One: Elias
"Alexia, get out of the way!" My mother screamed at me from down the road. I turned just quick enough to see a runaway carriage hurtling towards me at full speed. I gathered my hoopskirts and tried to run, I was tripped by an oak root sticking out of the ground. My foot wouldn't budge out from the root's hold. "ALEXIA!" My mother screamed again. I silently prepared myself for death in those few seconds before I knew the carriage would end my short life. Then, I felt muscular arms wrap around me. I opened my eyes and the carriage was in the river; I, on the other hand was under the town tree with a mysterious, but oh so handsome stranger.

"Who are you and how did you do that?" I asked, searching his handsome features. His dark black hair was neatly slicked back and his emerald green eyes were mesmerizing. He wasn't really pale, but he wasn't really tan either.

"My name is Elias and you need not worry how I did it, just be thankful that I did," he explained before he walked off through the town square. My mother ran up behind me and slung her arms around me and kissed my forehead.

"Oh, Alexia, thank goodness you are alright!", she said, obviously relieved that Elias had saved me. I was grateful, however puzzled I may be.

Two: Alexia's Omen
After Elias had saved me, I was puzzled about why he'd done it. I thought back to the other times that I'd brushed by death. I'd almost drowned when I was a child, someone had pulled me out and, then my black hair, had since been almost white. I guess it was the universe's way of marking me, this is the second brush with death that I'd walked away from without a scratch and it was starting to scare me. When I prayed the nights after my accidents I thanked God that I walked away from them alive. But, I still had to wonder, was it Amen I should be saying at the end of the day, or was I better off just being lucky that my Omen hadn't taken my life yet?

Three: Gabriel
I went out the next day to my favorite thinking spot to ponder over my cursed life. Today was one of the days that I was not obligated to wear a dress; so I wore a loose white tunic and brown trousers with a knife belt attached to my hip. I began to climb the mountain just outside of town and still saw Elias's face when I blinked or when I thought about it intensely.

Some hours later, I had finally reached the top of the mountain. I saw the cliff's edge that jutted out from the mountain's peak. This was the place that I used for deep thinking or just when I needed to be alone. This time was a little of both. I moved to sit down and started tumbling head over heels down the mountain's mighty face. I knew this time wouldn't be as forgiving as the others, I would walk away from this one with a few bumps and bruises. That is, if I walked away from it at all, who knew, maybe death would claim me this time. A hand grabbed hold of my ankle and yanked me to a stop a few feet from the cliff's edge. I was pulled back over the cliff and stood across from yet another handsome stranger. His hair was sandy blond and his eyes were the color of the ocean's stormy waves, gray and troubled.

"Why did you save me?" I asked as I had with Elias.

"Because you would've died had I not. You are too beautiful to die, if I may say so." I blushed and nodded to him. "My name's Gabriel and you are quite welcome." Then, like Elias had, Gabriel turned and walked away leaving me standing there by myself. I breathed in deeply and could feel a few bruised ribs from my tumble.

Four: Fate
I walked over the stone bridge to the market place. Something caught my eye in the water and stopped me in my path. I put my basket down beside the red and white mushrooms and peered into the deepest part of the river. I reached my hand down into the frigid water and something or someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me in and dragged me down to the bottom of the river. I never could see who or just what it was, all I could think of was the stabbing pain running through my body and the way my lungs quivered. Now, was it fate or wasn't it that I died in the very river that I fell into when I was a child? I was not entirely sure, but I am no longer around to argue with the universe. If you go down by a river and you see a girl with ghost-white hair and she says turn back, listen to her because she knows how cold and unforgiving that water and the universe can be.