The Arcanum Manor

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓞𝓷𝓮 - What was left behind

September 5th, 2010, 2 A.M.

Elvira Thorngale

I was told multiple times that I should grow up, that my decisions mattered most, I should be mature enough to make the best ones and I should stop believing in fairy tales. But I wasn't ashamed to admit that... I wasn't there yet.

Because it was funny coming from my careless father's mouth. Perhaps he'd forgotten I was only fifteen when he eagerly passed me off to my grandmother's house just weeks before my first day of a new high school—very adult of him. The only thing he cared about was that I wasn't able to make the decision of a new high school alone. That I had made an agreement with my grandma to choose for me.

I still remembered his laugh vividly as he couldn't understand why I was so scared and had to ask for help, but I knew one thing for sure.

There was no stopping me from wearing my fear with pride.

So here I was, very early in the morning when the sky behind the flowery curtains was still dark, standing in my grandmother's guest room and packing my things. My official room wasn't ready yet, but it will change in the near future.

I was methodically folding my clothes and arranging them into my bags and suitcase that laid on the bed. I was packing just hours before our departure to my new school, but I didn't know where it was yet.

When I'd mentioned I couldn't make the decision alone and agreed for my grandma to help me, it had one condition—it would be a surprise until the very first day of school.

I know, I know. It wasn't the best idea ever, but now it was too late to back out.

Anticipation but also nervousness swirled within me, awaiting any minute that grandma would come and tell me where I would study the next few years. She had assured me that she would find just the perfect school for me, but the shroud of secrecy surrounding it, now left me uncertain.

I sighed, causing my long golden hair to float around my face, and put another pile of clothes into my bag.

I had to remind myself why I hadn't been able to choose on my own—too much stress didn't allow me to—and grandma had demanded she would spare me the burden. Because she saw how much I was too scared of a new life—everything had been happening too fast.

Still wearing my fear with pride.

It had been hard for me because my mind was full of thoughts surrounding my father, his new wife, both of them in a courtroom where my grandma wanted full custody of me. And it dragged by, eating out my spark. The only reason it took so long was that my careless father was a very wealthy man.

I wouldn't lie; it drained me of all my energy. Even my best friend Patrick had noticed how stressed I'd been, which was quite something since I thought I'd been hiding it well.

All the sorrows, mixed with the pressure of finishing elementary school, had darkened my thoughts. And I wasn't myself for a long time.

So, I'd agreed to the blind high school pick.

The court had been an uphill battle and the stress had been too real, especially when my father had hidden me from my only grandparent my whole childhood. Hadn't mentioned this pure soul even once. My perception of what family means had been screwed because of Terrence Gallager. Yes, that Gallager—the money hungry owner of most of the companies around.

I closed the zipper of my finally full suitcase and listened for a second if I would hear grandma's footsteps anywhere in the house on the weary wooden floor. Don't get me wrong, the house was lovely, but only needed more work.