Nightshade Claws: A Writing Quest Prompts

1. (a nightmare in a dream)

Before Lily Jane was the Queen of Sunlight and Broken Thrones, before she was the child of travelling minds, before she was a ruler with red-soaked hands and blood-splattered gowns, she was just six years old, and she was lonely.

She was a girl of near-silent steps and hushed breathing; a girl quiet as a mouse and just as unwanted; a girl drawing shapes in the dust on the floor.

(Lily understood that everyone has a story to tell. She understood that her story was that of a ghost - a ghost in the attic, a ghost peering out of the shadows at a work-ladden mother and vanishing father, a ghost meant to be seen-and-not-heard)

(But Lily didn't want to be a ghost)

_

One could say that every tale has a beginning.

(An end, too. But that isn't important)

One could say that Lily's story began when she lay down one night and wished desperately, hopelessly, for something new.

(But that isn't really true)

(Lily's story began far before that)

_

Lily's tale began the moment she toddled up to her mother on unsteady two-year-old legs and asked where Dada was.

Lily's story began when her mother said distractedly, "He's gone".

(Lily's father would always hug her close. Lily's mother, drowning in a see of paper forms and red-marked envelopes, did not)

This is where Lily's story began.

_

And then Lily grew up. She grew up the neglected presence in the back of the room. She grew up locked away behind metaphorical walls. She grew up fed, but starving.

(not for food. Lily grew up starving for affection)

This is Lily's tale.

This is Lily's curse.

_

(and so Lily grew up wanting to be acknowledged, to be loved)

(and really, is it any wonder that when she got the chance, she jumped at it?)

_

Lily Jane was six years old when she lay down one night and pleaded for someone (anyone) to reach out and notice her, because Lily didn't want to be a ghost any longer.

She closed her eyes and imagined power, imagined holding it, imagined controlling others instead of them controlling her.

Lily wanted to be a Queen, like those she'd read about in the books packed into boxes inside the attic.

She wanted the ability to give life and then take it away - she wanted glory and adoration.

She wanted to hold up her head before the masses and make them kneel to her.

(Lily was a lonely girl indeed)

_

Lily woke up one day, not as Lily Jane, shadow in the corner of the room, but as Princess Lily, standing on a balcony, listening to a commander in a blue jacket with gold buttons give a speech to a crowd of adoring subjects.

"And now," Said he, gesturing for Lily to stand, "Your Princess, Lily Lorisdottir."

"Lily Lorisdottir." Chanted the crowd.

Lily didn't know what was going on, but she beamed anyway.

_

"A small cake, for the Princess?" Announced a servant. Lily sat within her chambers, azure blue dress spread across her knees, blonde hair twisted into a crown atop her head.