The Shadow's Tale
By 5hadow Lady and Edited by The Senshi of Valis
Original By The Senshi of Valis (The Road to Freedom) Though this will start from the beginning and go through the six month period left out in her version.
The summer night was was a warm humid one, a lot of people being inside under fans and air conditioning trying to stay cool as much as possible leaving very few people out on the streets. That was fine with Will as she walked along the streets of Heatherfield hands in her jean pockets and shoulders slumped, her entire posture screaming depressed which she was at the moment. She hated her life, everything that could go wrong over the last year had, ever since her parents split up in Fadden Hills.
Her father had left them with nothing after draining their family's bank accounts and causing her mother to lose her job by spreading lies in the company that the two had worked at. They labeled Susan trash and whore and even ended up firing her on the grounds of damaging the companies reputation. At first Susan tried to fight it but he just had to much pull in the community from all of his friends in high places.
That was when things at school started turning bad for Will, the kids had overheard all kinds of things from their parents about Susan and Will. They believed them, even the few who Will once believed were her closest friends and started harassing Will as much as possible. The nicest names they called her were slut and trash, saying like mother like daughter so with even more names worse than that…Names she no longer wanted to remember.
It had gotten even worse though, some of the girls had even started vanadlising her stuff destroying her bike and damaging her school books on more than one occasion. After the school wouldn't really do anything the kids grew even bolder until one day after school several girls jumped her and had beaten her severely and leaving her in the middle of an empty lot curled up crying from pain and hopelessness. Her mother had eventually gotten worried and went looking for her finding her there. Yet again no one would do anything to help so when Susan was offered a job by an old friend in Heatherfield at a place called Simultech the two jumped at the chance to escape from the hell Fadden hills had become.
Unfortunately her mother was sorely under skilled so had to be put through training which she was supposed to be finishing up soon but while the guy was Susan's friend his hands were tied to how much he could pay her and with all the bills they had to pay thanks to Will's father before the divorce they had little money to survive on.
The lack of money wasn't really as bad as she first thought it would be at first because she met Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin and they had a lot of fun together even though they had to become guardians for the veil. And for awhile everything started to actually seem like they were going to be okay. That was when things started to fall apart, her mother was lying to her, going behind her back dating a school teacher…Will's teacher Mr. Collins. The entire thing put a huge strain on their mother daughter relationship threatening to destroy it completely and the worse part was that it seemed her own mother didn't care. It almost seemed like Susan was abandoning her just like her father did.
Today was a very good example of it too, Will knew not to expect any presents or anything since it was her birthday but they just didn't have the extra money. When Susan talked to her about it Will had told her it was okay and begged to be able to spend the evening alone with her mother. Susan had promised that that would be what they did and they went to the libraray and checked out a couple movies for them to stay in and watch. They were just in the first few minutes of the movie when the doorbell rang and Mr. Collins ended up being who it was. Will could see the looks on their faces as Susan invited him and knew this wasn't a coincidence. Furious Will flew from the apartment without a single word, just tears falling as she ran without any destination in mind. Susan had lied to her, had destroyed their mother daughter evening and the only birthday present Will had asked for.
The entire evening was spent with Will walking aimlessly around town thinking of everything that had happened over the last year which had even come to include her friends. She had heard them several times talking behind her back about her letting Phobos get a hold of Elyon. Cornelia had even said that she wished Will had never came to Heatherfield, something the red head was starting to wish herself.
Cornelia must have been right though, Will was a worthless leader. In fact Will could even do the blonde one better, she was beginning to admit to herself that she was worthless. It would all make sense then, everyone who came to know her would throw her aside and abandon her as if she was nothing. Her dad, her friends in Fadden Hills, her friends here in Heatherfield, and now her own mother. She must have been blaming the wrong people the entire last year when the answer was obvious…It was all her fault.
Looking up at the stars she could feel the tears starting anew, wishing for something better or to jest be left alone to die in peace. It wasn't as if many people would miss her if she was gone. Her friends, if she could even call them that, would have their wish of her no longer being around. Her mother wouldn't have to lie and sneak around and would be free to see Mr. Collins and probably wouldn't even miss Will.
"Hey Will." A very familiar voice said pulling her from her thoughts, Wiping the tears away she turned and looked at Caleb who was holding a small package in his hands.
"Hi Caleb." Will said softly while trying to avoid looking him directly in his eyes.
"Will, I was planning on giving this to you tomorrow but I might not be able to make it." Caleb said nervously handing her the package. Gently she tore the paper away and gasped at the beautiful carving of her in guardian form. The wings especially caught her eyes, they were breathtaking. Whatever they were made out of, it was something that she had never seen before. (Not from the cartoon, this is actually a little figurine made from wood and dragon scales.) "Do you like it? I made the wings out of real dragon scales."
