What felt like the best day of my life turned out to be the beginning of a terrifying adventure. A few weeks after my 15th birthday mother called me into her office. I felt myself trembling as I approached the door I had only ever been in there once, when I had broken one of mother's favourite vases, ever since then I had avoided even going near the door... She looked at me as I walked into her office, her piercing glare slicing my thoughts. A strange man stood next to her, I had never seen anyone quite like him before.
He wore a completely white suit complete with a tailcoat but had black gloves and boots. The pocket of his tailcoat had an intricate crest embroidered onto it. It showed two large dogs, rising onto their hackles at each other. One of the dogs had black fur with white features and the other was white with black. Underneath the dogs stood a silver book that seemed to glow against the background of the crest and there were even words inscribed onto its pages. I squinted to read the tiny golden writing. "The tale must end for the master to win"
I made a puzzled face, I didn't understand what the words meant, but I didn't line them. The man seemed to notice my unease and smiled over at me; it was a crooked smile which highlighted a vivid scar which slivered all the way from the top of his ear to the corner of his lip. His posture made it clear that he was trying not to worry me, but his pale blue eyes seemed to betray him. As they looked at me they seemed to be pitying me, as if I was about to do something that would cause disgrace to my family. He was extremely tall and he had to lean down to shake my hand. As he did so I noticed he had scars all over his neck as if he had been mauled by a bear, or maybe a pack of wild dogs, I shivered at this thought. After he stood up again mother coughed as if she was going to speak, the man ignored her and continued to focus on me, she coughed again, but still he ignored her. I enjoyed this thoroughly as I hadn't seen anyone ever ignore mother before and it was clear that she was getting annoyed by it. Finally, he turned around to talk to her.
"Everything has been arranged" he said firmly, "You cannot change that" As he spoke mother's face seemed to lose all colour, even though she was wearing a ridiculous amount of pink blush. Her facial expression went from shock to anger.
"What about Dawn!" she blurted, Panic flashing through her eyes.
"Her time is not now" the man replied calmingly, he gazed down at her pity, before he turned to me "Luna go pack your bags." I didn't argue. I knew there was no point, you didn't get to choose when you went into the tales. Mother tried to stop me going, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me to face her. Her eyes were wild, and she was staring at me desperately.
"Don't go!" she begged, shaking my shoulders. "Don't you dare leave me!" her voice raised to a shout. Somewhere in the house, I heard Dawn call out, asking what was happening. Mother sunk to her knees shaking, tears rolling down her face.
"This isn't how it was supposed to happen; this isn't what I planned" she whispered in between sobs.
I felt a firm hand on my shoulder and looked up to see the man standing there calmly. "Go" he muttered softly "Don't worry about her" Glad to be dismissed I rushed from the office leaving mother sobbing on the floor and the man standing at the doorway towering over her.
I ran through the corridors of the house to my room. On my way, I bumped into Dawn who glared at me. She looked confused and seemed to be annoyed with me, but then she always was, she made a snide comment that I didn't catch before she pushed past me and went to comfort mother. I wonder if she had known that would be the last time she would see me in over a year, maybe she would have treated me differently. Maybe I could have said something. I rushed into my room and flopped on my bed, the familiar scent of it calming me. Wow, just wow. I didn't think I would be leaving so soon. I looked around my room, taking in everything about it knowing I wouldn't be seeing it again in a long time. I went around the room savouring everything from the peeling purple wallpaper to the photos of me and grandad when I was younger.
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...