Still See Life
Chapter 1 – Imagination
Claire often found herself lonely and bored at home. She would look to her drawers daily to put search her neatly placed uniform she put away the day before to wear when it came to getting ready for school. Her parents often left her alone, always too busy to pay attention to her for when they had high classed jobs. Her father and mother both being owners and the head of their companies found themselves unable to care for their little Claire, 12 years of age had a regular guardian who would take care of her. They moved to a remote village in the north, known for it's zany magic festivals and a popular large lake, known to have the powers of divination. But her guardian (who was quite young for one, 22 years to be exact) was almost extraordinary in a sense. He was able to do things many other normal people couldn't do. He could read minds and possessed the power of magic. Claire was always amazed and always felt completely happy whenever she saw him around the house. He was a very quiet man, though lighted up when he saw Claire. She loved it when he smiled and was not an ugly man; he was quite charming for a guardian. The smile he contains would radiant the room and Claire's heart. He was the only one who did care for her for all these years. Sometimes, he would tell his tale of saving the world with friends he'd meet by accident and kept very close to Claire. However, Claire seemed envious of the fact. She didn't have magical powers, why didn't she have any? What made him have magical powers instead of her? He didn't say anything that made sense when Claire came to ask this question. He told her to look into her dreams… After that day, when he told her that she remembered the time when she was 6 years old. She remembered him trying to fight off a woman who had a dark aura around her. Her powers were extraordinary drowning much of the surroundings and making many things disappear with shadows that she could control. She remembered the cries of her younger sister Kristen who disappeared in the darkness with the woman. Those were the nightmares that haunted her almost every night. That night, her guardian touched Claire on the shoulders and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But she's gone. Gone with the Witch of the Shadows… And I couldn't save her."
Her sister's cries rang through her head nearly everyday. And most of the things she saw would remind her of the incident. "If only I had magic to bring her back! And now she's gone." She blamed herself. Each day from school, she'd run to the nearby lake near the village and watch the ripples. She never saw her reflection from the water though, instead she saw the woman who took her sister Kristen away. The Witch of the Shadow's reflection, however when she saw her she didn't seem evil, she seemed lonely. Her sad stares petrified Claire every time she saw her. It seemed that everywhere she would go, the Witch of the Shadows was slowly behind her. She was paranoid, what if it was she to drown in the darkness too? What happened to her sister Kristen? Claire closed her eyes and swayed her head from side to side. It must be my imagination… Though she never lost hope that her little sister was still alive.
Claire one day went to the lake once again only to see a spirit of hovering over the lake. She rushed towards it to find out what it was. The spectre was a pretty light blue, with long hair and dressed in a long dress. She was short in height and had her back towards Claire. She looked down in the river crying. When Claire reached the pier of the lake, she spectre turned around to only reveal her to be Kristen. As soon as Kristen saw her older sister Claire, she began her outbursts of help. "Help me Claire, please! The darkness is such a lonely place." "Where are you?" Claire replied. "What is she doing to you?" But it seems as if Kristen could hear her. Her outbursts grew more and more. "Please help me, I'm scared and lonely…" Kristen then stopped, looking below herself. Claire became curious and looked beneath where her sister's spirit was hovering over. A hand covered in black slimy liquid emerged out of the lake reaching towards Kristen's spectre. Eventually it dragged the spectre down to the river, Kristen crying out for her sister's help. Claire reached her arm and found out she could hold on to the spectre. The dark handed figure emerged fully out of the water, almost dragging Claire off the pier until her guardian came and stopped the fight for the spectre. His incantation led the monster back to the river with the spectre. Claire could hear her sister's cries in her head. The monster soon disappeared after that. Claire was shocked and was paralysed with fear. Her guardian was angry. "Why did you involve yourself with danger. That monster could have killed you!"
She then was in tears… she had let her sister go again… But what was that dark-handed monster. She was tired of losing her sister all the time. Her guardian gave her hugged her. "It's alright…" and lifted her into his arms till and they returned to the village.