Pretty Lies

♔Chapter 1: The Past♚

  I was just a young girl when it all began.

   My mother was a fair woman with the  midnight black hair and green eyes I was born with. She gave people exactly what she believed they deserved and I loved her for it. Not a single spoiled child would go near my home, as they knew they--if seen as sour--would be treated with little kindness. I always did my best to please my mother, for many reasons. A large reason was that my father was a very harsh man. He rarely came home before dark, and even more rarely without the smell of the tavern radiating off him. He'd often yell at my mother and I for little to no reason.
   I had one brother, Eric, who was old enough to rarely stick around the house. He took advantage of this and spent his days outside with his friends or attempting to get close to girls. Once, he came home with a large smile on his face.

"Eric? What's with the grin?" I asked him. At first, he didn't reply. Then, he turned to me and his smile widened.

"I got a kiss from a girl." He had puffed out his chest in pride as I stared at him in awe.

"Well, let me see it!" I squealed as I ran to him in excitement. He had his face in its confused scrunch until he seemed to finally understand my request. Eric began laughing uncontrollably. 

"That's not exactly possible, Alainn." He ruffled my long, curly black hair playfully and I pushed my face into a pout as I swatted at his hands.

   When I was old enough to finally go out on my own, I spent hours upon hours running, walking, and skipping down the cobble streets of Greenfeld. I would wave to the neighbors along my route and play games with the other girls. Only a couple times was I late for supper, which Mother would punish me for.

Things began to change around my thirteenth birthday, when Aurora Thinnheart and her father traveled here from a neighboring kingdom. They were wealthy in both currency and pride. Aurora would strut around the cobble streets in the brightest pink dresses and the finest jewels. It wasn't long before my friends left me to play with her and my loneliness shoved me along with them. Unfortunately, that's where my string of unfortunate events began.

"Mother?" I called, walking through the old wooden door to my home. I didn't hear a reply and went directly to my room to search for my bracelet to show Aurora. I stopped dead in the hall when I heard a small giggle from my mother and father's room. I slowly inched towards their door, barely able to hear the talking between a male and female beyond the wall. 'Is father home early?', I wondered as I slowly turned the knob. The door slowly opened just enough to where I could see two figures laying in the bed. One I immediately recognized as my mother, her black hair frizzed in all directions. The man beside her, however, was unfamiliar with light blonde hair. He had his back turned towards me, hiding his face. My mother giggles again at something he whispers in her ear and before my very eyes, their faces pull closer until my mother's lips are upon his own. My eyes widen and my heart drops to my stomach as they lean back onto the bed. Horrified, I dash away from the room and out of the house.

That man was not my father.

~*~*~ 3 YEARS LATER~*~*~

I ran out of the huge Thinnheart house, tears streaming down my face. Behind me I can hear the other girls laughing at my humiliation. First, they hide mice in my belongings. Then they have me confess to fancying Jerral Rupardson while he was hiding in Aurora's large, dress-filled closet. He had come out, a look of dismay clearly written on his face as he faced me.
"Listen, Alainn. I'm flattered, but let's face it-" he was cut off by Aurora.

"She's not good enough for you. She's dirty, poor, and I heard her mother's a whore." she snickers. The other girls laugh.

"Not to mention she's ugly."

"Horrifyingly hideous!"

"Her hair is so knotted!" They pick and pull at me with each harmful comment. I hide my face in my hands, trying to shield my face from their pinching fingers .

"I heard her mother used a spell to bewitch that man into sleeping with her. When he woke up, he panicked and headed for the docks before drowning himself!" Aurora told the others while standing directly by my ear so I would hear.

Now I was running as fast as I could away from that hellish place and toward my home. What I didn't expect to see was a crowd surrounding my home. I pushed through man, woman, and child until I was around the side of the house and able to get through the back door.

"Mother? Father?" I called shortly before hearing loud, rushing steps coming down the hall for me. My father ran over and hugged me. His short, dark brown beard brushed against the top of my head as he spoke.

"Aliann? You alright?" I nod into his chest, more tears falling to stain his vest. "Good. Go upstairs and get some rest. I promise you everything will be fine." Again, I nod and give him one last squeeze before running down the hall to my small and dark room. I run across the bare, wooden floors to the bed I'm just beginning to grow out of. As soon as my face hits the pillow, sleepiness creeps into my body and I begin to rest. The last thing I hear are the slamming of doors as I wished Eric hadn't moved away.

~+~+~+~

"Alainn!"

My eyes shoot open as I'm quickly lifted off the bed by a pair of strong arms. I look up to see my father, his face red with sweat beading down from his matted, brown hair. Then I notice the heat radiating from all directions. Looking around, I see that the walls furthest from my bed were set ablaze. In a whirl, my father is dashing down the hall with me in his arms--dodging flames left and right so quickly, they were a mere blurr. Segments of ceiling fall just to our left and I let out a shriek of horror. One of my father's hands reach up to pull my head inward toward him protectively. Once we reach the back door, he attempts to kick it down. After three large kicks that would send any number of men to their knees and over, the door busts open and I'm set on the green grass of our back yard.

"Run as far and as fast as you can Alainn!" My father shouts at me.

"What about you?" I ask, my heart thumping loudly in my chest as I observed the flame engulfed house.

"I'm going to get your mother out of there! Leave now!" I quickly run into the woods behind the house, hiding behind a tree away from prying eyes. I watch the back door in anticipation. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, my parents finally were visible from beyond the doorway. I gaze hopefully as I watch them run closer and closer to the door.

"Come on, come on." I whisper to myself. They were just right at the door when a crackling sound could be heard loud and clear from even the distance I was at. My parent's looked up and I watched my father gasp and my mother scream. Right before my very eyes, the attic collapsed on everything I loved. Tears fall from my eyes and I scream in internal agony.

I slowly, brokenly, stumble to the front of the house where a large crowd cheers with pitchforks and torches. My heart shatters once more when I see the familiar black hair and blue eyed man who was chanting and cheering at the head of the mob. When he looks over at me, his face pales. I see his lips move but hear only my heart beat like the furiously beating wings of a nearby crow.

"Eric."

Anger, hatred, and betrayal not only plague my heart but run furiously through my veins. I straighten myself and tighten my fists.

"You want a witch? I'll give you a witch." I mutter as the wind whirls around me, spiraling somewhere behind me.

"Revenge, my sweet one, is a dish best served with a side of suffering." I turn around quickly and see a woman with violently red hair curled to her waist dressed in a red and black cloak. Her hazel eyes bore into my green ones and a chill crawls up my spine. She smiles and outstretches her hand for me to take. "I'll teach you how to be the wickedest this land has ever seen."

I turn back to my burning home and then back to the woman before me. With a face of stone and a heart of fire, I grab her outstretched hand.

"Let's give them a banquet of pain."
~+~+~+~