Rumpelstiltskin

Chapter 2

2

Mira’s family had always been different. Not that they were in a bad situation or someone was abusive, they were just different. Mira was way overly sheltered. She couldn’t go anywhere without her parents, she had to lock all the doors and windows every night, and her parents were always way too paranoid. At school, Mira preferred to keep to herself. She didn’t really have a choice. No one ever paid attention to her. She felt like a fly on a wall. She witnessed things, but never was really there. She had no one to talk to. Ever. Her parents were never home, but if she set foot outside the house she would be grounded for weeks.

Mira’s parents hardly had the time for her. And when they were home, they were busy making sure she had no personal life. She knew they loved her, but they were so busy with their jobs, that they were never available to talk to. Mira was sure that she could handle herself, but sometimes she felt that she was all alone in the world, and that she had no real life.

Mira was a super history geek, and was always asking her parents about her past, about how they met, and stuff like that. They would always change the subject (very poorly). This only frustrated her more. She felt that they were keeping something from her, like they didn’t believe that she could keep a secret.

Often Mira would sit in her room and wonder about her past. There was nothing really unusual. All that she could remember was the hooded man. When she was very little she used to see a little cloaked figure wherever she went. Whenever she would tug on her mom’s skirt to look, the figure would disappear, and if she stayed still and watched it, it was as if it was a statue. Right around her fifth birthday the figure had stopped appearing, but had been haunting her dreams since. Mira didn’t really think that the figure was real, just something to think about to pass the time, however, whenever she mentioned her dreams to her mom, she freaked out for no real reason.

“Mira!” Her thoughts were interrupted by her mother calling from downstairs. “Someone’s here to talk to you!”

“Coming Mom!” Mira yelled back. Here for her? Who on earth would be here to see her? No one at school ever talked to her, and there was no one in her neighborhood who ever paid her any mind. She rounded the corner to see...nobody. All she could see was someone in a blue cloak running down the path away from her house. As the figure ran, she said something so fintly that Mira wasn't sure she had really heard it. "Into the woods." At this point Mira was pretty freaked out. As she walked back upstairs to her room, she thought about what the girl had said, and then about the words on the whiteboard. Oh well, hearing the same phrase twice shouldn’t mean anything.

That night Mira lay awake in her bed. Thunder was booming outside her window, not allowing anyone within a ten mile range to get a wink of sleep. As a flash of lightning lit up the room, she saw the words written on her mirror Into the woods before they vanished again. Now, Mira was just plain scared. She shivered and pulled her covers up to her nose. The branches from the tree outside started brushing her window in the wind. Into the woods, into the woods! they seemed to whisper. Mira just wanted it to stop, but she didn’t know how.

Make it stop! Mira thought. Soon everything was flashing into the woods into the woods. “No!” Mira finally said out loud. “Leave me alone!” Nothing happened. In fact, it got worse. The phrase was everywhere. It was flashing on her TV screen. It was written in the ripples of her blowing curtains. Mira’s ears began to ring from all the noise, but even that resounded into the woods, into the woods, into the woods. Mira tried everything she could to make it stop, with no luck. She hummed loudly, plugged her ears, closed her eyes tightly. Nothing worked. She finally buried her head under her pillow, sinking into an uneasy sleep.

Mira awoke with raindrops drumming on her head, and the wind howling in her ears. Her eyes shot open, and she found herself standing in a small clearing in the woods behind her house. She had been dreaming that she walked here. But why was she here now? Mira tried to clear her head, then remembered that she sleepwalked often, just never this far. Comforted by the thought, and realizing that she was only in her pajamas and was freezing cold, she began to run back toward the house. As she did, though, she became aware of her surroundings.  Mira had always wanted to go into the woods behind her house, but her parents would never let her. They were always talking about how it was far too dangerous, and how she would be eaten by a mountain lion if she went in there! She had always obeyed her parents, but now that she was here, she just had to look around.

Mira’s heart raced with excitement as she trudged, soaking wet, back into the forest. Stepping under the canopy of pines was a new experience for Mira. She had never in her life been in a real forest, she had just seen it from a distance, and in the movies. The thrill was so overwhelming that she nearly forgot the fact that she was soaking wet. She weaved through the trees, taking in their scent, and listening with joy to the needles crunching under her feet. Then, suddenly, the rain stopped, and everything was still. Mira stopped too, startled at the sudden silence. Suddenly, the ground began to move beneath her feet. Mira froze in fear as a hole opened up beneath her. She was falling. She screamed at first, but as the fall continued, she started to wonder what on earth was happening. She continued to fall in the darkness for what seemed like an eternity. Soon she would hit the bottom, and jolt up in the warmth of her bed. She just had to wait...and wait...and wait...