Walking down the old path she’s always taken seemed a little harder today, and not just because the light was leaving. After months of waiting it was finally time to meet the one woman that seemed to be a mystery to the people of her village... and her; it was time she meet her mother. Caroline saw a note laying under a rock where she was meant to meet her mother. Picking it up she saw it was addressed to her, how her mother knew no one was going to take it was a mystery to her.
“ My dearest Caroline,” she read, “I’d much prefer we meet at my home instead of the village. A little up the road at the fork, you’ll go down the other road unlike when you go to town and then go down the small path into the forest and from there I know you’ll be able to find me.”
Caroline did as told and once she was in the forest any light that was there before was gone now. So she just stayed between the trees on either side of her and stayed on the vague outline of a walk way. After a good hour she made it to a clearing and saw a small cabin in the middle. Making her way up to the house Caroline could think of nothing else but “ Is this a good idea?” she figured there was no way she’d be able to find her way back home now that night had fallen, so she knocked on the door. The woman who answered the door was a lot like her but was much too beautiful to be her mother.
“Hello Caroline,” she said but the voice didn’t sound that of a loving mother, it was the voice of something sinister. “please come in.”
Not knowing what to do exactly, Caroline just did as she was told. Looking around the house, she noticed it looked shockingly like the house her and her father lived in... well more her, her father hasn’t been at the house for more than an hour or two at a time in years.
Her mother’s voice brought her attention back to the here and now, “Like the house? me and your father used to come here a lot when we were your age.” From the way she spoke you’d think she still loved my father, but in reality she had left us right after I was born. Caroline thought a little shocked at how compassion filled her voice when she talked about Caroline’s father.
“It’s lovely, what did you want to talk to me about?” Caroline asked wanting to know the answer as badly as a child wants the night to pass on christmas eve. The way she asked so out right made her mother chuckle under her breath. Placing a cup of tea in Caroline’s hands she said, “Come on let’s go talk then.”Caroline followed her into a room that looked like someone combined a study and a den together. She took the seat across from her mother on a leather loveseat, everything about this house seemed so familiar to Caroline.
“ So Caroline, I know your birthday is in a week and your father is never home.” She said just stating simple facts, “Even though I’ve never been there, I want you to spend this week before here with me. Seventeen happens to be a very big birthday on my side of the family.” Her mother had a knowing look in her vivid green eyes and the sinister tone snaking through her voice, making a chill run down Caroline’s back. Part of Caroline wanted to leave and never have to be near this place ever again but another, bigger part told her she needed to stay put and agree with this woman sitting in front of her. Caroline agreed to stay and get her things in the morning. She was lead into a room that would be hers for the next week, this room was the only place in the house that didn’t seem familiar. There was a desk in the corner with stacks of odd looking books and an oil lamp, on the other side of the room was a simple white bed with midnight blue covers. With thoughts of what these days would bring she slipped into a deep sleep.
