In the early XIXth century, a young woman called with the unusual name of Eleven escapes from a jail for heretics and witches organized by a religious sect, the Administrators of God's Souls. Little could Michael Wheeler know, son of a high class fa...
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The dead times awake As I recall myself to yesterday A flower has fallen its petals Out of the petals a cradle I will
My cradle rocks with the waves of time The time of beauty will never be the same Oh, little girl, as thou must not leave Please take me, take me with thee
The Forever Moments - Nightwish (1997)
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It was getting cold. Not the fresh breeze one usually enjoys in late summer evenings.
No, a stronger chill traversed Jane's veins - it was mid-October -, and the humidity of upcoming rain was one thing with the wet grass, as she led her way on throughout the forest, with bare toes.
That's what she had been doing for two days, except passing the night under a tree. She was able to provide herself some food - mostly squirrels - in the meanwhile, but not too much.
She didn't know for how long her stomach could hold on though.
Night was approaching again and the same familiar chilling cold too.
To be fair, she could never distinguish the difference in weather outside. The only time she was allowed to go to a place that could be called "outside" was the enclosed courtyard in the inner part of St. Magdalene's Villa. That was the name of her longtime home, a house built back in the XVIth century where special people like her could be taken care of.
Jane Ives was given protection despite everything: she knew the outside world would have killed her at birth or persecute for life, that's why she was grateful.
She was allowed to see a part of the sky from the inner courtyard of the Villa: they called it the Rainbow Garden. That's where all the children - but she wasn't a kid anymore: they told her she was at her 16th year of living - gathered for two hours a week; it was where they all tried to use strictly under specific order and control a bit of that curse - not a gift, more like a sin, a cross or a burden God had given to them as a punishment.
She couldn't be friends with the other kids, not even in the Rainbow Garden, since the Administrators feared they could hurt each other, but Eleven knew that was for everybody's safety.
The Rainbow Garden was called like this because God would occasionally give them a sign of hope that they were doing alright; a colourful, divine message from the sky that they were in the good way to win the Beast that got them before being even born.
They called her Eleven anyway, like the number. Jane was her human name, they told her, but since she's a creature of Satan they gave her a new name, with a meaning in Christian symbolism: "11" was the road to freedom, to purification during lifetime, so she could at least aspire to Purgatory in the afterlife. The Administrators would both help her repress the curse and allow her to practice her powers, for the greater good. There was a reason if they taught her reading but she wasn't allowed to talk, if not to cast some not-dangerous spells, or only behind specific order - generally to serve the good cause.
