This chapter's a cliffhanger, and a shocker. *le gasp* But, I promise to update sooooon.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.

To the story!

That Faded Sign

After a week in the hospital, I was allowed to leave. It felt good to be back on Sunny Island. According to Julia, she had looked after my crops.

When I walked onto my farm, two 8X2 plots were in one corner of the field. There were eggplants in one, and carrots in the other.

I walked over to the plots, and sat cross-legged in front of them. A little caterpillar crawled across one of the eggplant leaves, and when he began to munch on it, I carefully took him off and put him on the ground. I watched him slowly crawl towards a tree, looking for a snack.

I smiled to myself, and fell backwards onto the dying grass. Winter was coming; too fast for me. It seemed like the year had gone by so quickly. Well, I had been asleep for most of fall.

I closed my eyes and felt the warmth of the sun. A cool wind blew, but I didn't mind. A few minutes later, a shadow appeared above me. I opened my eyes, and found Julia leaning over me.

"Hello!" she said in her peppy voice. She fell back and sat down on the grass beside me. "What are you doing?"

I shrugged. "Relaxing, I guess..." I muttered.

"Oh, ok." Julia and I sat there in silence, before she couldn't take it anymore. "This is too boring," she said, and got up. I didn't really mind after she left; she could be annoying at times.

I was getting a little bored myself, so I got up and stared wandering around the island. I decided to visit the forest; I hadn't seen much of it.

When I crossed the bridge, I saw someone standing amongst the trees that I had never seen before. She had long, curly blonde hair and red eyes. There was a black cape around her shoulders, and she was wearing a purple dress and black boots.

She said something, but I couldn't understand what it was. Then, she began walking away. I decided to follow her; she seemed like an interesting character.

We both ended up at some purple house in a small clearing. Suddenly, sparkles appeared and an orange Harvest Sprite popped up.

"Hello! I'm Neil!" he said. "You better be careful around here; there's a witch!"

"Yeah, ok," I scoffed, and walked over the little sprite and into the "witch's" house.

"She really is a witch!" I heard Neil call after me before I shut the door.

Inside, the "witch" was talking to a giant teddy bear. Her house seemed kind of creepy; there were books and bottles of who knows what everywhere. Not to mention a ginormous, bubbling pot of liquid.

"What was that?" the woman asked the teddy bear. "There's someone behind me?"

I froze. Either that teddy bear was alive, or this woman was a lunatic.

She spun around, her red eyes glaring at me. "Who do we have here?" she hissed. She slowly walked over to me. When I didn't talk, she began chanting in some freakish language. "Oh, so your name's Chelsea?"

My eyes bulged out of my head. Ok, maybe Neil was right. This woman is a witch!

"And what are you doing in my home?" she asked.

I shrugged.

The witch sighed. "Ugh, I'm getting tired of acting 'sinister'," she said. "I'm the Witch Princess, blah, blah, blah! Now go away!"

She shooed me out of her house and went back to chatting with her teddy bear. I was pretty sure that Witch was crazy.

The next day, a man and a girl about my age appeared at the door. The man looked like a vampire, which scared me, and the girl was extremely pale and looked shy.

"Hello," the man said. "I am Regis, owner and president of the Regis Mining Company. I heard some precious gems were being found on this island, so I came to check out the mine myself!"

"Uh, ok." I said. "I'm Chelsea."

"This is my lovely daughter, Sabrina," he motioned to the girl standing next to him.

"H-Hello," Sabrina squeaked.

"Well, we really must be off." Regis said. "I have so much unpacking to do at my mansion!" he began mumbling to himself, while walking away. Sabrina shyly followed her father.

That night, I decided to take a short walk. The crisp fall air was cool and refreshing. A few owls hooted here and there, but it was mostly silent. I walked through the town to where one of the broken bridges was. I sat in front of it, my legs dangling over the water.

The cool water rushed beneath the broken bridge. I looked across and wondered if I'd ever get enough money to hire Gannon to fix it. It looked like there was a meadow; a great place to hold festivals.

As I looked around myself, I wondered what this town had been like before. I wondered who had owned my ranch, and what the other buildings had been used for. I got up and walked over to one of the building that was still vacant, and looked at the sign. In the darkness of night, I could barely make out the faded words.

I squinted, and looked harder at them. After that didn't work, I ran home, grabbed my camera, and ran back to the old building. I snapped a picture of the sign, and went home.

Once I was home, I stared at the picture, trying to figure out what it said. The flash on my camera had illuminated the words, making them easier to read.

"Bella..." I muttered, figuring out the first word on the sign. "Wil... Wilk..." I looked harder at the sign. "Wilkens... Bella Wilkens's!"

Wilkens... where had I heard that name before? Wilkens, Wilkens, Wilkens...

My eyes grew wide and my mouth fell open. "Wilkens..." I muttered. "That Julia and Mirabelle's last name!"

After I thought about it, Bella did seem like a good name for Mirabelle's sister. They sounded a lot alike. Could Bella Wilkens have been Vaughn's mother?

Me: Hello, and welcome to Ruins Talk Show! Today, our guest is Charlie.

Charlie: Hiya!

Me: Yeah, hi Charlie.

Charlie: Got any candy?

Me: What?

Charlie: DO. YOU. HAVE. ANY. CANDY? C-A-N-D-Y. Sheesh!

Me: Uh... no.

Charlie: Later... *walks away*

Me: *looks at reader* What the heck? *shakes head* Please review. Oh, and can someone tell me if Pierre has come into the picture yet? I'm too lazy to check myself *sigh* -.-