GS Note: Here's the next part in the saga! It's set before My Kinda Fairy Tale, no pairings just friendship and emotional pain.

A Dark Tale

Prologue

A girl, no older then twelve, sighed and opened an old hardcover notebook. It was pink with delicate roses painted all over the cover. She almost winced at the colourful design but opened at the first page. It was scrawled with childish writing, literate but only barely. She leaned back on her bed, her blue skirt fanning out in front of her as she brushed her long blonde hair out of her face and began to read into her past.

Dear Diary

May 12, 1997

Hello! This is my first diary entry ever! I can tell we are going to be great friends! Some people say I should name you. I think I'll call you Dolly, after my older sister. She's cool. She's four years older then me though. I'm seven and in grade 2. My name is Dorothy Susanna Catolonia. I have blonde hair and blue eyes. My birthday was yesterday and my mommy got me you to write in. she said something about expressing my feminine self. I don't know what that is but it makes her all happy when I wear dresses and stuff so I think it has to do about that. But I really don't like to wear dresses. I like to wear jeans but my mommy doesn't let me. So I wear them at the Church! Oh, I should tell you about the Church, huh? Well it's a big building and it has a few kids in it and a nun and a priest. My best friend lives there. His name is Duo Maxwell and he's my bestest friend forever! Well, aside from you of course Dolly! Sister Helen lets me wear jeans so I go over there a lot. Mommy doesn't mind, she thinks I'll grow up to be a perfect lady if I go to Church a lot. Daddy is too busy to notice but I think he'll be proud of me. My sister walks me over there a lot and she sometimes stays. She's so pretty! She has red hair, like my mommy, but it's pretty red and she has green eyes. They're cool! She says she likes my hair better though, she likes to brush it. Oh Dolly, I have to go now, but I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok? I'll put you on my bookshelf so you can have some company.

Love Dorothy

An older Dorothy closed the book with a small chuckle. It was so long ago. Five years, had it really that been that long? She looked over to the shelf in her large room. It was filled with books and other various journals she had recorded over the years. She had been so innocent then, she wished she could just warp back in time.

Now her journals were filled with much more disturbing news. She slumped back on her down filled, queen-sized bed. Her room was various shades of pink and blue, picked out the way her mother's decorator like it. It looked like a poster room, one straight from the magazines that no one lived in. In fact, no one really lived in this one. Nothing besides the books and journals were her only personal items. Her clothes were picked by a fashion consultant from the latest catalogues all over the world. She only came here to spelt, and even then that was rare. She stood up and left her huge mansion-like house to start the long, familiar walk to the north part of town, the worst part of town, the wrong side of the tracks. She took short cuts though overrun backyards and old alleys until she saw an old house in the distance.

The windows were the only things that stood out. The cross on the top of the building was too small to really see. But the stain glass windows were breathtaking. There was one of St Joseph holding his adopted son, Jesus, tenderly. It was the main one, the one that struck most people. Joseph, the patron saint of orphans. Dorothy skipped going through the front doors. She went straight for the hidden path on the left side, over run with trees and bushes. There was a thin path alone the building and small out jutting from the brick building. The jut was foundation grey and level with the ground. Dorothy easily hopped down the earth stairs and opened the wooden door. The kitchen was full as usual.

Sister Helen stood by the stove, stirring a foul smelling broth. Three kids sat at the table in the main kitchen, watching the food hungrily. Dorothy was greeted warmly before she went up the winding wood stairs to the boys dorm. As usual, the few old beds were pushed into various positions. Some close, some far. The farthest though, was against the corner across from the kitchen stairs. There was alone figure in the dimly lit room. Dorothy sighed and walked across the creaking floor to the person.

She reached the bed and touched his shoulder. His eyes didn't open as he lay back, relaxed and appearing to be asleep.

"Duo," she said, stern and friendly at the same time. "I know you're awake."

The boy grinned widely, without opening his eyes. "Doro! Babe, what are you doing here?"

"I practically live here Duo," she laughed good heartily. "Open your eyes silly."

"Nope!" Duo grinned and giggled. "Nonononono! I dunana get 'nother lecture from you!"

Dorothy looked at her smiling friend, his eyes still tightly shut but a wide, vacant grin on his face. She sighed in disappointment. Just once, she'd like to have a normal conversation with her friend. Not like this. This wasn't who he was.

Suddenly his eyes opened and he looked around. They fixed on Dorothy's and he grinned again, sitting up but immedently fell back again, dizzy and disoriented.

"Doro! When did ya get 'ere?" Dorothy felt like crying as his wide, bloodshot eyes grinned happily up at her.