The Tale of Two Angels (School for Good and Evil fanfic)

Chapter 4

Whenever one of Gracehills came to town, eyes of fear and suspicion would follow them.

The townspeople didn't know much about the family - the strange circumstances with which they arrived didn't help either. The couple had knocked on the church door on a stormy night requesting for shelter. In the morning, they revealed that they had gotten lost and injured while traveling for a place to settle down and have a family.

The entirety of Gavaldon had become anxious, wondering what it meant. No newcomers had been present in town since its founding, and the only people to ever return to it from the Schools were Sophie and Agatha. The town had attempted to head out into the forest soon after their arrival, hoping that the force that was keeping them in was broken. But all the venturers returned to Gavaldon confused and weary and no better than when they had set out. Scarlett and Clement tried to leave the town as soon as they had recovered, but discovered that they were now under the same spell.

Since they came to the town, the couple had unintentionally done things that led the town becoming more and more suspicious of them. They had built their home in the forest since Gavaldon's population had grown since the time of Sophie and Agatha, and they had been living there just fine with the worst thing happening to them being the occasional cold or fever. They had a son who - at least to the villager's minds - had an uncanny resemblance to the image of the School Master in their storybooks. Finally, despite living right in the woods, the family never noticed anything peculiar during the kidnappings.

Now, over a decade later, the town was still wary of them and their children.

Rose held her brother's hand a little tighter as they walked into Gavaldon. She never did like the looks the grown-ups gave her family.

"We'll be fine." Rose glanced at Frost, and he gave her hand a small squeeze. "They can't hurt us unless we-"

"Hey, get the ball already!"
"C'mon! C'mon!"
"Faster, before it gets...away."

Three boys about Rose's age abruptly stopped a few meters away from Frost and his sister. Rose followed their line of sight to see the ball that had bumped against her brother's leg. The boys glanced at each other uncertainly, silently daring each other to be the one to get their toy from the two.

"You get it."
"No, you get it! I don't want to go near the witch."
"The witch? Are you crazy? The School Master has it!"

The boys were whispering, but with his enhanced sense of hearing, Frost could get what they said just fine. He was used to being called the School Master, though he wasn't sure of what it meant, but this was the first time he heard people call his sister a witch. His expression darkened. With his strength, he could easily kick the ball with enough force to pop it. If he was lucky, maybe it would hold long enough to break something else. But before he could do anything, his sister bent down and picked it up.

"Here," Rose walked towards the boys, toy offered in her outstretched hands. She gave a small, polite smile when she spoke. Maybe they'd talk this once. Maybe they stopped playing the Game.

The children stared, but made no move towards it.

Rose's smile faltered for a moment. "Don't you want it back?"

One of the boys opened his mouth only to be elbowed by his friend. "Talk to the witch and you get bad luck, remember?"

Oh, so they were still playing the Game. It was easier to think of it as a game when the children avoided her and Frost. The rule was always the same: Frost was the School Master - an It of the Game- and he was to be avoided. Rose was the other It, but they never called her anything until now. She guessed they finally decided on Witch being the title for her.