Hello, everyone! I'm Clara Ricks and this is my first time participating in the Wattpad Block Party. Yay! Thank you so much, KellyAnneBlount.

Today, I'll be posting the prologue of my book Rain Again's spin-off: And Then It Rained. Do you like the title?

The plot of this story is still getting developed, so many changes will be made, many things will probably be added new.

Before we dive into the prologue, I wanted to say... this is a spin-off I wasn't much sure I was going to write, because where I ended Rain Again I must say I am pretty satisfied with that. But then, so many people began coming up and telling me they want to read more about the other essential characters of the story. What happened to Victor and the mystery girl in white who ran into him? What happened to Ellie and Neil? Alex and Kate? Will Ellie ever bring out her pocket-knife you know from where? Well, it's time to answer all these questions.

So, here I present to you the prologue of And Then It Rained:

~

In the beginning there was rain, and the rain was colder than death.

As Victor lay flailing under the woman, the light drizzling slowly began increasing to a freezing downpour.

Here he was running alongside the taxi Kate was in, his stomach filled with painful knots of letting go and this woman had suddenly come out of nowhere, in a flurry of white, like a storm wearing the mask of gentle clouds in the skies; and she had crashed into him in the speed of a freight train. She made him fall, took him down with her. And before he knew it he was buried under her billowing dress.

"What the hell!" He slapped away the silky material of her skirt from his face; the task was a little difficult because both her dress and his skin were now sodden with rainwater. The nature made her cling to him with everything she had.

As he glanced down he found the humongous layers of silk were a wedding gown. Now, why would a bride run on a pavement like this?

"Move, woman!" He cried. But her face was tucked into the crook of his neck and she showed no sign of removing it from there. Her wet breaths on his equally wet skin made him shudder.

The stitch of desperation in Victor's stomach grew tenfold. He could not hear Kate's taxi anymore. It had left.

He himself had sent Kate off to Alex, he himself had let her go. He knew it was the right thing to do but that didn't mean it hurt any less. Hurt gave way to anger.

It was no fun lying on the pavement in such heavy rain. All the water was getting into his mouth and nose. He spluttered.

All his anger channeled towards this woman who was still sprawled on top of him. He could have run for a little more alongside Kate's taxi but this damn woman had to come in his way.

It was all her fault.

She moved her face up at the same time as he gripped her arms to push her off of him. And the face that stared back at him was not an unknown one.

He sucked in a breath and immediately choked on rainwater.

"Victoria!" his rain sodden mouth mumbled before he knew it.

Her eyes were wide with recognition too, seeing him, recognizing him. "Victor!" her lips moved.

Yes, they were almost namesakes and that fact had earned so many hilarious remarks from people in the past. Anyways, the memories that hurled back into his mind at the moment were none pleasant ones.

He scrambled to his feet before she could.

He blinked and took a long look of her. She was sitting on the ground, scuffling with her gown. Her shrill veil was pasted messily to her equally messy hair—both dripping wet due to the pouring rain. When she paused and looked up at him, her eyes looked so sad, it seemed as though someone had sucked her very soul out of her body. But even with the severe gloom coated all over her features she still looked as beautiful she used to look so many years ago.

However, he knew better. She was one ugly person underneath all that heavenly beauty.

He didn't give her a hand of help when she got to her feet with great difficulty, she hadn't given him one when he was fallen in the same way.

He turned around before she had the chance to talk to him.

It was quite obvious that something terrible had happened with her. She was in some sort of trouble perhaps. Otherwise no sane woman would run on a pavement in their bridal attire, crash into people, and then stand in pouring rain.

Had she run away from her own wedding?

He started walking away, shaking his head. He didn't want to know.

It was important that he run away from her now.

But then she called out his name. "Victor."

Her voice was so hoarse that it made him halt.

Was she crying?

"It's happening," she said, her voice shaking. Lightning flashed above them, splitting the sky in two. "Karma is finally ruining me. You were right."

He looked over his shoulder and saw she was inching closer to him.

"I'm glad. Now go home, Victoria," he said simply.

The thunder cracked down to earth at last, much later than its brilliant prelude.

She stopped dead in her tracks.

As she started shaking her head, her eyes crinkling at the corners, he turned a bit towards her. He could tell she was crying despite the rain hiding her tears well, and he didn't like how he felt about it.

"I'm afraid I don't have a home to go back to."

Why was she telling him all this?

Something twisted inside his chest. He internally groaned. Argh. No no no. He shouldn't think about helping her, he shouldn't.

Ellie had named him the savior of all damsels. All his staff adored him and then made fun of him due to his habit of helping people left and right. He had rescued a good number of people—topping the list was Kate.

But there was this one person in the world he refused to rescue.

Victoria Davies was more of his worst nemesis than a regular damsel. Hell, she was anything but a damsel. And as far as he knew, her family was one of the wealthiest in the city, she had made sure to rub it across his face seven years ago. How could he ever forget that! He wondered what twist had gone off for her to now stand before him, looking this broken.

