Part 1—The Beginning

My father always told me that if I looked close enough, that magic was all around us. That it's a fragment of illusions and mystery. Nature was created by magic, he told me, and how else would they come anyways? I mean, when Earth was created, no one went around the world planting seeds everywhere, right? Every day, I would respond the same way, saying "isn't there a god that does this stuff?" My father always laughed, and told me that there is no proof for a god, nor is there proof for magic. He told me that is why people believe in science, since no one knew the true reasons for such things like the creation of Earth, and why it was created. I would say "do you know why?" and he would answer "because they needed us at one point." Back when I was younger, I would ask who "they" were. My father wouldn't answer me, even if I cried. Now, I would just ignore it. My father is a Marine Biologist, which is why we live near the Pacific Ocean. Our back yard was practically an aquarium. Every time I brought friends over, we would either go swimming in the beach, or exploring my back yard. There were barely any trees from where I lived. There was only sand, houses, water, and more sand. I live only with m father, since my mother died of breast cancer years ago. My father's girlfriend, Lisa, would visit us once every two weeks, claiming she lives too far away to visit us constantly. My father believes her, but I don't. I hate her. I tried to make it extremely clear. I'm sure she hated me too. She was always to attention whore, towards my father. Ignoring the fact I was there. When I was 8 years old, I drew a picture of my father and I together, swimming. I admit, even for my age, the picture was terrible, but I put a lot of work into it. One the same day, my father was on business trip to the Caribbean Islands for a week, and he was returning today, so I was really excited to show him my drawing. Lisa was babysitting me, but in reality, she spent the week going out with her friends and shopping. When I finished my drawing, I showed it to her to see if she liked it. I remember the exact look she gave me. She always gave me that look. She took the drawing and studied it. I told her that it was for my dad, and she laughed.

"Do you really think your father would accept this piece of crap?" She asked. Of course, I didn't know what "crap" meant, so I assumed it was a compliment and nodded happily. She laughed again and tore it in half. "Try again." She said, crumbling the pieces and throwing it away. She walked away and closed the door. I stared at the trash in shock and broke down crying. She never helped me. I cried all day, even when my father came in. When he asked what was going on, I couldn't even respond, with my hiccups and stuttering. Lisa came out, explaining that I wanted ice-cream, and she told me no, since it was bad for my health. Of course, he believed her, and I never bothered telling him what happened. It doesn't really matter; Lisa was beautiful, even if she was a witch. My father always paid attention to her looks, growing farther away from me. Tomorrow is my 16th birthday, and she promised to take me out shopping today, for some girl-to-girl time. I knew she wasn't going to buy me anything, but my father thought it was a great idea. I hate her.

I hate my dad for loving her.

I hate myself for accepting her.

I hate everything.

I just want to run away.

"Alura, are you ready? Lisa is in her car waiting." My father's calls broke out my thoughts and I rushed downstairs with my hand bag.

"Yeah, I'm ready." I said, giving him a warm smile. He smiled back and kissed me in the forehead.

"Look at you, you're almost my height. You need to stop drinking milk." He said, playfully. I giggled and hugged him.

"See you later, dad." I said.

"Bye, baby girl." He said, waving, as I walked out the front door. Lisa's Mercedes-Benz was waiting, and in the front was the witch herself.

"Hey girlfriend." She said with an innocent grin. I grinned back, but rolled my eyes as I got in the back. "Oh come on, sit next to me." She said.

"You always make me sit in the back."

"You're almost 16! You need to party, Aurora!" She said. I sighed and sat next to her.

"It's Alura." I murmured.

"Aw, what's the difference?" She giggled, as she drove off.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To the mall." She answered. I sighed again, and looked out the window. Lisa glanced over to me and raised an eyebrow. "You look extremely tired. We need to get you fixed up in the hair salon, maybe we'll go to the spa. Oh! I'd love to get a manicure, how about you?" She asked.

"I don't know." I said. She stopped in the stop light and fully turned towards me.

"Okay, I see bags under your eyes; we need to get you some Starbucks coffee." She said.

"You know I don't drink coffee." I said.

"Well I do." She said shrugging and turning the car to the left, towards the mini Starbucks café. She parked and she got off the car. "Stay here, I'm going to get some coffee." She said. She ran off without asking what I wanted. I sighed and waited for a few minutes. I watched as a white butterfly landed on a nearby plant and laid there for a few seconds, before flying closer to me. I smiled as it landed on my finger. It's wings tickled me as I giggled.

"Hey, I wish I could fly like you could." I said. The Butterfly continued to stay on my finger, as if it was listening. "You know why I would go?" I asked. "I would go far, far away from here. Then I would go to the woods, build a house of wood, and start my life there." I said. "Maybe I'll—hey!" I said as the Butterfly took off, it landed to a tree not far from where I was. I unbuckled the seat belt and got off the car and walked towards the Butterfly. "Don't you know it's rude to fly off when someone's talking?" I asked it. The Butterfly took off again and flew to another tree, this time it faced me. I gave it a confused look. "Are you leading me somewhere?" I asked. I walked towards it again, and it flew off again, tree to tree. I started to paced off my walks into jogs as it started to fly away non-stop. "Hey!" I called out, but it kept on flying. Soon, I got so far away from the café that I was in the middle of some kind of sandy mountain. Of course, I knew some machines took sand from the beach and made a pile. The Butterfly flew in circles around the top of the mountain, and flew into it. I blinked as it disappeared. I started to climb up the hill and when I got to the top, there was no butterfly. It was just a small smooth top. I blinked again and stepped on the top, immediately, the top suck my foot in. I shrieked as my whole leg was inside the sand. I started to pull me inside, and I fell forward, face first. My vision was first surrounded by sand, and then I felt pain, then everything went black.

Hello. So this is the start of this story. I really had so many ways to start this story, but… this is how I decided. Re-reading it, I realized that this chapter, in the beginning might offend people, and their beliefs and stuff. I want to say I'm not against any religion, belief, sexual preference etc. I myself am a Muslim and I believe on the Islamic rules, of there being a god. So, in all, I hoped you enjoyed this first chapter and I apologize if this is short. While typing this, I was waiting for a game to be done patching.

And it's at 3%

… *sobs*

Disclaimer: (shouldn't this be in the top?) I don't own wizard101. All rights go to it's lawful owner, KingsIsle.