No Fear.

❄ Chapter 1 ❄

"You're doing it wrong." Liza snapped, causing me to accidentally slice my pointer finger with the large knife. "Now look what you've done to yourself! Can't you do anything right?"

I threw the knife into the sink and pushed past my crude stepmother, heading to my room.

"Finish cutting your own tomatoes." I sighed frustradely.

"Melody, get your butt back down here right now!"

"Piss off!" I finally screamed, slamming my door behind me and locking it.

I was so fed up with Liza treating me the way she did. Always screaming at me for no reason, putting me down with hurtful words, and making me clean up after her two daughters, my step sisters, Leslie and Lyssa. I fell on my small, wooden bed, reaching for the polaroid picture that was under my pillow. It was a picture of my mother, my father, and myself... before everything went wrong. My mother and father signed a divorce when I was only two years old. My father was the one to take me with him, and he married Liza a few years later. After the divorce, I got to see my mother whenever I wanted. I never knew why my parents decided that it was best to live with my father. I know I was very young, but I still remembered all great memories I had with my mother when I was able to see her. She was obsessed with the snow, and living in Southern California didn't quench her thirst for it. So she went on many trips to alaska to research on global warming and polar animals. But one trip, she never came back. Her team lost her out in a blizzard, claiming her as dead due to the severe weather. No one could survive being in those winters, and I was just ten years old when I heard the horrid news. Then my father died shortly after of heart failure. Him and I never ended up getting along since he let Liza and her girls treat me so badly, so my mother and I ended up being closer before and even after she passed.

"Come finish making us dinner!" I heard Lyssa pounding on my door.

I rolled my eyes and shoved the picture back under my pillow.

"You are seventeen years old, Lyssa!" I shouted back. "Make your own damn dinner for once!"
"Well... um... you're seventeen too!" She shouted back.

I laughed at her stupid comeback. Lyssa and Leslie treated me just as bad as Liza did. They bullied me constantly, making me cringe at every word they spat. They made me the school's joke by spreading horrible rumors about my life and making everyone resent my whole identity. Yet, none of them knew who I truly was. And none of them were able to find out since I made Liza put me on homeschooling. It was my senior year, and I was stuck at home with a witch, doing my school work that I had no idea how to do. I guess it was better than getting slammed into lockers everyday, being jumped by groups of girls after school, or even having food thrown at me in the courtyard during our lunch period.

I never answered back to Lyssa, I just let her storm off and complain to her sister and mother as always. Only one more year and I was gone from this awful place. I planned to get a scholarship this year and admitted myself into a really nice college. I had so many good choices, but I knew I would never be able to get into Yale, Duke, or even Princeton; which are all my dream schools.

After dinner, we all returned to our rooms to sleep. I couldn't help but think about my mom while lying in bed that night. I usually wouldn't get that emotional about her death so randomly. But I was hurting, and I couldn't help but lay there and softly cry into my sheets.

"Stop crying." I muttered to myself while sitting up in the bed.

It was about one in the morning, and I had been crying for three hours. I finally thought of something that would make me feel better, and I was a little disappointed in myself for not thinking of it earlier. I fixed my tank top after sitting up in bed and got up while throwing on a cardigan. I then grabbed the flashlight from my night stand and quietly headed out into the creaking hallway. Liza's house was a mansion, so it took a while to get up to the attic. I climbed up the ladder and forced the ceiling trap door open. At first I couldn't find the lamp, but as soon as I did I flicked it on and turned my flashlight off. In the back of the freezing attic, was a mirror... a special mirror. If I knelt down, it was big enough to show my head to my ashy knees. That gorgeous mirror belonged to my mother. It's rather thick frame was a dark mahogany color and flower engravings went all around it. Believe it or not, this was the one of two things I had left of my mother. No stuffed animal, no piece of jewelry... I had a mirror and the picture under my pillow. It stayed in the attic because I had absolutely no room in my bedroom since it was very small, and of course, Liza did not want it in her house.

"Oh mom," I sighed, rubbing the gorgeous wood. "I miss you."

I stared deeply at my reflection, seeing bits and pieces of my mother within my face. She had bleach blonde hair, it was almost white. But she always looked perfect from what I remembered. My hair turned out to be dark brown with natural blonde highlights, thanks to my father.

I gently put my hand against the mirror, feeling the shock of coldness as I always did.

"I don't know what to do, I can't live like this anymore... please help."

I closed my eyes and cried softly, letting it all pour out. The last time I did this was about six months ago, when Liza blew up on me for organizing her clothes the wrong way. I always got yelled at for stuff like that. It was such a horrible feeling that I just couldn't get rid of, at least while being stuck in that hell hole.
When I opened my eyes, the mirror... it was... glowing. It was illuminating a dark blue color, something I had never seen before in my life. I was frozen from fear and confusion while a large gust of blue mist began to wrap itself around my hand, moving up my arm and was soon around my whole body. I began to breathe heavily, not being able to budge, the blue force was holding me down. I screamed once I was pulled into the mirror, falling down into a echoing pit of darkness.