Author's Notes~

Howdy! This story is my submission for Village Square's June 2011 writing contest. I divided it up into three small, very little chapters and I hope you all enjoy!

Poisonous Wish

Part One

Jin always kept a neat clinic, not just clean but organized. As she stowed away a file, Candace noticed each paper on a disease or medicine was placed neatly in alphabetical order, cases in chronological order, and not so much as a bent edge on any of the papers.

"So kind of you to lend a hand day after day like this," Irene was saying as she wiped clean the front counter. It was getting late in the day, and it was visible in Irene's aging, weary eyes and the strands of gray hair that had fallen loose from its bun.

Candace gave a slight smile. "It's something different from sewing," she said softly as she slid the file cabinet drawer close.

"I said I don't want to!"

The temper tantrum from the back room caught the attention of Candace as the door opened to admit Chloe into the lobby, followed by Ramsey and lastly Jin who was jotting some notes down on his clipboard, seemingly not bothered by the raging child.

"You can't go down in the mines," Ramsey was saying with a stern look towards his granddaughter. "Not so long as you have this cough."

Chloe spun around at her grandfather. "But I like the mines!" she protested. "Owen and I go in there all the time! It's the only place-."

"Jin says you must stay at home until your cough is gone." Ramsey would not hear anymore of it, but Chloe wasn't done. "I wish you weren't my grandfather!" she shouted for everyone in the clinic to hear.

They were words that haunted Candace, echoing quietly in her mind. "I wish you weren't my mother!"

She went home that day in an uncomfortable daze.

There was a light drizzle of rain from the gray sky. A small girl moved carefully down the slippery steps, her blue hair pulled back in a long braid. She slipped the second strap of her school back on her shoulder and, pulling her hood tighter over her head, began to make way for home.

A small yip caught her off guard and, with a small gasp of surprise, turn towards the source of the noise. Rolling gleefully in a rain pool was a bundle of black and white. A dog. No, a puppy! A puppy less than a year old.

Sensing eyes on him, the puppy rolled on his paws and tilted his head at the girl. 'Who are you?' he seemed to ask.

The girl approached the puppy hesitantly, and the puppy started to wag his tail, urging her to come closer. With a slight smile, the girl reached her hand out to the puppy, and in return received a friendly licking which roused a giggle.

"I'm Candace," she said as the puppy continued to lick her hand. "Do you have a name?" She received only a wag and a perk of the ears in return.

"No name...?" Candace smiled and began to scratch the puppy behind the ear. "Well I have to call you something...Do you like Cloud? You're fluffy like one!"

Cloud gave a happy-sounding bark and pawed at Candace's leg. Candace giggled again, a sound always hard to come by from this shy girl. "You like it!" she sounded pleased with herself. Cloud barked again and continued to lick her.

Candace wore a scarce smile. It was the first in a long while did someone listen to her and enjoy her company. Her parents worked, Luna was always around her own friends, and Candace didn't have close friends of her own. Cloud was her first.

The rain was now falling a little harder. Cloud shook himself as a droplet fell square on his head and looked almost expectantly at Candace.

"You don't have a home?" Candace assumed. "Well you shouldn't be stuck out here in this weather!" She collected Cloud gently in her arms, wrapping him in her raincoat and rising to her feet. "You can come home with me!"

Her eagerness nearly caused Candace to slip and slide on the town's stone ground, but she quickly caught herself and proceeded towards her grandmother's tailor shop. However her eagerness began to falter as she remembered her father's strict no-pet policy. That was no reason to give up a friend!

Cloud looked up curiously at Candace as if to ask, 'Why have we paused?'

Candace held Cloud closely to her. "We'll go around by the window," she decided. "Where my room is." She hurried around the tailor shop, coming across a simple square window inched open.

She and Cloud could, though, could only be friends until that morning.

"What in the world, Candace?" her mother was demanding as she nearly tripped over Cloud who had slipped into the kitchen.

Candace had quickly come to Cloud's aid, grasping him tightly in her arms. "I'm sorry, Mother..." she said quietly. "I-"

"You know the rules about pets," her mother said with a tired sigh. However the pleading look her daughter gave her caught the mother off guard. "Well...Oh...we'll talk about it."

Those words along gave Candace a glimmer of hope, her eyes now bright. "Oh, thank you mother!"

"I didn't say-" but Candace was already bolting happily out the door.

Candace gasped softly as she came to, finding Luna looming curiously over her. Her sister's pink hair was down and hanging over her shoulders. She was dressed in her night gown. "You were mumbling in your sleep," she said.

The last time Candace spoke in her sleep was when she was small and suffering from a nightmare, something Luna remembered quite well and, taking a seat at the end of Candace's bed, looked with a mixture of curiosity and concern. "What was it about?"

Slowly Candace shook her head. "It...it wasn't a bad dream..." she began as she shifted upright in her bed, turning on the light on her bedside table, for the moon outside was covered. "Not yet..." she said with a frown. "Actually..." she smiled slightly. "It began kinda nice..."

Luna folded her arms in confusion. "What was it?"

"More of a memory than any sort of dream," Candace enlightened while she gazed out the window, an inch open like it always is. She knew that Luna wouldn't be satisfied with that, so she went on. "You remember the time I...well...brought that puppy home?"

A small smile slipped onto Luna's face. "Cloud," she recalled.

Candace nodded, pleased that her younger sister hadn't even forgotten Cloud's name. "Yeah...I guess it just...struck me suddenly is all."

"You were really sad," Luna said sympathetically, moving her hand over her sister's.

Candace's smile faded slightly and she looked down. "It was years ago..." she reminded. "It hadn't even gotten bad yet, my dream. Go back to bed, Luna..." she encouraged, putting the smile back on.

Her pink-haired sister relaxed her shoulders and rose back to her feet. "Okay then," she complied, offering Candace one last smile. "'Night then."

The last sound that night was the clicking of the door behind her.