Prologue

If it wasn't her own life she would find it fascinating, funny even - in some bizzare, twisted way of fate.

"Things are different here."

It was indeed fascinating that in a matter of weeks her whole life was turned upside down so abruptly she still seemed in a daze of it all, and was now, slowly but surely turning into a nightmare - and not the good kind.

"There will be no mention of witchcraft in this house, no magic practice, no long black dresses - nothing abnormal."

She didn't acknowledge his words in any way. She was merely staring at him, her expression blank, devoid of any reaction to his proclamations and she could see her silence was slowly beginning to vex him.

"Don't be like this, this is a very good school," her sister reasoned and Morticia turned her head slowly to look at her."I know this is an incredibly difficult time...for both of us but Jared thinks, and I agree, that it's best for you to focus on something else. Please, Morticia, try to understand."

It wasn't his death she was mourning, although she missed him terribly, but her father always lived his life for his passions and to the fullest, and his death was as magnificent and exciting as his life was. Morticia was taught from the very early age that death wasn't the end. Death was an exciting beginning, the great unknown. No, it wasn't his death she was mourning, it was the devastation his passing had caused in their lives that was truly the most tragic.

How was it possible that just a few weeks ago her only concern was her studies and upcoming entrance exams? It seemed to her that only yesterday she was looking forward to the holidays in Transylvania with her mother and father - a gift, her mother said - for doing so well with her magic practice. None of these was happening any longer.

Instead, here she was - in that alien country that seemed too big, too noisy, too unfamiliar - too much everything. And she hated it.

She hated America because America wasn't her home. She hated it because it was a stark, daily reminder that her life will never be the same again. That her father was dead, her mother - her mother couldn't look after her anymore, her friends were on the other side of the world. She will have to live now with her sister, with whom she doesn't have a thing in common, and Ophelia's husband who looked as excited about the prospect of Morticia living with them as Morticia - at least there was this one thing they were in agreement with each other.

He didn't want her here and she didn't want to be here but she was only sixteen hence why those two people were now her legal guardians.

Any inheritance her father left her was frozen until she's twenty-one and so she had no prospect or resources to attend or pay for her studies anymore and it was already clear as hell that Jared would rather die than pay for anything even remotely involved with witchcraft. She supposed she could try and apply for the scholarship but that would at least require access to her mother's spell books and she no longer had access to those, not to mention it would be almost impossible for her to just learn it all from books. She needed a teacher, a tutor- but that was no longer an option either, her mother could no longer teach her. Finding a teacher will be a task in itself, a task that will put her years behind her studies - assuming she would be successful in finding one at all.

"I miss him too, you know," Ophelia said gently, interrupting her thoughts and Morticia almost laughed out loud. Missed him? Ophelia hasn't lived with them for years.

First, when Morticia was ten, Ophelia, who was seventeen at the time, went to live with her friends in Paris. Then, before they knew it she's met Jared and a year later they were married and she moved out all the way to America and since then, Morticia's seen her the grand total of three times. Twice in Paris and once when they visited her in America, which was two years ago.

"I know it's a lot of changes for you but -"

"I understand," she replied in a barely audible whisper and without another word stood up and left to her room.

The room - that wasn't really hers - with its pastel colours, a bed that was too soft, furniture so bright they seemed almost white. Her room was in France, her home was in France - this house, with its pristine cleanness, without a thing out of place and an array of servants - was not home, these people didn't feel like her family. She missed their cottage in Corlay, monthly trips to Paris with her father, she missed her garden, she missed her mother most of all - but her mother didn't even look like her mother anymore. Her father's untimely death all but destroyed her and this - this was her life now.

Give her some time, she heard Jared talking to her sister appeasingly, it's a lot to take and she's very young. She will see it's for the best.

Morticia Frump rarely cried. Yet, at this moment, in this unfamiliar house, in this alien country with her life altered and unrecognizable, she felt her chest constrict with misery and the tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt like she couldn't breathe, she felt as if she was choking on those tears - with this new life that was to her unbearable.

Never before had she felt so alone.