Chosen

Lillie

High pitched screaming filled the house. This had become a regular occurrence this week after the newest kid came to live with us. Lillie Andiel, she was brought here after her guardian died from a heart attack. He was old and she had to have known that his days were coming to an end, but Lillie may have been taking it harder than we expected. I say 'we' but I really only mean James and G. They take in troubled kids without a place to stay and give them something relatively stable to come home to every night. I've been here the longest, ever since I was about 7; when my parents failed to come home after a night of heavy drinking. Okay, so what if I'm still bitter about that? It was shitty. I decide to check on the girls, they're young and probably don't understand why Lillie is screaming (I don't either but the girls don't have to know that). I make my way down the hall, sparing a pitying look at where James and G are trying to calm Lillie down. Lillie is small. Like really small. I'm pretty sure she is albino. Her skin totally lacked pigment and her hair was the same way. I turn into the girls' room when I get to the end of the hall.

You'd know this was a little girl's room the second you set foot in it. Half the room was drenched in pink, and the other was doused in different shades of purple. James and G raised them like they were their own kids, though they did spoil them just a bit. Elizabeth and Violet were on the pink side, sitting on Elizabeth's bed.

"Hey, guys. You doing alright?" I ask keeping my voice soft. I always did around these two.

Violet nodded, but her lips were pursed and she looked scared.

"This won't happen for too long. Lillie just had a bad dream." The screams had faded and now it was just hushed whispers coming from down the hall. "See it's already getting better." I said putting small smile on my face, trying to comfort them.

"Read to us?" Elizabeth said in a small voice, her voice was always small.

I broke into a real smile. I loved reading to them, it helped them sleep and put my mind at ease. I stood from the bed, severely out of place in my black PJ'S on the pastel room.

"Which book do you guys want?" I asked. Elizabeth looked at Violet and nodded almost like they were talking to each other secretly. Violet walked over to the shelf and grabbed a blue leather children's book, I knew the book immediately.

"Peter Pan." Elizabeth patted the spot next to her for Violet to sit down.

I smiled again, "Good choice." I knew how important it was for fairy tales to stay in the minds of children and adults everywhere

"Thanks Elly!" Violet chirped as she sat down. She laid back on the pink bed her brown hair sprawled across the pillow, Elizabeth in response laid down next to her, blonde and brown hair intermingled like it always does as they curled into bed for their story.

I got about half way through the first chapter of the book when I realized that the girls had already fallen asleep, their hands clasped together. They always slept like that and it always made me smile when I saw them. It was good for them to be close to each other, god knows if there would be any others like them, like us. I make my way out of the room and down the hall. I decide to check in on Lillie, she was having a rough time with the transition to a new house, and I thought maybe I could help her out. I knocked on her door before I entered. Since Lillie was new here she hadn't had the chance to decorate her own room leaving the walls white and the bare, her bed was the same way. The entire feeling of the room screamed 'hospital'. Which was ironic considering how she had died. Lillie herself was sitting on her window seat, looking out the window at the busy city street beneath it. She was wearing a long night gown, I assumed it was just something that she'd brought with her from her past life. We'd need to get her new clothes here soon.

"Hey," I whisper keeping my voice low so that I wouldn't startle her, she was jumpy, and big noises seemed to set off her jumpiness.

She turned to me with her eyes wide, they were two different colors, her left one was green and her right one was blue. "Oh hi." She said, not making eye contact. "I'm sorry if I woke you up, the room scared me." She explained, motioning to the white walls.

"I get it. I'm still scared of rats from my first death. That kind of stuff sticks with you." I moved to sit on Lillie's bed. "What do you remember?" I asked, what can I say? I'm curious.

"I-I remember being in a hospital, it had really big windows and they let me and the other patients out into the hallway while we laid in our beds. I remember that my lungs hurt and that I couldn't stop coughing. It made breathing hard and the open windows and fresh air were supposed to help and maybe they did, I don't really know. All I know is that I didn't get better and then everything goes black and all I remember is waking up here." Her eyebrows were furrowed like she was trying really hard to remember everything.

"Yikes, that's tough." I admit, I'm not the best at comforting people. "Okay, how much do you know about all of this?" I asked biting my lip out of nervous habit and hoping James and G had explained to her what was happening.

"I know that I died. I don't know how I'm alive exactly, but I know that it's been about a hundred years since I died, I don't remember much about when I came alive again at first but I asked G to take those memories away. I didn't want them anymore." I realized that she had a habit of not making eye contact, but I understood and didn't question it.

I internally groaned at G and James for not explaining more to this poor girl. "Well, you know how fairy tales are called timeless? That's only truer with us. The characters in fairy tales are real. They live outside of time, making them truly timeless, but this happens as long as their stories are continually told and retold. You're the ward to the Red Queen, she claimed you when you were just a baby and you were given immortality as well as some sort of power or ability that goes along with who you were claimed by. Everyone that lives here is the same way. Elizabeth is the ward of Mother Gothel, y'know from Rapunzel? And Violet is the ward of Lady Tremaine, from Cinderella. I know this is a lot to take in you just gotta trust me on this one."

"I believe you. I can tell when people are lying and you're not." Lillie answered, giving me a small smile. "Thank you for telling me all of this, it really does help with everything that's been happening. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one like this and that there are others that have experienced something similar." She got up from the window seat and I got up from her bed so she could lay back down.

"Sleep well, Lillie." I say going to close her door with me on the opposite side when I heard her small voice from the other side.

"Call me Zabby."