A child's story
Maria and Mystifurious awoke all at once. Girl and daemon walked out of their room towards the sitting area in the room opposite, that's if you could call it a room, floor to ceiling plaster each piece spread as unevenly as the last, all of it threatening to fall down. Maria brushed her brown hair from her tired blue eyes, her mother came into focus.
"Who are you?" her mother asked, her snake daemon sprang to her side defensively. Maria felt a pang of fear; her mother had always had a problem with drugs, ever since before she could remember, but lately it had got worse and worse to the point where her mother was frequently forgetting who she was.
This was worrying, as Maria was sure that they must have been close at one point, like all the "normal" girls she regularly saw in the street. All stunningly beautiful, walking hand in hand with their equally good-looking mothers, chatting about this and that. Swaying from side to side as they dodge the cracks in the pavement and looking forward to getting out of this part of town to their homes in the better parts of the city. Once home, Maria could imagine their mothers tucking them up in bed and kissing them goodnight, before going off to bed themselves. Maria's mother never went to bed, well never during the night anyway. In fact, she was often kept awake by her mothers manic talking and pacing around in the middle of the night.
"Who are you?" her mother repeated. She felt tears well up in her eyes, the emotional pain was unbearable. She composed herself and Mysti changed into a mouse and climbed into her pocket so as not to betray her feelings.
Humans and their daemons have an amazingly strong bond between them, a bond that should never be broken… They share their thoughts, their feelings, and they are unable to move very far from each other. As a child, daemons have the ability to change from form to form; but when a child reaches the age where they become a child no more, their daemon takes a permanent form that can be a judge of their character. Her mothers was a snake, sly, deceitful, and slithering.
Her mother handed her some money,
"Listen, child, here's some money. You must know where the shop is, do you? Good, well you go and get me something to smoke, there's a good girl, and come back as quickly as possible now! Good girl and when you come back we can discuss what to do with you since you don't seem to talk a lot. I am sure I would be able to help you find your mother." Maria nodded and walked out the door in the direction of the shop. She felt worthless and unwanted, her mother could not even remember her, how could her mother look for a person that is, indeed, herself.
Her mother watched her walk away and muttered to herself,
"Strange child in my house. Strange, strange child." She then walked into the house and slept. When she will awake, her body will no longer be pumped with toxins, as Maria will not come back with something for her to smoke. Maria may never come back at all. Her mother will, for once, not have chemicals affecting her brain and will be able to think for herself. She will wonder where her only daughter has gone, and when she will return. However, it will be too late for these questions to be answered. Children have been going missing from all over the country and now it is Maria's turn. Her mother will go to the police, and be laughed at and mocked, as there are far too many kids going missing to worry about just one little, poor child. In the eyes of the police, with a mother like that it is a wonder that the child is still alive anyway.
The only child on the mind of the police right now was a little blonde girl by the name of Lyra…