𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝

- 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 -

Nearly ten years had passed since the Lewis's had woke up to find their niece on the front step, but Magnolia Crescent had hardly changed at all. The sun rose up on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number seven on the Lewis's front door. It crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Lewis had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large, pink beach ball wearing different coloured bobble hats — but Ryan Lewis was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blonde boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room had no sign at all that another girl, (besides Mrs Lewis), was living in the same house.

Yet Lucia Riddle was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Emily was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!".

Lucia woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched.

Lucia heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. She rolled on to her back and tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. She had a funny feeling she'd had the same dream before.

Her aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly", said Lucia.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on RyRy's birthday".

Lucia groaned.

"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing..."

Ryan's birthday — how could she have forgotten? Lucia got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Lucia was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept.

When she was dressed she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Ryan's birthday presents. It looked as though Ryan had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Ryan wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Lucia, as Ryan was very fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody.

Ryan's favourite punch bag was Lucia, (even though she's a girl), but he couldn't often catch her. Lucia didn't look it, but she was very fast.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Lucia had always been small and skinny for her age. She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Ryan's and Ryan was about four times bigger than she was. Lucia had a thin face, knobbly knees, brown hair and a sort of dull look about her eyes, although they had a speckle of blue in them. She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Ryan had punched her on the nose.

The only thing Lucia liked about her own appearance was a very thin scar on her forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightening. She had had it as long as she could remember and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt Emily was how she had got it.

"In the car crash when your parents died", she had said. "And don't ask questions".

Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Lewis's.