"THIS FLAME THAT BURNS INSIDE OF ME,
I'M HEARING SECRET HARMONIES."

- a kind of magic, queen

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"FREDDIE, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF THE CAR."

"No."

Dominic Walker sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. It was a dull day as the sun hid behind the clouds and a grey hue swept over the area, rain threatening to spill from above. The man glanced towards his wife who adorned black as she went to embrace her grieving mother. Dominic had been given the task of looking after their daughter as his wife and her family grieved their lost loved one.

"C'mon, Fred, don't make this any harder." Dominic urged, crouching down so he came face to face with the stubborn six-year-old.

"Don't wanna." Freddie feebly mumbled, her arms folded in indignation as her eyes avoided making contact with her father's.

"Look at me, alright?" He began, his voice low as his fingers guiding her chin so that she would look at him. "This is you and your mom's last chance to say goodbye to your grandpa, so please, for today...just cooperate."

Freddie spared glanced towards her mother who was wiping away the tears running down her face. She knew how sad her mother had been on the way here, but the girl's fear was overbearing. After a few seconds of thinking, she moved her head slightly, reluctantly nodding. Freddie clasped onto her dad's hand as she stepped out of the car.

She tried to ignore the horrid feeling brewing in her stomach, but as they followed their family closer to the freshly dug grave, it worsened. The girl allowed for her father to guide her out into the graveyard, her hand still in his in fear he would leave her alone.

As soon as Freddie plucked up the courage, her small eyes flitted around, only to be met with what one could describe as a 'daymare'. The girl was met with the sight of dozens of pale figures drifting eerily over the slabs of marble and stone. And then it all hit her. Her eyes widened as the pleads and begs began, their wailing ringing through the air in a sea of phantom lamentation. Their deadly stares sending shivers down her spine as she shrunk back in terror.

It was too much.

It was a feeling of despair crashing over her repeatedly. Her heart pounding as the noise echoed around in her head.

With tears in her eyes, Freddie reached up and covered her ears as she let out a deafening scream. Tears of vexation and pain tumbled down her cheeks while she frantically scratched her ears in an attempt to block out the surge of noise.

In an instant, her father had scooped her up into his arms, despite her thrashing, and rushed Freddie away from the onlooking mourners and back into the quietness of the church, in hopes of calming her down.

"Hey, hey, hey, Fred, come on, what's going on, huh?" Her dad questioned, his voice low as he propped her up on a small ledge so that they could stand eye to eye.

"No more, no more!" She argued, pushing her dad away as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Phaedra, listen to me."

At the sound of her father using her full name, the girl fell silent, her head snapping up.

"You need to tell me what's going on so I can help you."

"Too many people."

"There's not that many people out there, darling...it's just your mom's family-"

"No, the other people!"

Dominic Walker froze in his spot for a few seconds, his eyebrows furrowed. "Other people?" He finally asked. The girl nodded, as the gears in his brain turned. "Where do you see these people, Freddie?"

Feebly, the girl lifted her head, her hands gesturing towards the graveyard as a whole.

"Okay...okay." Dominic tried to keep himself composed but his heart raced. Was there some sort of parenting guide on how to help your daughter, if you believe she sees dead people? Of all things...dead people?!

"Okay, Fred, I need you to listen to me," the man began. "I need you to bring me to where you see a person, okay?"

"No, daddy!" The girl pleaded frantically, her fingers grasping at the wool of his coat. "Don't make me!"

Taking the small girl into his arms, he tried to soothe her. "Listen, I'll be with you the entire time and if it is too much I'll take you straight back out and we'll get ice cream from down the road, yeah?"

The girl clutched onto her father's neck as she contemplated his words. Freddie pulled her face away from his shoulder, nodding slowly in agreement.

"Good, great," Dominic muttered, placing the girl onto the floor as she took his hand in hers. "I need you to tell me where you see the person, alright?" The man squeezed her hand lightly as she squinted her eyes, scanning all the figures before stopping on one woman dressed to the nines in a blue gown, sitting at the end of a lavishly designed headstone.

"There." Freddie pointed.

Dominic looked towards the deserted area as he tried to put his spinning thoughts into a plan of action.  "Listen to what I say now, okay, Fred?" He began. "I'm going to go first and stand by the stone. I want you to go to the person you see, okay?"

The little girl nodded, her hand fiddling with the end of her dress. Tentatively, she allowed her fathers hand to slip from hers as he walked towards the headstone, shrugging off his jacket in the process.

"Okay, Fred, go to who you see," Dominic called out to her, his jacket draped over the headstone as he watched the girl.

