Free Falling - (An OUAT Panfiction)

Chapter 1 - 0

      Alette rose from her bed the moment she heard the music. Slowly tiptoeing around the room she shared with twenty-nine other girls. It took her a while but finally she reached the window. The music sounded... different, not in the strange way that makes one cover their ears. In a almost soft way. It was the kind of gentle music that made a curious girl like Alette wonder about its source.

      She looked back at all the other girls. None of them stirred at all from their slumber. She tilted her head to the side and pondered the fact that maybe she was the only one who could hear it. She shook her head with a smile, no that could not be it. She had heard great tales of magic, but who would go through the effort to make music only a lonely orphan could hear.

      Alette listened for a while longer. Just content to sit by the windowsill and have to smooth notes pour over her. However as her mind pondered over things she started to get this feeling. It was a pulling in her chest, the music wanted her to follow it, and she wanted the same thing.

      Quieter than a mouse Alette moved her way back to her cot. Slowly she shimmed out of her nightgown and started to pull on more appropriate clothes for sneaking around at night. She started with her only pair of clean pants, black riding pants. She hardly ever wore them because they weren't allowed to wear pants at the Convent unless they needed to go riding, which practically never happened. It was always skirts and dresses at the Convent, nothing else. Next she ruffled through her chest for a blouse. She found one and slipped it on tying it at the hips and wrists. With a sly smile she decided to skip wearing a corset. Quickly she grabbed her cap from the bottom of her chest. The sisters wouldn't usual let her wear it but why shouldn't she tonight. After balling up all of her black as night hair she pulled the cap over it, containing it and keeping it away from her face.

      She only needed two more things before leaving the Convent that night. Timidly she snuck over to the occupied bed near the door. This was the bed of the oldest girl in the room, Stephanie. She was only a year older than Alette and was nearly the same size. That's why Alette was able to steal her lace up riding boots and black cloak. Alette herself had never been permitted to have those things, but tonight she needed them. Besides, she was feeling adventurous that night and didn't see a reason why she shouldn't take them.

      Carefully and quietly she slipped on the boots and laced them up, they were slightly tight, but she was sure she could wear them in. The cloak fit around her shoulders perfectly. As she tied it closed around her neck she took a deep breath. She was doing something she had never done before. She had always been a good girl, she never broke the rules, and complied with whatever order she was given. Never before had she considered breaking out, yet here she was late at night preparing to leave. The idea should have freaked her out, it would have any other person, but it only made Alette smile happily.

      With nimble feet Alette stepped up to the window. She took one last glance around checking to make sure that nobody was watching her. With a shaky breath she opened up the window letting in a cold rush of air. She breathed it in and relished in the feeling. Looking down a small spike of panic hit her. She was on the second floor and had to jump down to the ground. She had known she would have to do this, it still didn't stop her from taking a step back from the windowsill. For a moment she closed her eyes, she closed her eyes and she breathed.

      When she opened them again she stepped into the windowsill with steady feet. She could do this, she would do this, she had to. She had to follow the music that still pumped through her blood. So without taking another breath she leaped out of the window.

      As she fell Alette felt something deep inside her chest break free. For so long she had dreamed about leaving the Convent, even if just for one night. Now, due to some strange music, she was finally doing so. Falling through the air in that moment released something she had been holding inside of her for much to long, out of her lips came a small yet joyful laugh. She had never laughed before, nothing at the Convent had ever made her happy enough to laugh, only ever smile. So now that she seemed to have discovered this totally new ability she embraced it and laughed until she hit the ground.