Geraldine fell down on the first treebranch she could find, dropping her bag and her broom next to her. When the first tears started to roll down her face, she burried her face in her hands. A silent sob came out. She should have known the truth would come out one day. She refused to believe it first, but she became aware of the risc a couple of years back, which caused her to have panic attacks at night quite often.
When she said she needed the job, everyone must have thought she needed it for the money, Geraldine thought. How wrong could someone be. It was because of the children. She wanted to work with children. Really. Bad. She wanted to take care of them. She wanted them to be safe. The girls must have thought she was a boring teacher quite often, but as long as they learned, as long as they were save, it didn't really matter to her. She couldn't keep her own little girl safe, but she had always felt the urge to take care of children. Some mothers in the same situation would run away as far as possible from anything that would remind them of their own child. Geraldine wasn't one of them. It gave her some comfort to work with children. It made her feel as if they were all her own. Slowly, the girls filled the hole that had appeared in her heart after losing her little girl.
Geraldine sobbed again. But now the hole is back again. Bigger than ever. The girls… She wouldn't ever see the girls again. What would she do now? She already missed the girls. Probably, no other school would hire her now. Everyone will know how she got her previous job, and wouldn't want her to teach at their school. But no one knows why she did it.
Geraldine her face was now wet from the tears. Her little girl… what would've happend if she hadn't lost her little girl? What would she look like now? Would she look like her father, or would she look like herself? Would she be a good witch? Would she… love her?
Were was her little girl's father? She had lost him too. Geraldine often felt guilty about it, but because of something natural called mother instinct, she took the loss of her little girl worse. Perhaps it was also because she knew the father was still alive somewhere. She never had seen her little girls body, but after what happend, one could only assume she was dead.
They took her for some sick experiment. They stole her. Some sick magical experiment. Geraldine never found out what kind of experiment, because the building went into flames during the experiment. Everyone died. Including her little girl.
Geraldine only wanted her little girl to be safe. And then they stole her little girl and her love of her life disappeared into the mist with her. And now she had lost everything which made her feel a little more comfortable as well. Again. She just wanted the girls to be safe.
"You don't really have to lose them.", a voice from behind her said. "You can come back to Cackle's… with me.". Geraldine turned around and felt scared the moment she saw Agatha. "W-With you?", was all that she could say. "Yes. With me. I'll be headmistress very soon. And you'll be my deputy, if you want to.".
Geraldine thought about the offer for a moment. Actually, she didn't want to. What if Agatha would hurt the children? She would hurt the children, definitely. But on the other hand… she would still be with the girls. And she could protect them. Shecould keep them safe from Agatha.
Little did she know how soon one could become just as evil as Agatha herself when you hang around with her too much. Little did she know 'wanting the girls to be safe' would become 'revenge' and 'hatred'. If only she knew, she would have refused and run away.
But she didn't. The urge to see the girls again was too big.
"Okay", Geraldine said, "I think I can help you.".