Soul Bound •Radiobelle• |Hazbin Hotel AU|

Prologue

The mind of a child is a peculiar place. It's a never-ending realm of fantasies and ideas beyond anything an adult can comprehend. Charlotte Morningstar was no exception to this. In fact, she had a mind brighter than any other kid in her class. From the day she could speak, she never failed to delight her parents with riveting tales of creatures unknown and historical events that took place in another world. Where she learned how to create stories so innovative and unique, they had no clue. All the books they read to her could never compare to the stories she came up with on a whim. One night her father even tried writing down the fable she was sharing. In the end, he was only able to capture the basic idea, not the full story.

Unfortunately, a brilliant creative mind lacked the helpful tool that was common sense. A remarkable storyteller like her would often find herself wondering how hot was the fire on the stove or how long she could hold her breath in the bathtub. Mishaps such as these occurred far too often, and every time she would need to be rescued by her terrified parents. They would scold her for being so careless, and often had to lecture her on the dangers of the world around her. But it never seemed to stick with the little girl. And the more they warned her, the more she wanted to explore and discover what was so "dangerous". After all, how fatal could any of it truly be?

Her parents didn't mind having to watch over their daughter 24/7 at first. But now that she had entered kindergarten, they knew that came with its own type of independence, and they couldn't monitor her every waking moment. Eventually she would have to learn how to do certain things on her own, and all they could hope was that she'd also learn not to hurt herself in the process.

Saturday was Charlie's favorite day of the week. No school during the day and no school the next day, which meant a later bedtime and another free day when she woke up! A whole day just to do whatever she wanted, and one thing was certain; she was never bored. Her wealthy parents had provided her a sizeable house with various rooms to play in and so many places to explore. Some of the rooms were off-limits to her until she was older, some she would avoid out of habit—such as her parents' bedroom.

There was one room in particular she had her sights set on this early Saturday morning; a strange room below the grand staircase that she'd never seen open before. Her wondrous mind assumed it was some secret room that held a stash of candy, or maybe it was a portal that led whoever walked through to another planet. No matter what contents lied behind that door, Charlie was eager to discover.

When she finally opened it, after struggling to reach its high doorknob, she would find it was only a closet, filled to the brim with old holiday decorations and unused knick-knacks all stacked in plastic containers.

"Huh.." Mumbled the girl with a titled head. A bit underwhelming, but hey, there must've been something interesting she could find in one of the boxes. Letting curiosity take the lead, Charlie stepped inside the dark space and began her search. Maybe this was where her parents stashed the new toys they would buy her every other week, and she could get a glimpse of the latest one early.

Much to her disappointment, though, she would only find broken vases, old records that hadn't been touched in years, board games they never played, and some of her baby clothes that had yet to be given away. Charlie was going to give up on her search for a cool object, until she found a dirty rubber duck with a hat and sunglasses on its face. After tucking it into her pocket, she decided to keep looking, just to see if there were any other adorable treasures awaiting her in another box.

In the box near the back of the wall, Charlie pulled out a heavy, weirdly-shaped piece of wood, that when she brought it out into the light, was revealed to be an antique radio. It was in surprisingly good condition, hardly a scratch or flake of dust on its outer layer. It almost looked like it came right out of the living room along with the rest of the well-cleaned decor. A kid like herself was too young to truly admire the beauty of its structure, but she had to admit, it was fascinating to look at. Fascinating enough for her to make the decision to keep it for herself.