Lara first stepped into Walker Falls, she smelt something. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was defiantly something she didn't want to smell again. The smell then vanished as quickly as it had come to her. Lara shut the door of the moving van behind her, and grabbing her incased violin and bow, she walked through the gateway of her new house. It was old and ancient looking, with a Victorian flair. There looked to be around two stories but there could have been more, she couldn't tell. There was a large tower looming down on her, complete with a large window. She did a double take as she saw a figure in the window, staring down at her. Looking closer, she saw that it was a boy around her age with wild black hair and pale skin. Slightly taken aback she walked towards her sister and, without taking her eyes off of the boy, she signed to her;
"Why is there a boy in our house?" Complete with a sidelong glance. Her sister grinned mischievously and pointed out that that wasn't their house, it was their neighbors'. Blushing, she gave the boy a shy wave and dashed to her house.
It was a small cottage-like house, complete with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and no basement or family room. Lara sat down on the floor of her empty, dark room, and leaned her head against the wall, wishing she could stay there forever, not eat, not sleep, just play her violin. Just her and her violin. She took a deep breath, and went outside, helping her family with the boxes and bags. The boy was still watching, but it seemed to be her in particular that was being watched. She had glanced at him once more before she tried to ignore him and carry on naturally with what she was doing. He looked different. He wore black. Just black (maybe a little bit of white or grey, but mostly black). He had a tie which was covered in safety pins, gloves with no fingers, and a long black coat. It was hard for her to tell in a glance much more than that, but she guessed that his eyes were a dark brown. Her sister carried out the last box and walked beside her, grinning profusely.
"Made friends already?" She asked, laughter in her voice. Lara just raised her eyebrows and looked at her incredgously, knowing that Taylor knew very well that her hands were full so she couldn't respond.
One of the house's bonuses was that it had a large tree in its backyard. It was an old oak that must have been around one hundred years old, for its base was at least two meters wide, and it was as tall as the mansion's tower beside them. The previous occupants of the house had built a treehouse near the very top of the tree. It was old, but stable, and there was a trapdoor in it. It was fairly large (for a treehouse), probably the size of Lara's new bedroom, and had a window facing the tower's side window.
Lara lay in bed late that night, and just stared at the ceiling. At the last school she went, she was considered… strange, in a bad way. People thought it was weird how she couldn't speak, she didn't want to hunt, she wouldn't touch meat, she liked weird rock bands, she played the violin (at her age, it was considered weird), she dressed differently (Lara really didn't think that wearing different kinds of clothing should be a reason to shun someone), she loved anything to do with horror, she liked the woods more than the town, and so on. The last prank that was ever pulled at her at that school was when someone had put pink paint in her locker and put it in such a way that it came flooding down on her as soon as she opened the door. She stood there for a while, and then walked out the front door and straight home without asking for permission. Lara became anxious and got out of bed, pacing quietly up and down her room. Whenever she got like this she had this urge to run out the front door and into the forest, only the closest forest was sort of far away from her, about a mile. She brushed her teeth and hair, then put on some clothes and her glasses. Grabbing her violin, she snuck out the back door and into the backyard. She slowly climbed up the tree, letting her hands guide her, her eyes closed until she felt that she was at the top. Opening her eyes slowly, she pulled herself up and sat with her back against a wall. Lifting her violin to her chin, she played softly at first, then a little louder. She played some soothing music, then some mellow, brooding music. She played how she felt, always. She didn't like playing other people's music, unless she was feeling the same mood as it made. Lara gently placed the violin and bow in its case, and closed her eyes. She was tired, yet no sleep would come to her. She never slept much in the night. When she opened her eyes, she saw into the tower's window. She didn't feel so lonely when she saw the boy. He was fully dressed and moving rapidly around a large canvas. His brush was moving rapidly across it, probably making a whapping noise that was very, very faint to Lara's ears. She could almost hear it. If she concentrated very hard, she could make her sounds from her imagination come to life. Taylor said most people can do that, they just don't want to admit it, and then they end up blaming innocent people for crimes that they're convinced they saw or heard them do, when really it's their imagination.
The room was only half-illuminated by the moon, so Lara couldn't get a good idea of what the painting looked like, but she was sure that the boy knew she was there, and he didn't want her to look at the painting. When Lara thought about it, she suddenly felt very guilty for spying on him, and hurried down the ladder and back into the house, leaning against the closed door, still not feeling tired.
The next day, Lara set out by foot to her forest. She felt akward walking down the main street of Walkerfalls, what with a few people whispering, most staring, most making her feel uncomfortable. She stared right back at those who were staring at them, staring them right in the eye, until they looked away. She wasn't afraid of them. On her way out of town, she passed a few kids her age, two boys, and one girl. They stopped talking and nudged each other, the girl started to snicker, and the boys smirking as they looked her up and down. Lara knew immediately that they would be a constant source of grief for her. She ignored them the best she could and kept on walking until she was out of the town by some length, and she hit a dirt road. It was long, and the forest just barely stretched its tendrils far enough for her to be able to say that she was in the forest. The farther away she went from the town, the closer together the trees got, the darker the woods became. The more she felt at home. Lara veered off the road and stepped into the forest, her whole body pulling at her to go deeper and deeper, until she found herself running as fast as she could, and until it became dark as night, and she felt herself at the heart of it all. Suddenly collapsing, she landed gently on the soil, her whole spirit content, no longer wanting anything. When she opened her eyes, she saw a deer, its whole body still warm, its heart no longer beating, stare at her, their faces almost touching. Looking sadly at its corpse, she found as many sticks and logs as she could, and burned it with them, talking to the forest, asking it to please let the deer rejoin, live again as something else. The fire eventually died down, and the ashes of the deer were packed into one large mound. Lara watched as a little Robin popped its head out of the ashes, and twerped and chirped as it struggled to become free of its past body's ashes. Lara thanked the forest, and helped the little bird dig its way out, and then soar off into the sky after nodding its head to Lara. Lara walked off contentedly, as she had almost forgot what dirt smelt like.