Bewitched {ON HOLD}

1 - Prophecy

PROLOGUE

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The light emanating from the moon, told Evangeline it was nearly midnight. She creaked open her door, staring down the corridors, and upon hearing nothing but the still silence and the calming snores and heavy breaths of sleep from the bedrooms of the Van Tassel household, she closed the door.

Both the silence of sound and darkness of night cued Madilyn to - as quietly as she could - take out her books of sorcery and her cauldron all hidden in a compartment of her closet. And so her studies began.

Evangeline had gotten accustomed to this routine of practising witchcraft at this time, for it was the only time she felt truly by herself, safe to do what she loved in secrecy. It wasn't so much that witchcraft was a secret from the mere common folk of Sleepy Hollow; in fact Sleepy Hollow was renowned for their haunting atmosphere and peculiarity.

However, the abnormal strength of power, along with the fact that she was found, an abandoned baby in the Western Woods - a place the brave do not dare enter since there lay the vengeful corpse of the Headless Horseman - Evangeline was feared and dreaded with judgement, even suspected of black magic and being a descendant of the dark sorcerers that once plagued Sleepy Hollow in the Dutch settlement.

Naturally, these aspects of Evangeline led her to be suspected of being collaborative of the horrific murders that occurred in Sleepy Hollow, not a few days ago, by none other than than the Headless Horseman.

Whether the rumours of Evangeline being a descendant of dark sorcerers were true or not, they could not be confirmed by Evangeline herself. Twenty years ago, Evangeline was found as a newborn birthed in the moonlight of Halloween night, by a man who dared lurked in the woods beyond his town. This man, Baltus Van Tassel, with his compassion for the fearful cries of the young baby, took her into his home.

With the little amount Baltus knew about this young child, he welcomed her into his family, raising her as his first child. All was well when he thought she was just a normal, innocent child.

On one day when Evangeline was no older than 8, she had a childish tantrum, as many normal children do. However, it is known that normal children wouldn't of expressed their anger through accidentally summoning forceful swifts of the wind and shifting forces in the ground. Since then, Evangeline was shunned from the very village she grew up in.

It didn't bother Evangeline so much when the residents of Sleepy Hollow would turn away from her when they would see her, but it bothered her when her very own adoptive father and mother had gradually begun to neglect her, favouring most their affection to their youngest daughter and only child of flesh and blood, Katrina.

Evangeline was forced to conceal her powers, practising them in secret to have control over them and teaching herself from books she'd collect from ancient, untouched collections in the library's storage.

She had gotten used to the solitude, aside from her friendship with her sister who was the only one who didn't define who Evangeline was by mere rumours - and her, herself having her own interest and small adept skill in witchcraft. She was always quiet, her nose often buried behind a book of old folktales or stories of legend to make her feel that her abnormalities would've been normal in the worlds she read about.

Evangeline often blurred the presence of people, drifting past them not knowing that they were staring at her in deep judgement and resentment. There were occasions where their teasing, bullying and laughing had caught her attention, where she simply amused herself by making them believe she would curse them.