A/N Just an idea that popped into me head and wouldn't leave me alone.

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Chapter 1

Once Upon A Daydream

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This story begins as a great many others have and, I expect, a great many others will. Be that as it may it did happen and it changed the lives of those involved forever, as any story worth hearing does...

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Isabella. Isabella was a good girl, she did her school work and played with the other children, though her and the other girls thought boys were thoroughly yucky.

Isabella's great misfortune was twofold. Firstly she was simply unlucky, not so much in the things she achieved for she was a very smart little girl, but in the things that happened to her. For little Isabella love was like a will o' the wisp, constantly just beyond her reach. I will tell you more of that soon. Isabella's second misfortune was quite simple. Now no child has ever existed that did not fear the monsters under his or her bed and as we all know, those monsters are real. For most the cynicism and skepticism which maturity brings banish these fearsome creatures to the realm from whence they came. For young Isabella this never happened, she never lost the capacity to view the world with wide eyes full of wonder. Of course I'm sure you realize this was both a wonderful blessing and a horrible curse for the little girl for while she was subject to viewing wonders most of us will never have the privilege to witness she was also subject to viewing terrors beyond our imagination. She was also to realize should she speak of such thing to adults, or big people as she called them, she was widely regarded as being a bit off the rails.

Now most big people will tell you a seven year old girl, which was of course exactly what Isabella was, do not really know what love is. But young Isabella knew exactly what love is and knew that somehow her short life had been characterized by the absence of it. She had lost her parents in tragic circumstances she could not fully understand but counted herself lucky she could not remember them at all. The little girl reasoned, correctly or not, that it was better not to remember something she could not have. The people at the orphanage where she lived and went to school treated her kindly for the most part, though there was the occasional cruel person which Isabella quickly learned to avoid, she was after all a very smart little girl. The problem was there was no love and this, more than anything else, Isabella yearned for.

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Isabella's life was to change however, perhaps not for the better or worse but it was a change. It began the day Mister Johnson came to see her. He was a black man of medium size and slender build with a thinning hairline. He wore a wrinkled white suit with a white tie, white shoes and a white shirt. He was neither overly nice or particularly cruel he just...was. He asked young Isabella about the monsters she still saw and when she began to tell him the stories she saved for big people who thought she was barmy he simply shushed her and told her to tell him the truth. So, Isabella, who was an honest girl in spite of some things she said to big people, did.

Things happened fast from a little girls perspective after that. Two days later Isabella found herself in a car with Mister Johnson (Who was still wearing his white suit but Isabella thought he might have more than one), apparently she'd been adopted, at least as she understood it. They had driven quite a while before she finally summoned the courage to speak to him.

"Where are we going sir?" She asked timidly, for any girl in her position would have been confused.

He gave little Isabella what she would later remember as an odd look.

"I suppose you could say we are going to work," he finally answered.

Isabella understood about jobs, though she felt she was a bit young to have one but she accepted her lot as she always had.

"What is our job sir?" She asked.

Mister Johnson tousled her dark brown curls, it was the only sign of affection he'd ever shown her or for that matter ever would.

"There is a side to the world most people never see Isabella," Mister Johnson paused and Isabella couldn't help but think Mister Johnson was about to impart some great secret upon her, "You see it Isabella and that is why we need you to work for us. We are the explorers of the unknown."

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A/N Well is it worth continuing? Let me know.