Title TBD NaNoWriMo

Prologue

My feet pounded against the forest ground as I ran. The heavy rain obscured my vision of a terrain that I only came in contact with when I was running. Escaping. My chest heaving and every muscle in my body screaming and begging me to stop, to just go home. But that home was not mine, not truly. The only thought in my head was that I had to keep going.

Much like the tale of Little Red Riding Hood the wolf that was my mind pointed out how lovely it would be to stop and dance in the rain. To stop within a circle of trees and follow a drop of water down as it flowed down the ladder of leaves. To listen to the forest breathing, every creature doing their best to survive. To feel the rain, drop onto my skin and follow the gravity that pulled for it to re-join the earth. To follow with it and sink into the mud and let the earth pull me down too, as far as it would let me. How divinely peaceful to lay within the guard of the forest and breathe as if my existence wasn't destined to suffering.

These are the moments that filled my dreams, that wrapped the thick tendrils of hope around my heart and lungs and pushed me to try and escape again and again despite meeting failure every single time. There was a home within a castle waiting for me. With doting parents and luxury beyond imagining. I was meant to be there and not a tower in the wood with a woman that insisted I call her mother. She had made the mistake, many years ago, of telling me my true origin when she thought I was deep within the throes of sleep. I had never forgotten. How could I?

It was a mistake to run at night, but it was the only time where I was alone. The only time I could carefully force my way though a hole in my wood floor that I had carved out of the floor in my room that led to the staircase out of the tower, the one that she used every morning and every night. The one that my mother thought I did not know about. But she had raised a much cleverer girl than she realized, as I had figured out an antidote to the sleeping draught she forced me to take every night years ago. It was still a steep drop to where the staircase started under my room, and I wish I could say I took the fall with grace but I tumbled halfway down the spiral stairs. The aches and bruises of escaping bloomed with every stair that crashed into me. There was no time to groan and tend to the purple spreading through my skin.

I waited at the bottom, listening to the outside to see if anyone had noticed my escape. To listen for heartbeats as loud as mine waiting to capture me. But the rushing blood that filled my ears and the heavy rain outside did not give me much insight into what waited beyond. I made sure my pack was held tightly against my body as I slowly opened the door and slipped out into the night. My hot skin immediately being cooled by the waterfall of heavy rain that seemed to welcome me. There was no time to hesitate. I was moving before I had thought about running, escaping into the heavy tree line that I stared at every day.

My feet and my heartbeat seemed to match, becoming the steady war drum that kept me going. The idea that on the other side of the forest my family would be waiting was my North Star.

I could not think of anything besides my next step, my eyes scanning the forest floor for the best path. I was stumbling, branches slashing my skin. I couldn't think about it, couldn't lament the tiger stripes of blood that were slowly growing. Instead, I hoped. I allowed those strange tendrils to grow and provide a lightness to my footsteps. To imagine that I could make it this time. This was the farthest that I had gotten, thought it was not far at all I was sure. I had waited, years, I had been good and obedient. I masqueraded that I was content to live a life of captivity under someone who only cared that I was her property. With every step my smile grew, and I even dared to let a laugh bubble and grow within the dark forest.

Yet, I was not home, I was not free. I could not believe that this time I would make it until I had. My expression steeled over, my heart cutting away the tendrils of hope that had wrapped around it. But what was my benchmark? When would I have made it? When I was swaddled in the royal purple silks? When the silver crown adorned with the Asquith emeralds was gently lowered onto my head? There was a fear that mother would always be searching, watching, waiting to bring me back to my dark stone tower. I wanted to believe that I could live in safety, that someday I would have warmth and love. The anger that surged through me at the idea of my years of suffering forced my legs to continue to pump faster. My eyes darting quicker for my next path. I needed to escape.

A strangled scream tore its way through my throat as my foot caught under a root. My hands dug into the earth in an attempt to pull me up but something pulled me, sending me tumbling back down. My body wrenched around, trying to undo whatever was wrapped around my ankle, to continue this nightmare in the hopes that it would eventually become a dream. My hands clawed through the mud to reach my foot, and it was not what was wrapped around it that made me scream but the thing pulling it. It was a sudden realization that I was not unmoving. That I was being pulled through to something, someone.

She had found me.

The magic that she weaved did not care that she did not have good intentions, that she was keeping me from my family. It only cared for the power she gave to it, the lifeline that thrummed between them. What was once a desiccated wood now thrived with the new life she had given it, and that life force was dragging me to my death sentence.

Roots disappeared into the ground, strong branches within reach for me to pull myself away, to keep myself from her even if it was only for another ten seconds suddenly moved towards the moon. My hands attempted to dig themselves into the ground, mud slipping through my hands like water. I screamed. I screamed, and screamed. Knowing there would be no one to hear me. Know that if they did, they would not help me. The entire world had turned their back on me, including the trees themselves.

"Please, no, please! Just leave me. I'll do anything, please. I can't go back, I want to go home!" My throat felt like it was ripping apart from the visceral wails that rang out from me.

"Serafina, you wretched child, I am your home." Her gravelly voice was calm, almost serene. As if she wasn't dragging me literally kicking and screaming.

I felt something in my leg snap from the effort of me working against her. Of attempting to wrench my body from her grasp even if it meant I left my foot behind. I couldn't even feel the pain, the adrenaline coursing through my veins was only focused on getting away.

Until I felt her grab me. The world faded as her magic wove a song of sleep into my eyes. The adrenaline evaporated, my screams silenced, the moment of pain sedated for now, though I knew tomorrow they would return.

