'I have to get out of her, now, quietly.' Thought Madeleine to herself as she peered through the thick brush encircling the edge of the clearing where her cottage resided in peacefully.

She took a careful step back. Her eyes never once left the group of mixed teens gathered in her front yard. She took another slow step backwards and ran up against a solid wall of flesh.

Madeleine stiffened. There was a person behind her. She couldn't see who it was, not that she would recognize them, but, someone you can't see is always more scary than someone you can face and acknowledge the presence of. She couldn't see this person, so the unknown person instantly became much, much scarier. And she didn't have much experience with people in the first place, let alone scary people.

Madeleine felt both of the persons hands come forward to rest on her slim shoulders. The fingers tightened and held her there, trapped against this strong person's chest, held immobile, she wasn't strong enough to get away from this person's grip, there was no way she could break their hold. She was much too weak to get away and stay away from them, and they were strong.

"You were trying to run away, da?" A slightly childish voice, mocking her with its playful tone asked close to her ear. Madeleine tensed up even more, her muscles were starting to hurt, she was putting too much strain on them. Her anxiety was going up too far. She was scared. Her legs and hands started to tremble slightly. 'Please don't let this person notice that.'

"L-let g-go of me, p-please." She stammered out, going to look at the face she was sure was extended over her left shoulder, her head tilting to look but stopped, her face jerking back to steadfastly stare forward again. She wouldn't be seen as weak if she could help it. She could be strong willed if she needed to. She'd fool this person, they wouldn't push her around. Madeleine kept her voice quiet though, whispering her words to the person, she didn't want any of the intruders to her lovely yard to be alerted to her presence and come to back up this stranger that had probably come with them. 'Why else would this person be here?'

"Now, now, don't turn your face away from me. I want to see your eyes. You have a cute voice, da? I want to see if you have a cute face too."

Madeleine could practically hear the pout in the other's voice. 'The person's a she. Her voice sounds female.' Thought Madeleine. 'Who is she?'

The stranger broke into Madeleine's thoughts with her forceful commandment of Madeleine's next course of action. "Turn around, da? Do it now while you still have my attention, the positive kind you have now, yes? Your hesitation is making me very annoyed little one."

Those words scared Madeleine, not because of the tone of the girl's voice, no it was because the thing that had been asked of her was the one thing that she could never ever do. There was no way she could ever look this person in the face. Because of what her parents had always said to her before. Their warning about what her life would be like, the reason why she must always stay in the cottage away from everyone else. Every day that she asked them if she could be allowed to go outside her parents had always earnestly told her this, that she must never look into someone else's eyes. Because her eyes would turn that person to stone. That's what her parents eyes, her mother's red and her father's purple like her own, had always done. So, her own purple eyes, yes they would surely do that same thing as theirs had. They would petrify people. She didn't want that. Therefore, the one thing that she could never do was to look another person in the eyes, ever. She never wanted to turn someone to stone, no matter who they were. She didn't want to, not even someone that was scaring her.

Then the command came again, "I asked you to show me your face, yes? I expect you to turn around right now."

'No,' thought Madeleine. But, that wasn't up for her to decide. Quicker than she expected, fast enough that she couldn't get out a single word of protest, she was spun around in the circle of her captor's arms. The person's arms she was enfolded in came down from her shoulders to rest around the small of her back, one hand coming up to tip Madeleine's head upwards by her fine boned, delicate chin.

"Now that's better, yes? People are supposed to look into each other's eyes. Now we can both see each other."

Yes, they both could see each other and what she saw in that person's eyes shocked Madeleine. 'This girl has purple eyes too.' This thought rang out and repeated in her mind over and over again as she looked upwards into the taller girl's beautiful smiling face.

"Now that we can speak face to face, let's start over again. Hello there, my name's Ivanna. Isn't it nice to finally look into someone's face without fear?"