A/N: Hi everyone! This chapter might suck a little, but it's always tough getting started, right? You might've noticed it's called 'Book 1'...Well, it is what the title implies! I meant to put the banner I made for 'Book 1' up on DeviantArt with the other but, it won't let me log in DX Well whatever, enjoy!

It began with an ungodly banging on Megan Gardners' door.

"Hey Sissy! Time to get up!"

"Coming Katie, ya don't have to knock down my damn door!" She yelled back.

"Just get out here! If we're late for school, you'll pay for it. Stella said so!"

Megan mumbled and sat up. The sun was shining in through her window, falling across her bed and warming her legs from underneath the blanket. She drug herself out of the bed and staggered to the bathroom.

After getting dressed and sweeping her long dark hair into a ponytail, she and the other girls she shared a place with piled in Stellas' car.

"Giirrrl, you need to get up earlier!" Stella Hall said from the drivers' seat. Her dark brown skin shone in the sunlight, or Megans' eyes were blurring from fatigue.

"Yeah yeah, I know." Was all she said.

"You must not just know, you must do!" Said Katie in the backseat. Megans' little sister knew her remark would make her smile.

"Yeah, we shouldn't be late just 'cause you're a lazybones!" Her cousin Kendra laughed from beside Katie.

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They dropped Kendra and Katie off at their school before Stella turned into the lane to take her and Megan to university. "You ok Megs?" She asked.

"Yeah, just tired. Think I'll take a walk around the campus before class starts."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure leaving an hour before, with only a ten minute drive, will leave me enough time for a fifteen minute walk." Megan laughed.

"Hey! One day you'll thank me for those few minutes, when you need for a quick nap or makeup check!" Stella said in mock-offense.

"Of course I will Stells. Just let me off here, see you at lunch!" Megan said as she opened the car door. As she walked away, Stella rolled down her window and yelled,

"Be careful out there! Lotta psychos, and that rinky-dink stun gun can only do so much!"

Megan waved in response, slinging her heavy messenger bag over her shoulder as she started her walk. The path ran just outside campus grounds, the university on the left, a wood on the right. Not many people were walking the path that day, and Megan got nervous. She unconsiously wrapped her hand around the stun gun her dad gave her when she moved out.

"Hey sweetie, where you goin'?"

Megan stopped. In front of her was a guy she'd never seen before. Wearing a ski hat and baggy clothes, he looked like anyone who lived around. But the fact he was talking to her on a deserted walkway immediately put her on alert.

"Just, y'know, on a walk." She was too scared to try and walk past him. He didn't look like just a local anymore, he looked like a predator.

"How about we get outta here, Sugar?" He smirked, sending a shiver up her spine.

"Don't call me Sugar." She held the stun gun behind her back and switched it on.

"C'mon Baby, I just wanna be friends. Don't you wanna be my friend?" He asked as he roughly grabbed her upper arm. Quick as a bee sting, She stuck the stun gun between his ribs and held the button. The man jerked and convulsed as he stood until she let off the button and ran-straight into the forest.

"YOU BITCH! COME BACK HERE!" Megan didn't stop as she ran deeper into the woods. When she finally stumbled to a tree and leaned against it, trying to catch her breath, she heard heavy footfalls behind her. And not as far away as she'd like.

So she ran. As she came upon a giant oak tree, her heart hammered in her chest. She dove behind it until the mans' footsteps stopped in front of it.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty.." He taunted.

A twig snapped from somewhere behind her. The man jumped in front of her and lunged. She ducked and ran towards the noise, mainly out of sheer panic. She sobbed as she ran, hearing nothing but her erratic heartbeat and feeling nothing but adrenaline pumping through her veins. So she did not see where she was going.

"Who goes there?" Demanded a strange voice. Megan only stumbled and tripped, staying where she fell and trying to control her breathing.

"Are you alright? Look at me, girl!" Megan looked up. The person speaking was an old man with a walking stick. No, an old man wearing a blue hat and grey cloak, with a walking stick.

"T-thanks. Where am I? Where's that guy?" She could hardly get the words out. The man looked at her a moment and said,

"The man who was chasing you has gone. I don't know where, but we're alone. And safe. I am Gandalf the Grey. Might I ask your name?"

Megans' line of vision was clouded over with bright dots of every color, so what the old man said didn't really sink in right away. "Megan Gardner. I was just walking...and..."

"Say no more. You can rest here with me tonight. And if you'd like, I'm on my way to-" Megan didn't hear what he said next, because she collapsed from exhaustion.

P.S If you want to see the other banner, please go to my profile! :)