Dumping her bag onto the wooden floor, Gemma Hale jumped an inch when the wood let out a loud creak. The teenage girl wore a disgusted expression as she looked around, the old smell of smoke still filling the air from the fire that happened over six years ago.

As she looked around, she only grew more and more skeptical of their decision to move back, the sights in front of her being enough to make a toddler cry. The couch was charred and in great need of a reupholster, the floors darkened with soot, and vines covered almost half the house.

"Maybe we should get our money back? I mean, sure, it's our childhood home, but, Der, not even rats would live here." Gemma pointed out as her cousin walked through the door, four bags in hand. However, only one of them was his. Derek rolled his eyes as he dropped the four bags onto the floor next to the one she had carried, the man stretching his muscles soon after.

"Well aren't you quite the optimist." he sarcastically remarked, obviously annoyed by her statement. "We'll fix it. All in due time." his words made Gemma spin around, her eyes wider than two watermelons.

"All in due time? Derek, I'm supposed to live here. I mean actually live in this shit box you call a house. It doesn't even have four proper walls! What if I get friends and want to bring them home?" she dramatically ranted, but before he could answer or even get a word in, she started again. "I can see it before me now, "Hey, I'm Gemma. Want to come home with me after school? Don't worry, it's only about to fall apart and all the furniture is basically gone!"

When finished, her chest heaved, and she stared at her cousin in rage. Derek's eyes were wide, the man not knowing whether to applaud at the fact that she hadn't fainted whilst saying that or call a therapist. Gemma let her eyes narrow down to small cracks and she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at him.

"I am gonna kill you. First, you drag me out of bed in the middle of the night and tell me to pack, 'cause guess what? We're moving. Then you make me destroy my shoes by walking through the preserve to live in an absolute shit hole. The devil would be so disgusted by you that he wouldn't even let you enter hell at this point!"

Despite being used to her sudden outbursts of rage, Derek took a step back, the murderous look in her eyes telling him that she had no problem with following through with her threat. With a light huff, Gemma crossed her arms, head tilting to the left as she inspected the stairs.

"Who's testing to see if the stairs are sturdy enough?"

One thing that was totally unpredictable about the girl was her mood swings. She could go from happy to angry in a form of seconds, and within the next minute, she could be sobbing hysterically. So Derek was used to being threatened one minute and then next getting handed compliments like getting coupons outside a grocery store.

Derek side glanced at his cousin, the girl immediately shaking her head when she saw the look he was giving her. "Uh uh, no. I am not doing it, Derek, forget it." the Hale man gave her an exasperated look as she uncrossed her arms.

"Come on, Gemma. You're lighter.

"And you heal faster than my mood shifts."

"So do you!"

The small bickering was getting them nowhere, the two cousins only glaring daggers at each other. It took them ten minutes of meanless staring before they came up with a compromise. The said agreement was that Derek would throw two of Gemma's bags onto the stairs along with his, and if they didn't go through the floorboards, the older Hale would try to see if they held him as well.

Gemma, had of course tried to reason with her cousin that her bags were of big value to her, but the conversation had got her nowhere. So now she wore a scowl as she watched Derek grab a hold of two random bags, the content inside them being her clothes and about ten of her notebooks.

"Can't you just see if they're sturdy enough without using my bags?" after letting out a loud groan, Derek contained his annoyance and withheld his wish to throw the heaviest bag she had straight at her face.

"Gemma!"

And then the bickering started again, the two acting like normal cousins as they ignored the very obvious reason they were there. Laura Hale's disappearance.

━━━━☆☽☆━━━━

It was well after midnight when Gemma finally was happy with the results of her now new room. She had of course tried to bribe Derek into giving her his old room, the only reason that she even wanted it being that it was bigger than hers. But being a Hale, Derek was as stubborn as she was, so at the end of the day, Gemma had to make do with her old room.

She had planned to fill his bed with worms, the girl not having a problem with finding them since they were literary everywhere in the preserve. But she had abruptly decided against it when Derek handed her his credit card and let her buy a new pair of 'Back to school' shoes since they got ruined by mud.

Moving back to the town that had caused her and her family so much pain wasn't Gemma's first choice, it wasn't even on her list of choices to make. But as she walked down the stairs and looked over the remains of her childhood home, her opinion slowly changed.

A light suddenly crept in through the window, and the teenage girl furrowed her eyebrows deeply. Taking a few steps towards the door, she perked her ears, hoping to hear what was going on. 

The calmness Gemma had felt just seconds ago was out the window before she had the chance to blink. Bile raised in her throat and tears brimmed in her eyes as she watched over a dozen deputies walk through the preserve, flashlights in hand. With trembling hands, Gemma clutched the door handle in her hand, small creaking sounds coming from it as she slowly crushed it.

"Derek!"

Upon hearing the desperation in her voice, the Hale man hurried down the stairs, their speculations that they wouldn't hold if you ran thrown out the window. He stopped when he saw the tears on his cousin's cheeks, eyebrows furrowed just the slightest as he searched for the reason for her distress.

Perking his ears, Derek's world came crashing down just like hers, the two cousins now staring at each other with overwhelming sadness in their hearts. It took less than a second before the suppressed tears in Gemma's eyes came pouring down, the girl losing her balance as she fell to the floor in pain.

Derek crouched down next to the teenage girl, a hand being placed on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "We don't know if it's her." his voice was uncertain and it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her.

Shaking her head, Gemma slowly looked up at him, her eyes red and swollen from just crying for a couple of minutes. "She's gone, Derek. Gone." she sobbed, her whole body shaking with each breath she took.

"Laura's dead."

A/N

Sorry that this chapter was quite short, but don't worry, it's merely the prologue. The rest of the chapter will be longer, I promise!

Please vote and comment, it really makes my day!

-Jazz