First ever FanFic! Oy vey, what am I getting my self into :p
Chapter One: Different
Persephone was a rather conspicuous young girl. She had jet black, wildly curly hair and no matter how ferociously the nuns at St. Margaret's Home for Girls tried to comb it, it refused to untangle. On one particularly memorable occasion, Sister Luke became so distressed with that unmanageable head of hair that she cut the girls locks clean off. Even more distressing to Sister Luke however, was the fact that by the next morning, the girl's hair had grown back.
She was average height and her features were fine and delicate. A small, strait nose was planted firmly upon a heart-shaped face above a round, rosebud mouth. Pink circles graced her ivory cheeks. Her eyes however, refused to be dainty and delicate like the rest of her face. Large, dark, and heavily lidded, they were the eyes of a much older person, perhaps a queen or Egyptian Pharaoh. Those eyes made it clear to all the other little girls at St. Margaret's that Persephone was different. She did not make friends easily
It wasn't just her appearances that dissuaded other children from befriending her, for everyone at St. Margaret's knew her parents were murderers. It was common knowledge that Persephone was born in prison and that her parents were sentenced to life behind bars. "Them Lestrange's" a rodent faced girl by the name of Becky whispered, "they're as bad as the devil! Killed more 'en twenty innocent people I heard." The other girls all nodded gravely. "They're more 'en bad" she continued, "there completely mental! It's only a matter a time before she goes the same way."
The infamous reputation of Persephone's parents might have been overlooked if it hadn't been for the strange things that happened around her every once and a while. Once a group of girls was playing with a dollhouse. When they refused to let Persephone join, the dollhouse exploded. "She- she did it! She's possessed!" one girl hollered.
"No, I- I don't know how it happened, I swear!" Persephone cried.
More than once while the girls took their weekly stroll through London, people seemed to recognize Persephone. People would whisper "I'd no those eyes anywhere" and others pulled their children out of her way.
Persephone also had a strange association with snakes. While the children were tending the garden, a favorite activity, a garden snake slithered its way onto a student galosh. She shrieked in fear and kicked the poor creature. Later, Persephone was found, seemingly conversing with the serpent. "T'was a snake that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden!" she overheard mother superior whisper to another nun. "There is something evil about befriending a snake… and did you hear the way she hissed at it? It sounded like- like she was talking to it! And it was hissing back!"
After the snake story spread around the school, the girls stayed clear of poor Persephone and she was left more or less alone until her eleventh birthday. At first she tried to play with the other girls, tried quite desperately to earn their approval and be welcomed into the fold, but eventually, she gave up. Rejection is a queer thing. Some people are motivated by rejection and redouble their efforts in the hopes of achieving acceptance. Others, like Persephone, arm themselves against it with a shield of aloofness. "If they don't want to play with me, I don't want to play with them" she once said on the morning of her eleventh birthday to the kind old Sister Assumpta, one of the few people with whom Persephone was able to form a relationship.
"Persephone my child, let them get to know you and see how bright and kind you are!" she pleaded. But Persephone refused. Persephone did not like to feel vulnerable. "You are not responsible for the sins of your parents, my dear. You mustn't believe you are tainted because of them."
"It isn't that Sister, it's more than that. I just don't fit in. I'm different."
"We are all the same in the eyes of God" Sister Assumpta replied "and those girls would be lucky to have a friend like you." But Persephone just shook her head.
Sister Assupmta would have continued her attempted persuasion if she hadn't been distracted by a strange tapping noise coming from the window. Persephone and Sister Assumpta turned their heads to see a brown barn owl lightly pecking at the glass of the window, an envelope fastened to its leg.