Mallory Is Medusa

Chapter One

Her entire life, she'd been alone.

Well, that's not entirely true. Her mother came to visit her once a week starting once she was three. Before that, she'd lived with her. That was the only time that she'd had a companion, which was what the elders wanted.

They wanted her to be alone. They were afraid of her. No one was allowed in her part of the swamp, because of their orders.

It wasn't their fault, though. It was hers.

Her mother said that she was the reincarnation of a monster. Of an ancient evil that had plagued the world for hundreds of years before it had finally been cut down. Her mother also said that, someday, the world would hear that the monster had been reborn, and they'd come to kill her.

The elders had decided almost everything about her. They'd chosen her home, the times when her mother could see her, what she could wear, what she could eat, where she could go, and even her name. Her whole life was dictated by their wishes, but that was okay. She'd never known anything else.

Mallory. That's what she was called. Well, that's what her name was and that's what her mother called her. Sometimes the elders called her nasty things, but she didn't mind. Over the years, it had gotten worse, but her attitude had gotten better about it. She didn't have to go to school, or pay for anything, or go anywhere.

She did like to read, and to draw. She wasn't very good at drawing, but she liked it. Sometimes, her mother would bring her new books. No, they weren't new, in fact most of them were ripped and tattered, but they brought new stories into her dull life.

Her favorite ones told of dragons and princes and princesses trapped in stone towers. She also liked the ones about heroes and magic swords and monsters. While she read those, she was transported into the eyes of the heroes and their maidens. When she finished them, she was thrown back into the body of a monster. Sometimes she wanted to cry while she read those.

Even her name was a constant reminder that she was a curse. 'Unfortunate' is what it meant. She was unfortunate. She liked to refer to herself as Mal, however, because it didn't mean unfortunate. Maybe it did. She wouldn't know. She didn't go to school.

There were a lot of things that went wrong for her. Her entire life was wrong, so everything went wrong. She had no friends, no family except for the mother she saw once a week, and nothing to her name except for unfortunate.

Once again, she was reminded that she was unfortunate.

Sometimes, she'd stare out the screen window, kept there to keep out the bugs though it wasn't like they could hurt her, and admire the small streaks of light that came through the tall trees. At night, she could occasionally see a glimpse of the stars through the heavy leaves. On nights with a full moon, she could hear the rustling of animals running through the swamp.

Who was she kidding? She could hear them every night.

When she was younger, the sound of a passing animal would scare her. She was always alone in the dark house, so she was always worried that something was going to get inside and eat her. As soon as she was older, she realized that the animals couldn't eat her.

She was the top of the food chain.

She was the top of the food chain because she was a monster.

She was a monster.

She always ended up back there. Everything was different for her because she was a monster. Everything in her life was different from a normal person because she was a monster.

She'd never even seen another person her age. She'd never seen a child. Only her mother, and the elders. Each elder was probably close to death. At least, she hoped so.