The Prime Empire: Book One

Prologue

Eiling

EVERY GOOD thing in my life came to an end with a crash... But then again there weren't many good things about my life anyways so it shouldn't have meant anything.

Oh, but it did.

When a person who doesn't have anything to lose finally finds that one thing to cherish, the person suddenly becomes scared to lose it.

My story started with a crash. The crash that my parents died in.

I was only fifteen; I didn't know that much about life, but then death had to take away the people I loved.

No, I'm not dwelling on that incident, but that's where my story began.

After the crash, my uncles and aunts argued about who was going to keep me in their home. Again, no, they weren't arguing because they all wanted me, they were arguing because they didn't want me.

Some of them even called me a witch for surviving the accident. Some blamed it on me. They said, since I was really headstrong, my parents must have been arguing with me and that's why they had the accident. No one ever really knew the full story, no one cared to find out. No one bothered.

When they had finally chosen the lucky person who was going to keep me in their home, that person wasn't very happy about it and neither was his wife.

Uncle Bernez and Aunty Miranda weren't exactly ecstatic about me living with them. They were the exact opposite of ecstatic.

They made me 'work' for my shelter. Forced me to do multiple jobs and pay them the overly expensive rent. According to them, the only reason why they accepted trash like me into their home was because I was related to them and they didn't want others to ask where my family members were.

For a year, they made my life a living hell. Tortured me because I didn't have any parents to defend me, and then, when they decided my time with them had expired, they threw me out. Didn't even give me my luggage. I was surprised by this action because the actual plan was for them to let me go at eighteen and at that point, I was only sixteen.

The property my parents owned had been collected by an unknown family member so I had absolutely nowhere to go.

Fortunately enough, a ray of sunshine soon shone on my dark path, granting me a job at a small cafe. The pay wasn't much but the owner let me sleep at the shop...for a charge of course. At least the charge was small. My life was finally on track again. I had a plan now.

Work really hard and get an apartment of my own.

It was a simple goal, but it was really hard to accomplish because I still had to feed and live off of my tiny salary. As it was, I was barely even living.

There's a saying that life will always throw lemons at you, all that matters is what you do with your lemons. Right at this point, life decided to throw one of her lemons at me ...

"We're selling the cafe." I stared at the owner of the cafe I worked at, blinking furiously.

He was staring right back at me. His hands were tucked into his trouser pockets and he had a look in his eyes that said he pitied me yet he couldn't help. My brain was working fast, desperately trying to process the bombshell he had just dropped on me. When I was finally able to properly register his words, I shrieked.

"What?!"

I felt numb. Even though I could understand how bad this situation was for me, I felt helpless. The cafe had been my home for almost a year, without it there was nothing I could survive with. All my goals were going to be crushed. This wasn't the worst thing that had happened to me, but it was bad enough.

Mr Meyer, the owner of the cafe, nodded, confirming what I'd just heard.

The air around me was thick with tension, but he didn't seem to notice that I was paling at his words.

“Look Eiling,” he started. “I know that you've stayed here for as long as I can remember and I know you're a good girl... but you have to understand us as well. Our hands are just as tied up as yours! We're helpless…” He paused again, thinking about his words. “The deal came at a time when we really needed the money and…”

By then I had completely zoned him out. To me, he was just spitting out a lot of shit.

Mr Meyer wasn't ever particularly nice to me. He was just happy that he could pay one of his workers less because he was sheltering them. My world was crumbling again, and I couldn't do anything about it. The usual.

“I hope you understand.” He sighed solemnly. Then he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Goodluck.” And with that, he left.

I was left standing in front of the cafe that had become home to me, only now I was homeless again. And I didn't know what to do.

To prove how much mother nature hated me, it then began to rain. At first the showers came in tiny droplets then they increased in size and speed. The rain felt like bullets that were unable to pierce your skin but kept coming at you anyway.

I shut my eyes, balled my hands into fists and cursed.