Rain had stopped at some uncertain point. He swiped his hands across his face, wiping the droplets of rain. Shoving his hands angrily inside his pockets then he pulled out some money, he stormed down the small distance between them and thrust them in her unsuspecting hands.

"Here, take this." The money would at least help her get to a hotel or somewhere for the time being. He refused to take her to his home. Anyone else but her.

She stood stunned. Her face paled with insult.

Victor scoffed internally. Of course, the ego—her famous ego.

Without waiting more, he turned back around and stormed away from there. He didn't have time for this. But thinking what he didn't know he looked over his shoulder again while the distance grew between them.

She still stood at the same place, looking like a goddess had descended from the heavens and was now stunned and haggard, drenched and directionless from her first contact to the hostile weather of the earth. And surprisingly, her fingers were clenched around the stack of money when he was half expecting her to stomp up to him and throw it all in his face.

He wanted to turn around and go back to her. But he didn't.

She was supposed to tear him a new one for his audacity. But she didn't.

Victor Jones was a knight alright, and there was this one woman he would forever regret not saving.

Victoria Davies was forever the unbreakable, but in life nothing ever stays the same.

~

So, how was it? Like it or not? Things are surely going to get more intense in the future. If you like some heartbreak, drama, emotions and tears this is the story for you.

Votes and comments are gorgeous things on wattpad, so they'll be massively appreciated! I'll be waiting to know your thoughts. You can let me know your guesses about the future of the new book too.

You can ask me any questions regarding the spin-off of Rain Again or my other books too!

Also, I can't help but introduce my two ongoing books which are turning out to be my dream projects the more I'm writing them. 

Bitterly Sweetly

~ Past separated them, now pain will bring them together.~

A teenager Sofia Hayden, experiencing her falling apart family isolated herself slowly from everything that she held dear, especially from her best friend Max Wilder who had just realized his love for her. It delivered Max the kind of grief that changed him radically. Misunderstanding turned his love into hatred.

Max left with a broken heart and the ever burning hunger to give her back the same kind of pain she'd inflicted upon him. And he succeeded, coming back ten years later.

Pity that he was still oblivious to many things. Silly that she still blamed herself.

Then fate in the form of an old cupid named Robert Wilder and a humongous debt intervened. And a marriage made in hell was got in result.

~A journey of pain and revenge, hastily made wrong decisions and consequences will take them both somewhere, where they are meant to be.~

~This is their bitter sweet tale of letting go; growing up and maybe along the way falling inevitably in love.~

Truly Madly Ghostly

~What if you find your soulmate but he's already dead?~

Charlotte is a last year Psychology student, hating the dorm-life she moves into an apartment. She considers it a blessing that she got such a quiet and decent place in such a cheap rent. And there is this hot next-door neighbor, Alex, who seems to always leave her breathless after each encounter. Their hang-out sessions on her balcony becomes the favorite time of her day. It is inevitable--the feelings she begin having for him.

But too much of good can have some bad lurking around the corner. Charlotte is about to realize this soon.

She starts sensing things uncanny about Alex and everything that happens around both of them hints at a horrific secret waiting to unfold.

As she loses control over her heart, her perfect and peaceful life hits chaos. Will she be able to come out of this with her heart, and most importantly, her sanity intact?

~

"You mean to say it's easy to break my heart?" Charlotte asked.

"It's easy if one put their heart to the task," was Alex's reply as his rough fingers strummed down the guitar chords in one fast motion.

~

Now that we're at the end of the post, I would like to give you guys some quick advice based on my experiences on wattpad. Most of you perhaps know it all already, I'm sure they've been discussed a lot of times but the severity of these issues has never let them slip out of our constant attention. So here they're:

How to deal with writer's block: Take a break. Go read a book, watch a movie, live life, gather a myriad of experiences. This has always helped me till this day.

The way to deal with online-bullys: Ignore the pests until you can't anymore, then you need to mute them. They want attention, so do the opposite.

The secret of getting more reads on your book: First of all, you need to stop approaching random people and asking them to read your books. If you're doing it then know this is an irreparable damage to your writing life. Stop begging around for reads and votes, it's the biggest turn off ever. Learn to respect yourself and your writing! It's the most important thing, trust me. Now, go and keep writing, try making friends, hit the hotlist, engage with people, be social, have fun. Always remember, it's supposed to be hard and you must keep patience. There's no shortcut to success!

How to be better in writing: Keep writing.

How to be popular on wattpad: Love writing!

Before you go..., to celebrate this day, my first #WattpadBlockParty, I'm giving away a shoutout, a follow on Wattpad and all social media platforms and a five-chapter review and promotion of a book of your choice to 3 lucky winners! My giveaway is open internationally. The giveaway link will be posted at the bottom of this post!

Lots of love,
Lara.

***

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