The last thing I could feel was the slowing rain dripping onto my skin, the sweet taste of rainwater upon my tongue. My last thought was wondering the next time I would feel rain on my skin, and I could not come up with an answer besides never.

Word Count | 1,389

Serafina

My last attempt was a couple of weeks ago, leaving me with a broken ankle that was sure to keep me from attempting an escape for many months. For standard injuries mother usually healed them herself with magic. But this time she left the broken ankle, bruises, and general scrapes to "teach me a lesson". At the very least she fashioned me a brace to set the leg. I couldn't help around the house if my leg was rendered unwalkable the rest of my life. There was another reason to leave me broken, and that was for the fact that she had to go on a trip for some rarer supplies for the house. Usually when she would go on these supply runs she would force me into a dreamless sleep where my body remained in a state that did not need food or water. Why she didn't keep me like this all the time I did not know. But this time she left me awake, since I could not hobble through the woods to escape like this any way. It was far too dangerous.

So, I was left to my own devices. Though it was quite a hefty task, I managed to drag my favorite chair to the one window within this dismal tower. I had a book in hand of various local fables, but it ended up staying closed on my lap as I stared out the window into the woods that had betrayed me again and again over the years, bending to the will of the witch that kept me here. At first glance the woods might seem innocent, bending to the way of wind, the green leaves shimmering in sunlight. There had not been rain since I left the tower, and the ground had sufficiently dried out so there were no longer rivers of mud streaking through the woods. Soon I would have to make myself some kind of meal, but the idea of standing at the stove or counter, or anywhere really was exhausting just to think about.

I was left dreaming, wondering, imagining. What would it be like to take up my rightful mantle as the lost princess? What if the King and Queen were disappointed in who I had become, hardened and lackluster. I wondered how far into the woods I really was, how far away from the next person I was. There were books about princess, princes, first loves, being rescued and whisked away to safety. I wouldn't even expect a lifelong relationship with the person that stole me from this tower. I would just appreciate being returned home. I wouldn't even know what to do if someone woke me up with a kiss, probably attempt to kill them.

In the beginning I hadn't wanted anyone else's help escaping, I felt perfectly capable of it. My first attempt was when I was fifteen, and how foolish I had been. She had been in the kitchen, singing to herself and mindlessly lost in the rhythm of cutting vegetables. At the time I thought she had just forgotten to lock the trap door to the staircase, but looking back I wondered if it was my first test. Slowly I lifted it up, keeping my eyes dead locked on her. I was able to slip down the staircase and slowly made my way down the steps to the bottom door. Much to my disappointment, a large mass of vines was waiting for me when I opened it. I was confused, how did she get up if the door was blocked? Before I could process what was happening, I was being dragged up the stairs by my long blonde hair.

"Mother, I'm sorry! Please, I just wanted to play outside. I promise, I promise." My hands went up to where she had a hold of me, trying to pry her away but her grip was even stronger than iron.

"I've told you Serafina, good girls stay inside. I only go out because I have to, to protect you and feed you. I'm doing this for you." As we reached the top she threw me inside, closing the door behind her and locking it.

"I could help though! I could help you gather herbs and-and go to the market, mother I don't want you working so hard, and I could-" Before I could finish, she whipped around and fixated her harsh gaze on me. Silencing me in an instant.

"I said, no. That will be the last I hear of this. Now go sit quietly and work on your embroidery until dinner is ready. You are not permitted to speak while I am here until I say so." She turned without a second thought and returned to dinner, leaving me to quietly pad over to the table where my work was. I was even worried about walking too loudly.

I didn't speak again for three months.

I knew eventually she would die; she was already middle-aged and surely would expire before me. But what then? Would someone else take over as my keeper or would I be left here to presumably rot away if I could not escape on my own accord. Surely the forest would let me be free if there was no one making a bargain against me.

Idly I chewed on an apple slice far too much to where it became a disgusting mush on my tongue, thinking of possibilities that were far too endless yet easily stroked from my mind with the reintroduction of the reality of my situation. It was just after I swallowed, that I saw a young, tanned woman emerge from the thick fence of bushes. Thank goodness, as the mush would've been quickly ejected in surprise.

Quickly my body met the floor, not wanting the young maiden to spot me through the window. Who knew what her intentions were. From my brief glimpse of her she had wild brown hair tied up quite messily in ribbon, and a fairly large pack on her back. It seemed- possibly that she was wearing trousers and boots with a white shirt that made her look- well, like a pirate. At least ones I had read about, which was not many. But this idea was already quite impossible as we were nowhere near open waters. At least, that's what I thought. I dragged myself and my leg closer to the window so I could pull myself up and peek over the edge of the windowsill. But she was already gone.

My body slumped back against the wall, a disappointment washing over the adrenaline that was coursing through my veins. Of course, she saw someone's home and decided to leave. What insane woman would walk right up to a tower with no obvious door. My hands ran stiffly through my choppy blonde hair, the result of trying to manage the length without a mirror. In the rush to hide my food had clattered to the ground, laying among shattered ceramic.

"Ah, what a waste." There was no urgency left within me to clean it up, instead I fumbled for my book that had also dropped a fair bit aways and pulled it into my lap, as if I still had any intention of reading fables of warning that fell on deaf ears since I would never leave. This time I at least opened to the first page and let my eyes lazily scan over pages I had read over a hundred times. Truly at this point I could recite them, and often mother would force me to if I had gotten too mouthy for her taste.

I had fully glazed over the story of Rumpelstiltskin when the trap door to my dwelling slammed open, immediately eliciting a scream to claw out of my throat and forced my hands to promptly chuck the book at my attacker.

Word Count | 1,298