It all started in late November to early December, two week after Thanksgiving. A twelve year old girl by the name of Megan 'Megs' Kyle was riding her bike around the neighborhood one cool morning. But as she was riding, she saw the mansion sitting on the mountaintops a mere mile or so away from the neighborhood itself. For some reason, Megs held always felt drawn to it, as if it were calling her; her grandmother had told her stories about the castle many times before, but she was told it was haunted and she wasn't allowed to go up that far… but today, no one was around to see.

Being the curious and inquisitive girl that she was, she decided to go up and investigate.

Megs rode up the mountain all the way up to the front gates. She saw that all of the greenery that was there before was almost dead, except for a few topiaries. They seemed recent and different from all the others; she stared in awe, they were beautiful. But she quickly saw someone in the window on the top floor, but they disappeared before she got a good glimpse. She made her way to the front door and knocked as she called out,

"Hello? Is anyone home?"

But there was no answer. She tried knocking louder than before, but still no one came to answer her call.

"Hmph, fine." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

With her patience running thin, Megs decided to go inside the manor and see if anyone was home. The moment she entered, the castle and everything within it was covered in layers of dust, cobwebs, and even a few spots of mold here and there. There were lots of old blueprints, sketches, books, and journals scattered about the tables and floor and there were even strange rusted machines, instruments, and tools, most of which she never even knew existed; it looked as if this equipment hasn't been used or even touched for decades… maybe centuries.

"Whoa… What is all this?" Megs asked herself in a whisper.

After a few seconds of hearing nothing but silence, she then heard someone let out a small gasp coming from nowhere. She turned to look at the stairs and saw a shadow disappear.

"Hello?" She called, walking closer to the stairs.

Now that she was sure that this place wasn't entirely devoid of life, she decided to see who that shadow belonged to. Little did she know, a pair of anxious eyes watched her ascend the stairs.

When she made her way to the very top of the house, Megs discovered a giant empty attic-like room with an enormous gaping hole right in the middle of the roof. She then noticed a strange looking bed sitting in what looked like an old unused fireplace. She saw that there were book pages, ancient war medals, and newspaper clippings either hanging around it or pinned to the walls inside it. Then in the corner of her eye, she saw a dark figure crouched down in the shadows on the other side of the room; it looked very frightened.

"Hello? Who's back there? Why are you hiding?" The girl called out. "It's okay; you don't have to hide from me. I'm Megs Kyle, I'm from the suburbs down the mountain, and I'm completely harmless. I won't even hurt a fly, I promi—"

But before Megs could finish her sentence, the dark figure stood straight and began to walk closer to her. The girl was certainly frightened by the stranger as it came closer and closer.

"Oh! Uh, um… uh, I-I-I can clearly see that I've disturbed you. How stupid and reckless of me. If you don't mind, I should just get out of your hair and go home now before my mom finds out I'm up here." She said before turning around.

"Don't go…" said an unfamiliar voice; it was soft and timid and it most likely belonged to a young female.

Megs was certainly confused at what she just heard, that voice didn't sound masculine at all; she slowly turned around and saw the source of the voice. When the figure came into the light, it was revealed to be a girl; she looked no older than fifteen. She had long, messy ink black hair, skin almost as white as snow, and big beautiful vibrant green eyes. She wore a dress that seemed to be made from worn black leather, various studs and buckles, and stray bits of tattered fabric and matching black leather boots that went up to her knees; she looked almost completely colorless, in fact the only color she had on her was the deep blue streaks in her hair. Megs was shocked when she saw the girl.

"What the…? What happened to you?" She asked.

"I'm not finished." The girl said, holding up what appeared to be many scissor-like blades in front of the child.

"Agh, whoa! Put those down, don't come any closer! Stay where you are!" Megs exclaimed in fright.

The girl nervously obeyed but to Megs' surprise, she took a closer look and she saw that the long blades were all attached to the girl's wrists, as if they were meant to be her fingers. She gaped at the strange girl, looking at her as if she was a monster and a spectacle at the same time.

"Those are your hands?" She whispered as she slowly walked closer to the girl; the stranger slowly backing away from the younger girl in fear. "So it's true… My grandmother told me about something like you. I wondered and pondered, but I didn't think her stories were true all along."

"You know of me?" The scissor-handed girl asked.

Megs slowly nodded her head in response; she took a step closer.

"Are you alone? Do you live up here all by yourself?" She asked. "…Is there anyone else here with you? A man, maybe?"

The girl didn't answer; she only had a look on her face that could either be defined as sad or terrified. Then Megs noticed many healing cuts across the girl's pale face, on her forehead, and underneath her chin. She slowly reached out her hand to touch her face, but she took a step away in fear.

"Oh, no, no, no. It's okay, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you." Megs said. "My name is Megs. What's your name?"

"E-E-Ella." The girl nervously answered; Megs' face suddenly lit up.

"Hey. I can take you away from here and show you my home. Would you like that?" She offered.

Ella's eyes widened before slowly nodding her head in agreement; she always wanted to see the world beyond her castle home. The next thing she knew, she was riding on Megs' bike down the mountain and back to Suburbia. All of the bright pastel colors and the different people she saw fascinated her; she had never seen such strange beauty and so much color in her life. The other neighbors saw the girl clinging onto the little black bike riding down the sidewalk; they all ran back into their homes to make phone calls to each other to talk about the girl and what they noticed about her.

They all asked questions like, 'Who is she?' 'Where did she come from?' 'How did she get down here?' 'What happened to her?' 'Why is she with Megan Kyle?' 'How does Megan know her?' 'Are they friends or what?'

All of which had no answer; she was a mystery.