✧ Alice's Shadow ✧

❀ ~ Chapter One ~ ❀

Colorful keychains rattled against the glass of the window as the car moved. Flashes of sun emerged from behind wide farm houses and lush trees. The sky was a clear and bright blue, nothing like the city. Fluffy white clouds dappled its surface, like flowing white fish in an azure pool. Lili stared up at them through lazy eyes, her head bumping against the strange smelling head of the car seat. She'd been sitting there for hours now, the small activity booklet the social worker had provided her with long completed. With no more cheerful animals to color in, Lili had taken to watching the scenery flash past the window, and the rays of the warm afternoon sun had been slowly lulling her into a light sleep.

Just as her eyelids began to flutter closed, the car suddenly slowed and turned a corner, shaking Lili alert. Shuffling onto her knees, she peered out the window again to find they had turned off the highway, and were now making their way along a long stretch of gravel road. Farmland and trees had been replaced by rows of berries and flowers, and up ahead she could make out a hill covered by soft swaying grass and a few groups of red dotted trees. She'd never seen a place like this, concrete, fog and car lights had been her surroundings for as long as she could remember. A sudden curiosity lit up inside of her, and she shuffled around in her seat in anticipation.

"Now Lili" Amber, the social worker with pale blonde hair and a wide smile said, leaning over the back of her seat, "Over this hill is Harbrooke, that's where you're going to live".

Lili gave a silent nod, and the lady flashed her another smile before turning back to the front. She continued to stare outside as they climbed the hill, the car shaking with effort. When they reached the top, Lili leant forward as far as her seatbelt would allow her and gazed out the front window. Below them the hill gently sloped back down, coated by an endless field of lilac and blue flowers. Beyond that stood a pale wooden fence, a dirt road, and well spaced out rows of brick and wooden houses.

Amber tapped Lili on the shoulder, pointing her in the direction of a house right at the edge of the town. It was made of faded red brick, and surrounded by a colorful garden. It appeared quite small, with a wider first story, and a smaller one connected on top. A window near the front hung open, steam floating out onto the roses below it. She could just make out the figure of a man, trimming some bushes near its pale wooden gate.

"That's your new home" the social worker smiled, appearing quite pleased for her.

Lili flashed the lady an uncertain smile, but continued to stare at the house as they made their way past the flowers, and onto the dirt road.

They drove to the end of the street, parking near the house. The man, who Lili now saw was in a pair of scuffed jeans, a loose cotton shirt and jacket slung over his shoulder, looked up to see them, and called something back to the house.

Amber and the other social worker turned the car off with a click of the key, and climbed out of their seats. Amber appeared at Lili's window a moment later, opening the door for her and beckoning her out.

Lili slowly climbed out, the small bag of the little possessions she had clutched in her hand nervously. It had suddenly dawned on her that she was no longer sitting watching the trees pass in the afternoon sun, and was instead now only moments away from meeting the people she would be living with permanently. She had grown slightly used to going to new houses by now, she'd been to enough foster homes. But this one was it, this was going to be the one she stayed in until she grew up.

Amber placed a hand on her shoulder, and guided her forward, shutting the car door behind her.

Lili stared in silence as they approached the gate of the house, the man she'd seen earlier walking forward to meet them and offering a hand in greeting to the other social worker.