Crown of Glass

I

Willow was new to the city of Brookstone Creek. She and her father and stepmother had recently moved and settled in two months ago. The family had moved into an old house on the outskirts of town. According to legend, the old house was haunted, and people have reported ghosts roaming around the place when going to explore the area. However, Willow didn't believe a word the people around her said and chose to believe it was all due to hysteria and the human imagination going wild. In her vision, there was no such thing as the supernatural or parallel universes that coexist along with reality. She never understood the ideology of humanity wanting to discover something that would be hailed a breakthrough.

She found herself sitting on the steps of the front porch of her new house, her eyes lazily gazing down at the other children her age who were running around the streets in the neighborhood below, the sounds of their laughter filling the air as they chased each other around. Willow sighed, tracing her finger along the small patch of dirt beneath her feet, her head resting against the palm of her hand as she let out a breathy sigh. She did not get how the teenagers of the neighborhood could get along so well, but they barely noticed her existence and it made her wonder if it was because of the house she lived in because she was aware of the rumors about the old house. Then she considered it being about her appearance rather than the other factor.

The others probably considered her to be overly confident in herself based on her looks. Her skin was tanned with freckles dotted across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She had naturally rosy cheeks that rested under hazel eyes that glowed in the sunlight. She had chestnut brown hair that rested just below her shoulders. She stood at around five feet and six inches tall and boasted a slightly curved figure. While an object of beauty, she can appreciate her looks and accept that she isn't unattractive. She'd inherited her looks from her late mother, who passed away when she was a young child.

Still, she couldn't help but to wonder as to what was driving other people away from her, aside from the fact that she lives in a supposedly haunted house on a hill and is slightly excluded from society. The whistling of the rusted fence gate filled her ears as the wind began to blow through her hair, the soft breeze tickling against her skin, her senses tingling at the chill of the air around her. Willow was in her own world now as her head filled with the soft sounds of complete silence before she heard a voice interrupt from behind her. The voice belonged to her stepmother, Diane.

"Are you all right, Willow? You've been outside for quite a while," Diane asked, leaning downward to take a seat next to her, her fingers softly brushing against her hair.

Diane had been in Willow's life since she was a small child  and she'd grown accustomed to acts of comfort from her. Willow leaned her head inward to meet her stepmother's gentle touch, sighing softly as she was comforted by the only mother figure she really knew.

Willow spoke softly in reply, "I'm fine, mom. Just thinking about whatever comes to mind."

This caused Diane to chuckle to herself upon hearing her speak. The interaction was filled with a sense of serenity as Willow continued to lean against her, her head resting on her left shoulder, her hazel eyes closing shut. There was this air around Diane that seemed to just make life just a tiny bit more livable. She was a woman who knew how to calm someone down when she sensed that they were having troubles and developed a maternal instinct that activated at the slightest instinct of dismay.

"That's good, Sweetie. Just be sure to come in for dinner, I made your favorite," she said, planting a kiss on the girl's forehead before going back inside, leaving Willow alone.

After getting over whatever was on her mind, she got up to her feet and went inside the house, allowing the door to shut behind her. The old house still looked like it was in mint condition, even after being abandoned for so many years. However, there was still a need for it to be fixed up when they moved in. Willow walked into the dining room, taking a seat in a chair near the edge of the table, Diane being seated across from her. Suddenly, the front door opened and in came her father, coming home after a long day of work, the sound of his briefcase hitting the floor being heard. Soon, he entered the dining room and walked over to kiss his daughter's forehead and proceeded to kiss
his wife on the lips.