Chapter 1
Daphne
The ground is fresh and soft beneath me- a perfect carpet of lime green grass- and the sun falls down like glorious waves around me, setting high in the sky. It's a perfect day in my dream, void of anything bad or unwanted. So far, so good… My hands sliver out from underneath my head, tucking neatly into the grass- kind of a reassuring gesture- to make sure it's still there really- and inwardly I smile. If only this is real… If only. Slowly I force my eyes to open around me, expecting the scenery to change as it always does, expecting everything to change back to the bleary forest that has been my only home for the last 70 or so years.
Nothing happens.
The view clears slightly around me, the river coming into sight- flowing gently just a foot length away from my face… just like it always used to do. Is this real? Can it possibly be…? Could the spell I once wished so hard for have finally come undone? Slowly and steadily I push myself to my feet, expecting at any second my arms with harden it the wood like quality I've become accustomed to in the last two decades. I don't feel quite as solid as I probably should but at this exact moment I can't force myself to has felt quite this real since I was forced to change in the first place and I finally stop trying to convince myself not to let my hopes get to high up- that In a second I'm gonna wait up. My feet push me up, supporting me- just as they should- until I feel solid enough. That's when I start running again, enjoying the feel of the wind on the backs of my legs, enjoying the rush that simply being on my feet gives me.
Enjoying that this time I'm not being chased…
My sight turns into a certain line of travel.
To the worn but still walkable path, a little more overgrown then I remember, but still obviously the only way there really is, or has ever been and my feet turn in that direction. My path home.
That's when the darkness starts appearing at the edge of my line of vision and foolishly I stop.
Why did I stop?
I begins edging closer. "Daphne…" It whispers eerily out of the shadows and I force myself not to shiver, not wanting 'it'- whatever it is- to see my fear.
Not wanting to seem scared at all.
The shadows begin closing in on me and my legs tense, my mind screaming at me to run.
To get out of this place as quickly as I can and back into the meadow that has been my solace these past 70 years.
But I can't.
My heart is beating fast and hard inside my chest, feeling like it wants to explode and even when I try to run, to move out of this place as quickly as my legs can run I discover I can't move anyway.
It feels like my feet have been nailed to the spot.
I can't go anywhere…
The shadows begin to move even closer, swirling together in an odd fashion to form the outline of a figure.
A person.
Someone who looks all too familiar in my eyes despite the fog.
This can't be.
"No…" I whisper, not even realising that the sound as made its way out of my throat before I even hear it.
See the figure smile and try to remember where I have seen that face before.
Try to see between the blurry lined my vision have become.
A shadow-like tendril reaches out for my and instinctively I flinch.
The person, bare figure formed out of shadows grimaces at my ejection and reaches a dark palm out towards me instead.
All of this seems vaguely familiar somehow… I'm not really sure.
A hollow echo sound through my head, shrieking like a million voices and causing a layer of icy pain to sweep over my mind.
I wince.
A hollowness caves over me as a single memory I haven't been able to understand up until now sweeps through my mind… taking me over.
Another place, another time.
Crystalline laughs tinkering through the building and a warm hand holding mine.
A voice.
A warm voice that reminds me of flowers and something I've always identified as safety.
A 5 year old me tilts my head up and stares into the hazel eyes tinted with something bright, something alive that I haven't seen until now.
She smiles and my heart swells so hard in my chest I feel like it's going to pop into a million pieces and carry me away in the wind.
"Mummy," the little voice says, "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe darling," she says, looking down at me seriously, "We're going to play a game of hide and seek now baby."
The 5 year old me nods and smiles, making me suddenly remember how much I used to love that game.
"You're going to hide," she whispers into my ear, once she decides we are deep enough in this building, "Hide in that place of yours under the floorboards." She's speaking in a frantic whisper now.
"Mummy," I say, feeling a little panicked by the seriousness of her tone.
"It's alright darling," she tells me a smile creasing her face, "I'm going to hide too, and we're both going to stay exactly where we are until you father gets home and finds us. Okay?
I nod, feeling more than a little confused as I crawl off to my place under the floorboards hearing her walk away to some other place as I do.
After that I remember shadows.
Everywhere.
That was the last time I ever saw my mother.
That was the last time anyone ever saw her.
My mind spirals back to the present and I find that the shadows have continued to circle me, to entrap me in a web so tight what I'll never escape.
"No," I say out loud again feeling a little more confident about it this time.
The shadow figure says nothing just continues to grin and suddenly the panic of being trapped starts to overrun the inside my mind, rocketing me out of control.
Overtaking me.
I try to run again, as feeling starts to return to my legs but the shadows just push me back into their little webbed cage, burning me skin wherever they touch.
Almost… electrifying it, the marks worsening over time instead of getting better.
"Let me go" I tell the shadow figure slowly, trying to calm myself, knowing that it won't work all too easily.
Trying anyway.
The shadow seems to grin at the through the darkness that surrounds me and it webs hands edge through the web grabbing for me.
"No!" I yell, jolting backwards, "No leave me alone!"
Just as the shadow goes to grab my arms and everything begins to fade I tell out once more, hoping that someone, anyone in this entire world will hear me.
"Help me!"
Everything goes back and through the darkness of the shadow I can feel myself falling through space, away from this place and back to the safety of my meadow.
My body is falling back into the protective armour of my tree, and for the second time in my entire life I feel eternally grateful back within the solid branches of the tree.