"Th…Thank you." Will sniffed throwing her arms around him, "This is the best present ever."
"You're joking, right?" Caleb asked in surprise. "How about your mom, I'm sure she got you something really nice."
"We…We don't have much money Caleb. We couldn't even afford a cake this year much less any presents." Will said squeezing her eyes shut tightly, "The only thing I asked her for was to spend tonight together alone…And she wouldn't even do that…"
"Will…" Caleb gasped in surprise.
"Face it Caleb, she doesn't care about me anymore. You might be the only one who does even remotely care about me…" Will said, tears leaking from her closed eyes.
"The girls do care about you." Caleb said reaching out to put his hands on her shoulders squeezing a little.
"I…I have to go." Will cried as she pulled away and ran away from him. She wasn't sure how long she ran or where she was running to but when she stopped she sighed as she recognized the front of her apartment building. Sighing she decided to go back in with hopes of Mr. Collins being gone so she could just go to bed and forget this day ever happened. After making her way to her door she quietly opened it and sighed when she caught sight of her mother sitting on the couch with an angry look.
"How could you do that Will?" Susan demanded as she got up off the couch as Will closed the door. "He came here so he could bring you a birthday present and you pull a stunt like that!"
"He came here to see you, he doesn't even care about me!" Will snapped at her mother refusing to back down as anger clouded her mind.
"That is not true young lady!" Susan snapped back, her voice rising. "He does care about you, he cares about both of us."
"That's a laugh, mother! I asked for one damn thing for my birthday and you couldn't even do that! Do you hate me that much!" Will sobbed angrily.
"Oh Will…I don't hate you…" Susan whispered starting to reach out toward Will.
"You…You aren't any better than dad!" Will screamed. Before Susan could catch herself, she let the anger from Will's accusation take control as she slapped Will hard enough to knock her to the ground forcing her to drop the small statue she was holding to fall to the ground and break.
"No…It was my only present…How…How could you?" Will sobbed as she gathered up the broken pieces. When Susan tried to hug her Will pushed her away and ran to her room slamming the door shut and locking it.
"Will, please open the door!" Susan cried, knocking on the door as Will dove into her bed burying her face in her pillow and crying into it. "I love you baby, I'm so sorry…I shouldn't have done that…Please Will…I'm sorry…I had no right to do that no matter how much what you said made me mad..."
Will refused to answer as she cried into her pillow, ignoring all her mothers cries and pleas to open the door. Eve when she heard her mother start crying she refused to get up, she stayed in her bed crying until sleep finally claimed her.
The next morning Will put the small broken statue into her bag gently before going about her morning routine as if she was a zombie. When she finally entered the kitchen her stomach grumbled a little at the delicious smells coming from the food her mother was cooking.
"Good morning sleepy head." Susan said, her eyes red and puffy with dark circles under her eyes. "I…I made your favorite."
"Not hungry." Will said turning away not wanting to look in her mother's bloodshot eyes or she might cave in.
"Will…I'm so sorry about last night." Susan said softly, "You mean the world to me."
"Funny way of showing it." Will sniffed walking away from her mother heading to the door.
"Will, please don't walk away from me." Susan pleaded as Will opened the door.
"I'm going to be late…" Will said closing the door behind her ignoring her mother's sobbing. She refused to let the older woman hurt her anymore, let her have Mr. Collins if she wanted him so much. She sure the hell seemed to care more about him than her own daughter anyways.
She decided to walk to school instead of riding her bike so she could have time to calm down. She was hoping to still get there a few minutes early and see if she could talk to the shop teacher and see if he could help fix Caleb's gift. If she didn't make it she could always stop off after school and try. When she got close to Taranee's house she stopped as she heard voices coming from the other side.
"…I don't want Will anywhere near us tonight Taranee until its time." Cornelia was finishing up saying.
"We can't let her suspect anything is up either Taranee." Hay Lin said as Will leaned against the fence letting her head bump into it as she started crying. They didn't even want her around now, did they hate her that much? She knew it was her fault about Elyon but this was…This was too much. She overheard similar things before but never this to the point. The other times it sounded like they may have just been taking their frustrations out but now…They sounded so serious.
"Will!" Hay Lin gasped. Looking up Will saw Taranee, Hay Lin and Cornelia standing there looking at her in surprise.
"Why…Why not just tell me?" Will asked trembling, "I'm not even worth that much consideration?"
"Will…What do you mean?" Hay Lin asked.
"What did you hear?" Cornelia asked nervously.
"Enough to know I'm not even wanted by my friends…My so called teammates…" Will cried, glaring at them daring them to dispute what she just heard.
"That's not true, Will." Taranee said advancing toward Will who turned and ran from them, right into a slash shaped portal leading who knew where.