Cassie
(10 years old)
It was a month after Luke left. Cassie was flipping the pages of the new storybook that she had wanted for a long time. It was called Legend and it was a story about a prince who freed the princess from isolation and explored the world together, and ended up marrying each other at the end of the amazing journey. She liked romance stories.
Cassie never went to school, and her parents also didn't see the need to send her there, especially when she would cause others 'bad luck'.
Cassie wanted to go there though. School, it sounded fun. She lived in isolation for all her life, her parents only communicated with her using the minimum number of words and small notes, otherwise they ignored her existence. At least they hired someone to teach her how to read and speak when she was eight.
Luke was her first friend. Cassie wondered if friends kiss each other on the lips normally... If they didn't then what was the name of the relationship of her and Luke? She flipped opened the book in her hands, landing on page 96 by chance, and she read the first few sentences of the chapter.
x
Chapter 7
I wondered if I loved her. I think I did. Because I really wanted to kiss her lips then. I wished I did.
x
Did Luke love her? Maybe. Her mind was in an utter mess.
How she wished he never left.
-
It was six in the evening when Cassie heard the doorbell ring.
Who could it be?
She walked the stairs, before looking at the door. Then she heard the sound of keys followed by the sound of the door opening, and instead of the usual glum faces of her parents, it was Aunt Mary.
She furrowed her eyebrows. How did she get the keys? But she still smiled at the sight of Aunt Mary who always treated her well and ignored the fact that she was different.
"Cassandra? Oh thank goodness," Aunt Mary looked flustered. "Listen to me. Your parents got into a car accident and they... are not around anymore..."
Cassie panicked. Car accident?
What would happen to her now since they died?
"W-What? Where can I go now?"
Aunt Mary squatted down to her height and smiled. "You can always come and live with us. You can be my daughter." She could see the sincerity and love from her eyes. It was something that she never saw from her parents.
"They never treated me like their daughter." Tears began to flow down her cheeks at the realisation of the truth. They didn't even care from the very beginning.
"Shh, don't cry." Aunt Mary patted her head while trying to console Cassie.
"Time is ticking for you, dear. What do you want to do now? You can either stay with my family in the city of Allere, abandoning your name and identity or would you rather prefer to stay in this town and suffer?" Aunt Mary looked at her with concern. She knew that Cassie was suffering here.
Cassie remembered the looks of disgust and judgement from her parents when she was just five. Her parents looked at her like she was a demon. How would others look at her, knowing that she was an angel.
"...I will," she sniffed, "go stay with you. I don't want to live like this anymore. I want to go to school and have friends."
But what about Luke? The thought gnawed at her mind. But no matter what, she wanted to leave this horrible place.
"Good choice. Although, you would need to change your name." Aunt Mary looked at her with concern.
Cassie hesitantly nodded her head. Changing her name as well? Luke might not be able to find her.
"B-But I don't know any..."
"How about Camille?" Aunt Mary smiled. "That is a beautiful name for you."
Camille.
Cassie smiled and nodded.
Luke.
She asked for a little time from Aunt Mary, and she ran to the backyard, where that fence was and climbed through the hole, her hand with a small blade. She saw the familiar tree where she first met him. She carved with all the strength she had, In Allere. Look for me. - Cassie (10 y.o.). She hoped that Luke would come and look for her.
She returned back to the house, heart heavy, as she walked into her room that was always the only familiar place to her. She took some clothes that she could wear and packed them into a bag with some of her book and also the precious ring from Luke.
But as if an omen, it started to pour from the dark and cloudy sky, and she sat in Aunt Mary's car and she then brought her to the hospital and made sure the burial for her parents, Benjamin Ester and Victoria Ester, were arranged and she became Camille Arnett from that day onwards, leaving that horrible house and wishing that Luke could find her next time with the carving on the tree.
