Bringer of Bad Luck

Chapter 1

After his wife's death, Crimson's father sold their house and moved to another one that they had already owned. The mansion-like house was located on a plateau, overlooking a large town. There he would live with his new daughter, he would give her his utmost attention, and he would live up to his word.

Crimson's father had shares in several successful companies, so he became a 'stay at home' father. For three years he cared for Crimson, and during that time, she had never uttered a word to him, not even to call him 'daddy.' He had gotten her examined by several skilled doctors, but each one of them had no diagnosis but one claiming that she would begin to speak soon, she was just a 'late bloomer,' so to speak.

Either way, eventually, even though she had never spoken before, Crimson was sent to preschool where she didn't make any friends at all. Firstly, she was 'mute,' she wouldn't even use sign language to communicate, so it was impossible to ever become friends with her, and secondly, all the inhabitants of the school, including the teachers thought her eyes to be disturbing. When she looked your way, it was as though she was watching deep into your soul, and observing all of your thoughts and deepest desires. Therefore, all of the people at the preschool were ignorant of her, that was their best option since, if her father had ever found out that they were mistreating Crimson in any way, he could easily pull a few strings behind the scenes to force the school to close. In this case too, because Crimson never spoke, the teachers and students had the advantage. They knew that they would not be found out as long as they didn't leave any bruises or any other physical damage on Crimson's porcelain skin, as she never said anything. If someone told her to follow, she would follow like a puppet. That was the way she interacted with her father, but in this case, the puppet's face couldn't be changed, her expression would forever be an unreadable one.

So Crimson spent her days alone, only ever interacting with her father and seldom with anyone else, including the two maids her father had hired to take care of the household chores.

Finally, when Crimson was four years old, incomprehensible things began occurring around her.

She was at school, sitting in the grass underneath the large tangerine tree which was located in the school yard. A new girl about four months older than Crimson had come to the preschool, and had made it clear to everyone that she already thought Crimson to be freaky and that she despised the sight of her. This four year old girl had quite the vocabulary despite being so immature.

Therefore, in order to avoid further confrontation from the girl who was evidently clueless as to who Crimson's father was, she left class as fast as she could when the bell rang for the start of lunch, though to anyone looking on, she didn't appear to be in such a hurry. And so, she sought whatever little refuge she could get under the fan-like branches of the tangerine tree.

After about ten minutes into lunch, Naomi, the rude little new girl came into the school yard accompanied by a herd of other little children. In less than a day she was the center of attention, one, because she was brave enough to publicly insult Crimson, and two, all of the children, both boys and girls, thought that Naomi was the 'cutest thing that walked the earth,' which was quite the exaggeration. With her plush cheeks and ocean blue eyes she was no doubt a cute child, but what child under the age of five wasn't. Not even the teachers reacted like the students did, as though their favorite cartoon character had decided to pay them a visit.

As Naomi and all of her 'shadows' strolled over to the swings that were a few meters away from where the tangerine tree was grounded, Crimson blankly stared after the group, specifically at Naomi though. She didn't wear an expression of nervousness or fear or even happiness because Naomi was too busy to notice her, she didn't even try to hide behind the tangerine tree, no, her mind was clear as she blankly stared.

On the other hand, Naomi was basking in the attention of all of her new 'friends.' Her smile stretched from one ear to the other, as though she'd won a gold medal in the Olympics for her country. She thought that this was definitely her lucky day, however, what may be referred to as 'karma' wouldn't allow that smile to remain, after all, she was extremely rude to someone. Someone whom she didn't even attempt to get to know, someone  who, unfortunately for her, was a living curse.