Lächeln und Regenbogen / Smiles and Rainbows

Prologue

A little girl sobs in the darkness of the forest. She didn't do anything wrong, at least she believed so. Her little mind was still trying to comprehend the situation that just transpired, being the fact she got into a quarrel with one of her close friends and it ended up where she is now, crying loudly in the darkness.

The crying halted as she noticed a brightly glowing being appearing next to her. She wiped her tears, hiccupped in her sobs, and turned around to see the person next to her. "Are you alright, little one?" they said, in a soft tone of voice, but she could hear there was a slight echo to it.

The person was thin, and was very tall to her, much taller than any adult she knew before. Besides that, she couldn't make any other distinction to their appearance, because they looked as if they were made of a pure, white light. Looking at them was almost like looking directly at the sun, except something was made so it didn't hurt. It was a calming light to look at.

It was then the girl realized who she was looking at. It was her god. The very deity of joy her whole family prayed to each day. It was a great miracle they had come here to console her.

They offered a gift to the girl. A gift, a promise, of a colorful world of happiness and positivity, and with no negativity to wear any of it down. Every necessity will be provided to her, she can play for how long she likes, and who was she to turn down such a paradise, and from this trustworthy deity even?

She offered to shake their hand to seal the deal, she knew about it from the movies her uncles and aunts watched. The deity shook her hand, but also gave her one of those fancy looking pens. It's a magic pen, the deity stated, and said she can use it to write whatever she could to help shape the world.

She accepted the pen, and went on this glorious world they mentioned about.

-~ === ~-

And that was the last time she has ever seen her, running into the woods, then she was declared missing. Her family then moved to another county to move on with some more personal problems, but some family business had to be taken care of, which lead to them returning to the county that was the source of anything they vent to their therapists.

The Payne family were thankfully patient with one another despite their hardships, but more often such things they would rather keep to themselves instead of properly talking to each other about it, especially since the parents are aware of how much the events have affected their daughter, Sadie.

Everyone in the van had been joyfully chatting about whatever else that came to mind, like ridiculous family reunion events, whatever junior high school shenanigans Sadie got into, and the like. It was going well, but the father's smile had faltered once he took a glance on the indigo billboard, almost looking purple from the illusion the orange sunset was giving.

"Welcome to the Regenbogen County!"

The mother and daughter immediately caught sight of his distress, and thus the van went silent. The mother not knowing if she should address the current issue at hand, but Sadie just didn't want to deal with it, and sunk back into listening to a shuffling loop of whatever loud and energetic music she had downloaded prior to the trip.

Conversation between the three went back up once the van had stopped by their destination, being a large house the mother's sister owned. The sister currently lived with some other cousins and siblings-in-law, along with her fiancée, and offered the family to stay by them while the business was being taken care of. This also meant for the time being, Sadie will have to move to a new school, which she thought she would find very difficult. She and her other family members helped in packing things up, then she settled in what was once a vacant guest room to rest.

It had been a few days since moving back, and the only thing in store for Sadie now is what school is she going to attend to in the meantime. Sure, it's only the beginning of summer vacation, but her parents liked to plan ahead. There hasn't been much else besides her taking care of some younger cousins and doing small errands, but lately those errands have lessened, considering her parents have caught wind of news that people going missing when they stop by the local forest.

Well logically, she could still do errands that involve going outside, but just avoid the forest. Easy as that. And that's what she has been doing. Besides, she couldn't even bare to go to the forest after... That happened.

It was a Saturday, the sun was about to set, and Sadie was running back home with a plastic bag full of canned goods her dad told her to get. Before she could knock the front door to indicate she's back, she heard a giggle behind her. She didn't bring anyone with her, so it was a surprise to hear someone behind her.

It sounded like a young girl, high pitched, but for some reason she could tell person whom this voice is coming from is the exact same age as her. She turned around to see who it was, but was greeted by... nothing. No one was in front of her except the houses of the neighbors across the street. If she wasn't startled out of her mind, she would've joked about how this was going to be the start of a very clichéd horror movie with low budget scares.

"H-hello?" she asked to no one. To her surprise, someone did respond.

"Hello, Sadie!" a cheerful voice that echoed from her mind replied. Something about it seemed... Familiar to the young teenager? No... It couldn't be...

"Long time no see, best friend forever!"

"Say, do you want to know where I have been lately?"

-~ === ~-

It had been years since that as well. The very moment she never knew she would be reunited with her "best friend" after a long time, which was basically her kidnapping Sadie, dragging her to someplace unknown, and forcing her to play a part in her sick little games.

Then again, she knew something was wrong with her from the start. She brushed it off as just her being weird when she was way younger, but growing up she found out it may had to do with the way she was raised. She had tried to reason with her on what she is doing was actually wrong, but she refused to listen.

Combing her dark purple hair, that was dark brown prior to all of this, she hoped at least someone out there can knock some sense onto her "friend."