Alice and Persephone

Chapter 3

            My head reeled. I warped back to the time I'd seen her, the beautiful angel girl. She'd had white hair, glowing like a halo. Other than that, I'd seen very little of her. Her face was obscured by shadow, and the tears in my eyes had blurred my vision. But there was something...something...

I stood in awe, staring at the blonde girl who had passed me. Her soft blue eyes, the colour of cornflowers, stared back at me. She had soft features and-

Light blonde hair.

My heart sank. She couldn't be the one. She didn't have white hair. The girl from my childhood had white hair.

Then...why had I been transported back to that memory? Something about her had triggered it. If it wasn't her hair then...what was it?

"Alice, we have to go." A conservative-looking woman stepped between us, taking the girl by the arm. "Honestly, what on earth are you staring at?" She turned her head to face me.

Warmth flooded to my face and I looked away. I brought my hand up to my face to cover it, my sleeve coming down slightly. The woman gasped audibly and hurried away. I heard her mutter something to the girl – Alice – as they scuttled across the stage. The one word I heard was the one I'd heard time and time again.

Witch.

I knew it was a Christian neighbourhood, so I wasn't surprised at her reaction to seeing the pentagram tattoo on my lower arm. Mum had warned me about the community, saying it was the reason she'd moved away. I'd hoped things would be different after so many years, but that wasn't the case.

"What's up, Pumpkin?" Dad asked, resting his hand on top of my head.

I shook him off. "It's nothing. Can we go?"

He frowned. "Don't you want to look around more?"

"No. I'll be here next week anyway. I'm sure I'll learn my way around." He raised an eyebrow at my excuses. "I want to go home."

He didn't argue. We made our way to the truck in silence, not a word passing between us until we parked up at home. Dad cut the engine and reached his hand out to my knee.

"Do you want to talk? Is it about your Mum?"

I slapped his hand away. "No! Jeez, not everything is that simple. I told you it was nothing, so can you just leave it?"

He frowned. "Well, I'll be here when you're ready to talk."

I huffed and jumped out of the truck, letting myself into the house. I hadn't wanted to be so harsh with Dad, but I was in no mood to talk about my feelings. I didn't even know what they were.

I switched on my computer and flopped back onto my mattress. So many thoughts were spiralling in my mind. Alice – who was she? Why had her presence had such an impact on me? Was she the girl? The one I'd been thinking about since I was a child? She couldn't be...it couldn't be that easy. The first blonde girl I come across? No way.

For some reason, I felt tears well up in my eyes. I hadn't cried since Mum's funeral. I mean, I wasn't normally a crier anyway, so the funeral had been a special occasion. I knew that I wasn't crying for Mum, not right now.

The same word kept running through my mind. Witch. Witch. Witch. It made my skin crawl. Had it really been so bad for Mum that she'd been forced to leave her husband behind? No, that couldn't have been the reason for their separation.