𝓦𝓪𝓻 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓼

𝓕𝒶𝓁𝒶 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓈𝓉𝓎𝓂𝓅𝒽

4

Unlike the other kids, Fala wasn't very excited about the Kidnapping Night.
Somehow, she was afraid. Coleen was right, any kid has equal chances of being taken. If she is going to be taken to The School, she won't come back for four years. Even after that, her life will completely change.

In the corner of the room, where a crib used to be, Fala was curled into her bed, thinking about all the bad things that can happen. The sun still hasn't set. The Kidnapping didn't start.
Yet.

Fala tried to calm down. She needed Arice. She needed her mother to keep her close and kiss her head.

Arice always did this. She loved Fala more than anything else in this world. Regardless the fact that she was Evil, Arice raised Fala in good manners, reading her stories every night, letting her to express herself, always showing the affection she,Arice, never got.

Fala was scared. Scared that she'll be taken away, threw like some garbage in a fairytale and never come back to her mother.

The room's door craked open. Black hair made its way in. "Dear, what would-" but Arice couldn't finish her sentence because of Fala, who got up and ran to Arice like a small child.
"Moom! Don't let them take me away" she cried in her mother's arms.
"Oh! I won't let them" Arice said while playing with her copper hair. But it was a lie. The woman knew she doesn't have any power in this. That if the School Master, or the Deans or whoever takes the kids, wants Fala, they will take her no matter what.
"Even thought I doubt they will take you" Arice said to herself, smiling.

Fala just buried her face into her mother's chest even more.
"Dear, no matter what happens, i will always love you. I will love you until the day i die and even after" Arice said so honest, that the tears in Fala's eyes became bigger.

"What would you like for dinner?" Arice changed the subject.

"Potatoes" Fala cried.

"Look, come with me" Arice said while leaving the room.
Fala listened.
And Arice lead her daughter into her own room. The woman walked to a big closet, and from the lowest drawer she picked a dark material.

At first, Fala couldn't tell what it was. But after Arice stretched it, Fala realised what the big material was.
A dark green dress, big and beautiful, was laying on the floor.

Arice smiled at Fala.

"This was my favourite dress. Your father helped me with making it even more beautiful" she started.

"I want you to take it. If you will be kidnapped for The School for Evil, i want you to have this. You know, I heard that Nevers started to go to the Ball too" Arice said admiring the dress.

Fala said nothing, then Arice whispered "as long as I am still loyal to your father, this dress will keep its colour"

Fala looked at it with big eyes.
She didn't know anything about her father. She didn't know his name, who he was, where he was from or how he died. She never cared. But Arice loves this dress and her father. So Fala should do too.

The girl took the dress in her own hands. It really was beautiful.
"Let's go. The dinner is ready. We will see what we are going to do with it later" Arice told Fala as she left the bedroom.

But the shadow next to the window had other plans.

Fala was still gazing at the dark, magnificent material. Then, next to the dress on the floor, a shadow made its way in.
It moved from the ceiling,to the walls then to the floor, studying them.
  It gave Fala an interesting "look", if we can say this.
  Fala knew what this meant, and she was about to scream and run after her mother, but the shadow covered her mouth and tried to get Fala out on the window as fast as posible. But Fala didn't have any wish to go with the shadow.
The last thing she could do was to grab her mother's dress and hope for the best.

The girl closed her eyes. She wasn't feeling anything touching her, no hands around her body, but the shadow was still there, dragging her into the dark Woods.
  She cried. Tears filled her eyes as her arms tightened on her new dress. But she could't think about this so much, because the shadow dropped her from the air, and the girl screamed.
 
She fell on an enormous tree branch. And on the tree branch was a nest. And in the nest was an enormous egg.
And from the egg left a bird. A bird made out of bones.
   It looked at Fala with its empty holes, where eyes were suposed to be. The creature wasn't friendly. Nor was it agressive.
It was indiferent.
The stymph came closer to the girl and put its head down. It obeyed Fala.
But when Fala didn't do anything, the bird grabbed her by the shirt and trew her on its back.
The stymph started flying with its skeletical wings.

It fled and it fled and it haven't stoped. Fala lost the count of the minutes, holding tight into the bones of the creature, waiting for it to stop.
 
This is it. She was taken. She'll be a Never. Then a Villian. She'll never live a normal life.

Everything she wished for, everything she wanted was now gone.