A Horrific Fantasy

Chapter 1

Charlotte's or rather Charlie's story begins about a year before she discovered Mystique Hollow, around the time she had lost her father and mother. It was her fifteenth birthday, just after school had let out and her parents had picked her up, choosing to go out for the celebration. First thing they did was exchange presents. Her mother had given her a very special music box and her father had given her an evening gown in pale blue which she wore to go with them to dinner and afterward to a theater show. It was by far the best birthday she ever had.

But that night as they were driving home, their car was hit by a truck who's driver was awfully drunk. The crash had sent the car skidding off the road and tumbling down a ravine. Charlie's head had been thrown hard aganist the window and she was knocked out instantly. When she awoke she was in the hospital with a bandaged wrapped around her head to stop the bleeding of a nasty gash she had recieved. But that gash and few a bruises were all she sustained from that accident. Her parents however were not as lucky. Her father's head had crashed against the wind shield resulting in fractured skull while her mother's neck had been snapped by the sudden force. Their deaths had been quick and painless, no suffering. Yet their daughter was left suffering more than they ever would from here on out.

Her maternal grandparents were long dead and her mother had been an only child, her paternal grandfather was still alive but tragically in the early stages of dementia while her paternal uncle had five children to care for. That left only her godfather Stolas to look after her. Stolas Goetia was a very wealthy biotech consultant who had been a long time friend to Charlie's parents, he was her father's college roommate and he was in the same theater trope as her mother. He introuduced the future couple to each other at a party and since then he had always been there to help them when neccessary. Though they drifted apart once he married and had his own daughter yet they still chose him to look after their little girl should anything happen to them.

Charlie could remember Stolas visiting them on holidays or babysitting her when she was younger, but living with him would be a little strange because the very last time she saw him, she was only seven years old. Not to mention he lived all the way in the state of Oregon, territory that she wasn't familiar with. She had grown up in a big city but Stolas lived in a small town. He had once lived in the city like Charlie's parents did but after divorcing his wife, he thought that a quieter and more simple area would be better suited to his daughter Octavia.

It was a very old house, one that had an attic under the roof, a cellar under the ground, and an overgrown garden where Stolas grew and tended to his large collection of plants. He had enough money to own the property but he thought the house was too big to shelter only three people, so he chose only to own part of it and allow other residents to rent out the remaining flats.

Gina De Luca lived in the flat below Stolas, on the ground floor. In her youth she had worked as magician's assist and a fortune teller, traveling around the world and never really finding stable home until she married Marco De Luca owner of a very popular Italian resturaunt. When Marco died, she retired and their son Roberto became the resturaunt's new owner. Two years afterward she lost her daughter Emilia to her abusive son-in law and became the legal guardian of her grandson Anthony "Angel" Giannelli and then ten years later her adult nephew Baldwin "Blitzo" Walker moved in with them after his career at the circus ended.

In the flat above, under the roof, there lived Husk Talanov. Husk was a war veteran who got by on military benefits and was prone to using the money of gambling or booze. People said that the war did a real number on him, that what he experienced messed up so bad that sometimes he rant like a mad man or talk to people who weren't really there. Some concerned parents thought he was a threat to children but Stolas had allowed his daughter to bring Husk his mail on several occassions, so he was probably harmless.