutes pass, he opens the cupboard immediately, and he attempts to run to his parents. But a viciously pretty face appears in his vision. It's the man who killed his parents; he never left.
"There you are. Why didn't you say anything when I asked who was here?" He smiles, revealing his fangs, but they're not the kind of fangs his dad has; his dad's fangs look like those of a large dog, while this monster's fangs look like those of a large bat.
Rowan moves back into the cupboard; he's dressed in fear.
"A cloaking spell. Your mom is pretty smart." he grins. That evil grin removes the fear from Rowan's body, making him naked to anger and rage.
"You killed my parents!"
"Huh, yes, I did. It's because they didn't want to cooperate, little one; if they just led me to you, this wouldn't have happened. This is not my fault; blame them."
And that gets Rowan angrier.
"Now, you're coming with me."
"No!" Rowan yells; the monster sees that his eyes turn golden like that of a werewolf.
"Oh, sweet child, you don't know how powerful you are; people will bow down to you."
Rowan doesn't want that; he only wants his parents back. He wants them back right now.
"Let's not be stubborn now." He reaches out for Rowan, but he doesn't even touch Rowan because something blasts him away from the cupboard.
Magic.
Rowan thinks, and at first he thinks his mom is the one who saved him, but it's not his mom; it's someone else. Two men run past him, and they're headed toward the man who killed his parents.
"I've been waiting a long time for this," the one with the tanned skin and nice hair says.
"Lorenzo, how long has it been?" the vampire/witch man says.
"I'm going to kill you for what you did to Benson," he says.
"And what you did to my brother and his wife," the black man who looks like his dad says. He's his dad's brother. He didn't think his dad had any other relatives.
They start beating him up, not giving him a chance to touch them. They're pissed; this man ruined their lives one way or the other, and they're out for revenge.
"Sweetheart." A voice startles Rowan; she sees a stunning woman with long braids smiling at him.
"Hi, I'm Megan, your uncle's wife, which means I'm your aunt, and I want to take you away from all this." Megan knew he wouldn't trust her immediately, so she put on her golden eyes, and Rowan did the same; there's a kind of familial bond between them even though he's never met her before.
"Come, let me take you away from here. You don't need to see this; you can bring your friend too." She gestures to Ziggy, and so he allows her to pick him up.
Rowan looks at the fight going on, which is more like a genocide than a war. He looks at his parents one last time and then looks away immediately.
After they make the hybrid go weak, they set the house on fire with him in it, and they leave their little farm for New York.
Rowan has heard of New York, and when he heard they were going there, he thought they were going to New York City, but they're going to a town in Upstate New York called Cupid Hollow.
They drive past a sign with pink neon lighting of CUPID HOLLOW written in bold and Cupid on top with his little arrows.
WELCOME TO CUPID HOLLOW WHERE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
"You're going to love it here, Rowan," his aunt says from the front, and then he looks at the other man who fought alongside his uncle. He hasn't looked at Rowan since he just stares out the window.
Rowan's got to say, though, this man is beautiful, but he also looks tortured. He lost someone to that monster just like him; maybe that's why Rowan is drawn to him. They both share the same scar.
After dropping Lorenzo off (Which is his name), they drive into the woods where his new home is.
It's a large house that stands in the woods; as soon as he gets in, he's greeted by a girl called Aria who's his cousin.
"We're going to have so much fun together, Rowan. I'll be your big sister, and as your big sister I'll protect you."
Rowan smiles at that, but he doesn't want to be the damsel in distress all the time. The events that happened tonight have made him realise what he would want to do in the future. And that's to protect people.
He knows he's not just an ordinary little boy; he's just like that man who killed his parents, a hybrid, but unlike him, he's not going to be using his powers for evil but for good.