The epic saga continues!
Just kidding.
My silly little fanfic continues.
"The Monster that Killed Uffish and Dun"
When Sìnead, Uffish, and Dun didn't return, their parents set out after them, finding shortly the corpses of the neighbor boys. Still and silent, as though they were only asleep.
"What could have done this?" The boys' mother wailed.
Sorehr and Pazele knew, but could not bear to tell the truth, for both their own sakes and the neighbor's.
"The thing that killed or boys must have taken Sìnead," the father said, curbing ears of grief, "You two should look for her."
Sìnead's parents insisted upon helping take the boys back to their parent's cottage, comforting the distraught couple as they went.
"It could have been anything!" The mother wailed, "Bandersnatch, the Grimmauld, a Jubjub bird… oh please go search for your Sìnead, so perhaps she will not suffer the same fate."
Sorehr and Pazele consented, but when they returned to their home Sìnead was already there, calm, detached, gazing at the floor she appeared to address no one when she said, "it was an accident."
"An accident that should not have happened," her father admonished, "you aren't' supposed to use your powers."
"They wanted me to," she said flatly, "and I wanted a friend."
"Concealing your powers doesn't mean you conceal them when it's convenient. It means always," her mother said softly.
"Do the neighbors know?" Sìnead's voice was dead.
"No. They think a monster killed their boys and stole you. They will be happy to hear your came home safe," her father added.
Sìnead nodded, "I'm going to bed." She shuffled up to her loft, avoiding contact of any type.
The next few months passed without incident. Then weeks turned into a year.
Then another.
And Sìnead turned 16.
No later had she enjoyed a dinner with her parent then a suitor appeared at their doorstep. Sìnead told him straight off she was not interested, even though years had passed, the rift she placed between herself had people had not healed.
The man, Wooblex, was persistent. He followed Sìnead back and forth from the forest when she gathered water or berries, convinced that she would grow to care about him if he only talked to her.
Eventually, Sìnead grew tired of his pointless attempts to woo her. She met him at the well one morning to explain.
"Wooblex, I cannot love you."
"You keep saying this, dear Sìnead, and I won't believe you."
"You must. I cannot love or be loved. Please stop wasting your time with me," her patience wore thin.
"Now you're just why do you think you can't be loved?"
"If you knew...you'd be dead," Sìnead repressed the bile in her throat images of her past crimes swimming behind her eyes.
Wooblex looked annoyed. He had tried being kind, courteous, generous, and still she would not consider-
He stepped closer to her, "I beg you to rethink your decision."
"No," Sìnead took a step back, "stay away from me," her knuckles were white from gripping the bucket handle.
"Help me to understand," he reached a hand out.
"I cannot."
"Insolent girl! You turn your nose up at everything I have offered!" He stepped forward and Sìnead found herself backed against the well.
Sìnead looked around wildly for means of escape, finding none, she threw out one last feeble plea.
"If you come any closer, I won't be able to stop it!"
Wooblex was inches away, he leaned his face towards her, "stop what?"
"The fear," her voice quavered, but it was too late. Fear burned white at the edges of her vision, but for the first time ever, her vision didn't go white. She saw everything.
Wooblex lurched backwards, clawing at his eyes. "Get them out get them out get them out-" he kept screaming.
Sìnead was frozen, she couldn't tear her eyes away nor could she get over that fact that this was her doing.
Wooblex convulsed again before going limp and dropping like a rag doll.
Sìnead didn't have to guess; she knew he was dead.
She crept to his side and dropped to his knees as a lump rose in her throat, tears began running down her cheeks. Stupid persistent man, she warned him, she tried.
She warned him. Sìnead stared at his corpse. This...this wasn't entirely her fault.
Somehow he'd had it coming.
A first glimpse into the Jabberwocky's interesting (and confusing) fear powers.