Breaking a tale

Luna - The start of it all

I dragged my suitcase out from under my bed, it wasn't large, so I had to pack carefully. I packed my favourite clothes and a framed photograph of Dawn and I with our grandad which we had taken the last time he had visited us. I found tears welling up in my eyes, I would miss him so much, he had always made sure I had the same opportunities as Dawn. He even paid for my riding lessons when mother "forgot" to pay for them. I stared at his smiling face, wrinkles forming around the edges of his eyes. He had been so nice to us after Grandma had disowned mother... I gently placed the picture in my bag. I scanned the room for anything else to bring and my eye fell on the pile of books in the corner of the room. On the top was the story of the Sunflower, then it hit me. Panic flooded my brain. I was too young to go! I wasn't ready! What about Dawn, we were supposed to go into the tale together!

I dropped the clothes I was holding and sunk onto the bed. I felt so scared and confused but at the same time, I was excited to go. It was if my head was a bubbling cauldron of emotions and they had all overflowed at the same time. I turned my attention back to the books. They were supposed to be returned to the bookkeeper by the end of the week as he had kindly let me borrow them but if I was going into the tale I wouldn't get to return them, and nobody would return them for me. Most people go into the tales for years, the bookkeeper would probably have forgotten about them by the time I got back so in a split decision I put all the books in my suitcase, except from the Sunflower which I dumped on my bed, after all, I was going to be living in the story.

I took another look around my room as I knew this would be the last time I would see it for years, maybe even decades. I realised I would never see any of my friends again, that I didn't even get to say goodbye.

I decided to move my plant to Dawn's room. Nobody would have remembered to water it if it was in my room. I entered her room and placed the plant on the dresser re-arranging the leaves to make it look nice. Her room was so different from mine. It had white walls, all the furniture was new and the whole room was so much bigger than mine. A wave of jealousy hit me. Not only had Dawn gotten everything she wanted during our childhood, but she also didn't need to go into the tale this early. She had got her wish of being an only child and once again, everything went her way. I felt so spiteful and wanted to do something to make her feel hurt, to make her understand how I felt every day of my life. I looked around the room for things I could do. Her phone was dumped on her bed I knew she couldn't bear to be without it, so I quickly took it and stuffed it into my pocket, I wasn't going to see her again for a while, so I didn't really care about stealing. I looked around again,. I thought about what she loved the most and spotted the masses of makeup and hair products in her bathroom. Dawn was obsessed with her image. I dipped all her makeup brushes in ink and threw her hair products out the window. I then used the makeup brushes to paint a swirling design on the mirror. I threw the still dripping brush down on the counter and stepped back to admire my work.

Only then did I realised what I had done. I felt terrible and tried to clean the brushes with water but there was nothing I could do to reverse what I had done, I was just getting ink all over the bathroom and in my panic, I completely forgot about the phone in my pocket. I ran out of the room as fast as I could and slammed the door behind me.

I hurried down the corridor until I turned a corner, once I couldn't see the door to Dawn's room leant against the wall, breathing heavily, I didn't understand what was happening to me why I had done such horrible things to Dawn. I knew it was time to go so I braced myself and headed with my bag down the corridor to mother's study.

I walked in without knocking. Mother and the man were huddled around the desk talking softly about something. As she looked up I noticed that her mascara had run down her face and it had given her the look of a dishevelled racoon. I unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh and it caused both adults to look at me. The man straightened up and stared directly at me. He then motioned towards the door.

"I assume you know what is happening" he questioned with a smirk that seemed to laugh at my pitifully small amount of luggage for how long I would be going for.

"Yes, I do" I retorted sharply. His lips seemed to curl back into a smile at this causing my level of frustration to rise.

"Your carriage awaits" he said with a sarcastic flourish.

He stalked out of the room with leaving me alone with mother.

"Go" she muttered "I never liked you anyway" And with that I stormed out, feeling mother's glare on my back.

I followed the man out of the house to the driveway. My "carriage" wasn't a carriage, it was a black hearse. It gave me the shivers as I'd only ever seen them at funerals, it gave me a bad feeling about everything. He opened the back door for me, and I climbed in. The inside of the hearse was a lot brighter than the outside and the plush white seats were really comfortable. The man got into the front seat and started the engine. "Better get comfortable, you're in for a long drive."

With that, we drove away from my home, my town, my life... I realised I had no idea where we were going. I leant forward and tapped the man on the shoulder.

"How long until we reach, wherever we're going?" I asked.

"We will get there when we get there" He replied, his eyes still focused on the road ahead.

"But where are we going? Is it far?"

"You will find out soon enough"

"Why can't you tell me now?" I was starting to get a bit frustrated.

"Tale master's orders" He replied sharply, pressing a small silver button that caused a divider to slide up in-between us, separating the front seats from the back ones. I kicked his seat in annoyance, he could have at least told me how long we would be driving for. I twisted around and put my legs up on the seats next to mine, my mucky trainers leaving scuff marks on the white leather.

I must have fallen asleep because I realised we had stopped moving, or at least were slowing down. I looked out if the window to see a large dark building and realised that we weren't in Artagon anymore. I sat up confused. The man opened the door to let me out. I left the car cautiously and looked around me. The air was cold, and the area was quiet, a stark contrast to Cinderheath which was always warm and busy. I stood there with the strange man and wondered where I was...