▌Prologue ─ Only Eleven ▌

━━━━━ IT WAS A dark and cold night in Forks Washington. Snow covered the majority of the grass, most of the roads had been cleared of snow. There were a few roads that still had some snow covering them, and some that had black sheets of ice covering them as well. The Newmans were in a small car riding back home, they had just left the Swan household. Having to leave the party early because neither parent could get along with each other.

They had been told time and time again to get a divorce but they were sticking it out because of Ellie Newman, their eleven-year-old daughter, and the only child that the Newmans had conceived. Charlie and Renée Swan were her godparents and the two both could see how damaging it was to Ellie that her parents didn't get divorced. No matter what they would tell the two adults they would never listen.

They thought that it was better to stick together and hate each other, then get a divorce and co-parent Ellie. They also didn't know that Ellie had been dealing with her own trauma because of them. She had shut them out and refused to talk to them about anything. Only Charlie knew the damage that her parents were doing to her. Ellie sat in the back seat of the car with her father in the driver's seat and her mother in the passenger seat.

Her mother and father were arguing about something but she wasn't interested in listening to the argument at hand. She instead focused on the trees that they were passing by, she hoped that they would reach home soon so she could make an escape to her bedroom and lock herself away until the morning light hopefully reached her room. Ellie enjoyed the peace and quiet she would hear after her parents' arguments would end.

It was the only time she felt truly normal, no matter how brief of time it was. The small girl lifted her feet off the ground, pulling them into her chest while her mother Monica continued to argue with her husband. He wanted to pull over so they could get the argument straightened out and not have to continue it. He needed it to be done for Ellie's sake. The man was on his last straw and had already been talking to a lawyer about divorce and child custody.

He was going to take their daughter, because Monica simply was never meant to be a mother. She hated Ellie, she hated that Ellie had come into their life and taken over. The only reason she had been kept was because her father wanted to be dad, but because of that cost it made Monica more insufferable. Monica however kept telling him no, she just wanted to get home and get into bed. She saw no real point in stopping on the side of the road to continue an argument that neither of them would win.

Ellie turned her head back towards the window looking back towards the trees they passed by. However the snow started to pick up its pace, continuing to get worse with each passing minute. The brown haired child focused on the snow even though the shouting could still be heard, there was nothing she could really do about their fight. Ellie thought that some of the fight had been about her.

A man drove his truck on the other side of the road, trying to keep an eye on where he was going; given that it wasn't really safe to be out in this weather. Suddenly his car was being pulled into the right lane, he gasped, tightening his grip around the steering wheel attempting to turn the car away from the oncoming car up ahead. He failed to keep his car from hitting the Newman's car.

His car came in contact with their car, Ellie closed her eyes keeping them shut tightly while her mother gasped watching the car crash into them. Ellie's screams filled the air as both cars pushed into each other, the backs lifting off the ground for a brief moment then falling back down. The brunette lifted her head up, looking around the scene. Silence filled the inside of the car.

She slowly removed her legs from her chest, as she opened her eyes. Those brown eyes fell onto her father first, his head hanging low and blood falling down his face. A memory now forever sketched into her mind. She looked over to see the same thing for her mother. Unbuckling herself she moved off her seat leaning towards them to get a better look.

"Mom, dad?" Her voice called out.

Her hand fell onto her mother's shoulder first, she shook it seeing if she would get some kind of response from her mother but there was no response. Ellie turned her head, placing her brown eyes on her father. There was a lot of blood dripping down the side of his face, more than she had seen when she first looked at him. Tears pulled out of her eyes and fell down her cheeks, the brunette moved back into her seat pulling her legs back up to her chest as she continued to cry.

The eleven-year-old girl didn't know what to do, or what had really happened in the seconds leading up to the accident. She had felt something move around inside her before it had happened but she had to be imagining the things that she had seen. Almost ten minutes after the accident happened police, ambulances, and fire trucks started to arrive at the car accident. Ellie didn't bother to look around when she heard the sirens.

Charlie Swan had been called away from his home to go to the scene of the accident, he knew nothing. But when he arrived at the scene and saw the familiar car that had been totaled in the front, he knew that something had happened to the Newman's on their way home from his house. He knew that he should've made them wait until morning to leave, he knew that the snow was going to get worse.

"There's a kid in the back. We got her mother to the hospital, she's going into surgery. Her father on the other hand was killed upon impact. The kid won't move out of the car, maybe you can get her out." The officer said, looking at Charlie.

Charlie gave a nod and sent the officer a soft thank you. He started walking towards the car, stopping by the back door. Charlie released a shaky breath before opening the door. After lifting his hand to the car handle he opened the door and saw Ellie Newman holding onto herself as she cried. The child lifted her head, turning it slightly to see Charlie Swan standing before her. He held his hands out towards her, she climbed over to him and grabbed a hold of him. Once he had a hold of her, he noticed a few more tears falling down her face.

"There you go, El. You're gonna be alright, let's go get you checked out." Charlie's words were soft as he talked to her, and carried her away from the scene that had taken her father from her.

One thing Ellie did love was always going to Charlie's house to spend time with him and his wife. Her parents had been food friends with Charlie and Renée which is why they were named Ellie's godparents. They both knew that Ellie would be in good hands if something had happened to them before Ellie was old enough to take care of herself. If Ellie's mother didn't make it out of the surgery alive, Charlie would go to the adoption agency so he could adopt Ellie and raise her as his own.

A few days had passed since Ellie and her parents had been in the car accident. The driver that had been in the other car had made it out with a few injuries, Ellie's dad had died on impact, while Ellie's mother had later died in surgery. The brunette had lost both her parents on the same day, but gained new ones and a part of her couldn't be more happy. She would miss her father more than her mother but she knew they were still with her.

The snow had since disappeared, and rain had taken its place meaning that her parents funeral would be in the rain. Which would only mean that Ellie's parents' funeral would be even more miserable than she anticipated. Ellie stood next to Charlie, under the umbrella and holding onto his hand while the pastor spoke about both her mother and father. Ellie only ignored what the pastor was saying.

She began to wonder what her life would be like with Charlie as her adoptive father in just a few short days. She would be able to finish school and have a bookstore, like the one she had always dreamed of having. The brunette was more thrilled to not have to follow in her parent's footsteps anymore, but nonetheless that part of her life didn't matter anymore. Even though she was only eleven, she had the ability to move on and forget about her parents.

But a part of her didn't want to, so she promised herself that she would come to visit them whenever she needed to talk or needed advice or something along the lines of that. And she made a habit of hers with Charlie dropping her off until she could finally drive. However she chose not to get a car at least for the time being because of what had happened to her parents. The fear of being in another car accident scared her until adult age.

Because of the existing fear, Charlie would drop her off sometimes. Other times Sam and Emily would drop her off. And there was the occasion where she would walk. She had her license; she was just still too scared to drive. But things were starting to change around Ellie, it was only just the beginning of her life and it wasn't something she was prepared for, even at the age she was now.