Author's note: Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy this story! This is just the first chapter, there are more on the way!

I've had this first chapter in mind for close to two months now, and very I'm excited about sharing it with you.

Happy reading!

Daphne sighed with relief as she laid the last little brother down for a nap. There was nothing more satisfying than this time of the day, when she didn't have to worry about what any brothers were up to and the house was finally quiet.

That, coincidentally, was when she heard the sound of shouting parents coming from the upstairs bedroom. She had been hearing it so often lately that it was almost instinct now to head straight for the door, grab her coat, and pick up her boots.

Soon she found herself on the side door steps, lacing up her black snow boots. Sometimes she wished that she could have girly things, like, well, pink boots instead of black, but articles of clothing like coats, gloves, and boots had to be passed on through at least most of her family. When she looked up from her feet, she saw that it had started snowing again. Snow already lined the ground and every treetop. She thought about the busy Manchester streets that were not too far from here, the roads filled with filthy slush and the sidewalks icy.

Just a few feet in front of her stood the woods, a perfect clearing in the middle for eleven-year-old girls such as herself to walk through and explore.

Ready now, she stood up and began to venture out along the path.

All around her, the snow created an aura of ridged brown branches topped with powdered-sugar snow. She knew the woods like the back of her hand, every bend, every log, every stone. Daphne began to sing a song as she walked along, a lullaby she often sang to the little ones.

Lovely and bright the stars will shine

ever awake till you are mine

Darling don't worry for I am near

singing a song for you to hear

She continued to sing as she came across the creek, now frozen. In the summer, she would take off her shoes and sit with her feet in it, staring up at the green sheet of trees above her. Now, she hopped across stones to get across it.

A candle burns dim beside your bed

come now, my dear, and rest your head

Your dreams will be filled with beautiful things

and one little angel with golden wings

Before she knew it, Daphne had arrived at the pond she and her brothers loved swimming in. Of course, she wouldn't dream of it now. The surface was iced over and snow was piling on top of it. She took a rock from beneath her feet and threw it out, landing on top of still more snow. There it would wait until everything melted, where it would receive its fate: a lifetime at the bottom of a pond. She knew that she could not go much further (her parents would be noticing her absence soon), but she kept going, not ceasing to sing.

I shall return when morning dawns

you will awake with the little fawns

Remember I love you like flowers love sun

so sleep, sleep my little one

She stopped at a large hill that, though covered with trees, looked down an old fountain. It didn't work any more, of course, and Daphne was certain that it hadn't in years. Upon seeing it, she fell on her bottom, overcome with one of her psychic flashes. It was of a young couple there together, hand in hand and deeply in love. She laughed at herself as she got up from the ground, for this happened most every time she saw the fountain.

Feeling light and in a happy mood, she decided to run back all the way back to her house. She was a swift and quick runner, and she was there in no time. Tired and panting, she sat herself down on the steps once more. Daphne just sat there for a moment, staring at the beautiful sight of the snow falling in front of the trees.

She was finally ready to go back inside and face her own family.

"Why didn't I stay in Seattle this year?" thought Daphne as she slumped down on the side door steps. "Dr. Crane, his brother, and Mr. Crane would have had me. They offered."

But instead, she was here with all ten family members for New Years. Her father was off at the pub and her mother was cooking dinner. Meanwhile, all of her brothers were talking about their girlfriends or wives. Therefore, she had two choices: listen to them or help her mother while listening to her gripe about how Daphne hadn't found a decent man yet, two things she wasn't about to do.

She had told everyone she was driving to the store, but now that she thought about it, she really didn't want to.

"Why is it that I can't get find a husband?" she whispered. She hadn't had a boyfriend for a dreadfully long time. The last serious one she could remember was Joe, but he had broken it off with her over a year ago.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden realization that it was snowing. It had been doing so off and on all day, so that now there were a few inches on the ground.

All of a sudden, she realized the woods in front of her. She had been conscious of it since she had arrived here, but she hadn't really acknowledged it until now. She remembered as a girl when she would find her escape within it. How long had it been since she had explored it?

Daphne stood up and began to walk towards the beckoning trees. "Why not?" she thought, and she began to head down the path.

As she walked, she remembered the song that she sang to herself while romping through the forest. The last time she had used that song was when Dr. Crane's son Freddie had come for a visit and was homesick for his mother one night. She sang that song to him and within minutes he was asleep.

A few moments later, she began singing. "My voice isn't exactly heavenly," thought Daphne, "but it's not like the bloody trees have ears."

Lovely and bright the stars will shine

ever awake till you are mine…

She came across the frozen, winding creek and was surprised to see that the same stones were in the same places as when she was a girl. Hopping over them, she moved on.

Daphne tried to remember the last time she had been in these woods, and then resolved that it was probably before she moved to London. In her anxiousness of moving to a new place, she had come here often, trying to find safety and relaxation. For the past four and a half years, the only place she could really find anything close to that was in her room, and that wasn't near as beautiful as this place. She really loved her job, but sometimes it left her so beat down that she wondered if it was really worth it.

Suddenly, she was glad she came here. It was almost as if she could feel her shoulders getting lighter and her stress of late disappearing. When she came to the pond, she thought about how many stones she had thrown into it in her lifetime. Deciding to add one more to the unknown number, she picked up a rock and threw it as hard as she could.

From here she remembered what came next, and she braced herself as she approached it. When her eyes saw the fountain, she found herself on her bum yet again, having a vision about some couple, madly in love. Picking herself up, she looked back on the time she had ventured down there for the first time. She was thirteen and feeling brave at the time, so she ran down and looked for clues that would point to two people being there...or perhaps dying there. She had always thought that their spirits haunted the area, and that they were trying to contact her through her visions. Daphne felt a little chill go up her back as she looked down at it.

Knowing she had plenty of time until her family would be expecting her back, she wandered further into woodland, feeling better with each step.

Daphne was well aware that she would leave here clear-minded and rejuvenated, prepared to face her family and her life once more.