Freddie found herself drifting towards the melancholic woman, her stomach twisting. Upon approaching the sitting figure, the girl took in the frail and pale state the woman was in. She watched the woman tense up as Freddie crouched down to sit.

"Hello," Freddie mumbled softly, crossing her legs as she looked at the woman. The girl tried to ignore her trembling hands as she clenched her fists in anxiousness. Although she was a few meters away from the woman, her small voice seemed to carry causing the woman to look up, her questioning gaze piercing through the girl.

"Hello." She finally croaked, her voice harsh and rough as if it had been out of use for a long time.

Dominic watched as his daughter stared and talked into the nothingness. Taking it as a sign, the man cleared his throat, causing the younger girl to shift uneasily.

"Okay, Freddie, I need you to ask her a few questions, alright?"

The girl nodded, her eyes not straying from the woman.

"Okay, I need you to ask for her full name and when she died, got it?"

Freddie sent a short nod towards her father. "My name's Freddie...what's yours?" She prompted, her eyebrows furrowing as she spoke. Her words hung in the air while Dominic froze in his spot. The woman's head moved slightly, her dark hair framing her translucent face.

"Lillian...my name is Lillian." The woman's lips crept into a nostalgic smile, her dull eyes glazing over as she spoke.

"That's a pretty name." Freddie offered weakly, her hands still gripping the edge of her dress while her shoulders unconsciously hunched over in attempts of becoming smaller. She could feel herself growing more tired by the minute while her head was beginning to throb mercilessly. The girl's eyes drifted towards her father, who stood solemnly with his hands clasped behind him, his worried eyes narrowing on his daughter.

"When did you...uh, die?" The girl blurted out, her eyes widening as the words simply tumbled out. The woman let out a brief cackle at the girl's forwardness, startling Freddie as she inched backwards.

"August 1978." The woman answered slowly, standing to her feet. Freddie flinched as she watched the woman stalk closer to her father. "He your dad?" she asked. The girl gulped and nodded shortly. The woman smiled, her eyes scanning the man as if marking him as prey. "Hm..."

"Freddie?" Dominic cleared his throat, "Did you get answers?"

Freddie was silent as the woman turned her back on the two and walked off. Once she was a safe distance away, the girl hesitantly stood to her feet, "Dad..." she whimpered, the tiredness and fright suddenly crashing down on her. The man rushed forward, catching the girl before her knees buckled. He slowly lowered himself so that he was kneeling on the grass, whilst the girl on his lap shivered.

"You're okay, Fred, you're okay." The man comforted, rubbing her back as the girl tiredly opened her eyes.

"Her name was L-Lillian," Freddie whimpered, her hands rubbing her eyes. "August 1970-" The girl paused as she closed her eyes. "August 1978...that's when she died." Dominic could only lean back on his heels in shock while the girl merely curled closer to him.  "Dad...I'm tired."

"I know, I know, it's okay," Her father lifted her, holding her close to his chest as he retrieved his jacket from the headstone. Dominic's eyes lingered on the stone, as he held the shaken girl. "It's okay, let's get you out of here, yeah?"

Freddie nodded into her dad's shoulder, her head burying itself into the crook of his neck as he carried her. She squeezed her eyes shut, forbidding any tears to fall as she hung onto his jacket, trying to block out all noise around her.

"I got you, it's okay, it's okay..." He mumbled repeatedly and reassuringly while he stepped away from the grave.

The man's voice trailed off as he walked, his daughter's words ringing around in his head- the same words which had evidently been imprinted in gold italics on the slab of marble he'd covered with his jacket.

So, the mystery behind his daughter's 'oddness' had finally been solved and all those sleepless nights when Freddie had been plagued with nightmares and 'imaginary' friends, now seemed to make a lot more sense.

The man had always written off her peculiarities as a result of childish fantasies, yet here he was, standing corrected. The only questions Dominic Walker had was, how and why?

How was something like this possible?

Why did his daughter have to suffer the burden of it?

And even after years of no answers or clues to her anomaly, the man still strived for resolution...that was until he eventually figured it all out.

The answer to everything.

The answer behind Freddie's gift, the answer behind his obliviousness...

But, alas, the answer was not one to be spoken of, and he hoped for his sake and Freddie's that it went unknown for as long as possible.

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HELLO, YOU VERY SEXY READERS AND THANK YOU FOR READING!

This fun little prologue of sorts is just to give you a bit of understanding about Freddie's powers, along with the relationship she and her dad have.

ANYWAYS, I hoped you enjoyed it and I'll see you soon ;)