The Shedding Skin

Chapter One

The room was lit by lantern light and full of wonderful props. A forest that encompassed most of the place and painted with strange faces. Each either twisted in horror or shock. Under them were either styrofoam headstones. Or large pieces of paper mache painted to look like boulders. The grass made of strange pieces of shredded construction paper. Amongst them were cobwebs made of either cotton balls or string. A young woman was stringing them up on the fake trees. Humming as she went along. She was tall, wearing all black clothing, and chubby. Her long black hair pulled into a messy bun.

The girl pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face as she worked. And when she finished, she set the cobweb box down. A large grin on her face as she admired the sight before her. It was some of the best work she'd done all day. It had taken all morning to get these decorations done and set up. But she wasn't alone. Another girl was putting up decorations a few feet away from her. Large painted cardboard bats and crafted pipe cleaner spiders. She had long black hair pushed back by a headband. This girl was a bit taller than the other and wore soft pastel colors. As she set them up, she called out,"Tish? Don't you think this is enough?"

The black haired girl turned to her with a confused expression. Morticia answered,"Enough? It's a party, Raven. There needs to be more."

"More and we'll be able to open our own store.",Raven informed her. Putting the last bat against a wall,she turned to her. What she said was true. All available space on either the floor or walls taken up with either posters. Or with fake anything that there was hardly any room to stand. But that didn't seem to phase Morticia all that much. And she sighed,"Look, I get that I could be going overboard but this is the first time I get to do this."

"And I want this to be perfect. I hardly ever get to plan anything this fun.",she told her. Walking over to the other girl, she gave a small smile. Then she glanced around the crowded room as she sighed. In a soft tone, she asked,"Okay, so where did I go wrong with this?"

"Well, we were pretty good until you decided that the gym needed a forest.",Raven answered. Then pointed to the headstones and continued,"Also adding a graveyard was a bit overkill."

"Okay so we should take the headstones and some of the trees down?",Morticia suggested. Figuring with at least a few gone the place would look much better. And when Raven nodded, she started taking down one. Dragging it to the room she had gotten it from, she sighed. It wasn't like she wanted to impress the school with all this. Sure seeing them admire her handy-work would have been good. But she wanted to have Raven's approval of it. So she did her best to mimic things she'd seen in movies. Though she had to admit, they were pretty cheesy in movies too. At least Raven told her before the rest of the school saw. She walked back to get more trees as Raven passed with three. Both smiled at each other before they continued on.

It wasn't until they cleared at least five more trees that they heard something. Somewhere in the gym, someone was humming. A soft sound that was too childlike to be a janitor. And much too young to be a High School student. Both girls froze when they heard the humming turn to singing a familiar childhood song. One that neither had heard since they were little girls. The singer was speaking to no one as they sang,"Your wish will soon come true!"

Now, neither girl wanted to get any closer to the singer. After what they'd been through that summer, they didn't trust any random music. Even if it was from a princess they'd known since childhood. But they were too curious to leave it alone. And as they approached the supposed Snow White,they armed themselves. Raven grabbed a broom as they walked. Morticia picked up a bat they'd been using for a play while walking beside her. And as they neared the singer, they heard the person repeat the song over. Their voice as lovely before as they sang,"Promise not to tell?"

Glancing at each other, Raven called,"Who's there?"

Then the singing stopped. The silence was even eerier than the singing had been before. Morticia dug her teeth into her lip as she scanned the gym. This had to be a prank, it had to be. She knew it had to be. When she glanced over at Raven, she knew by the look on her face that Raven felt the same. Then what little illumination from the torches had given went out. Now they were standing in total darkness with nothing but silence. Each girls reached into their pockets and pulled out their phones. Each turning on their own flashlight app before they hurried on. Their phones soon became unnecessary as they saw a soft glow in front of them. And what they saw was very strange. A tiny female figure was lit up in front of them. The figure was starting to become easier to see, a child standing in front of a large fake well. Who was wearing an old tattered and disheveled dress. Their long black hair hung over their frail little shoulders.

Neither girl could understand where the glow was coming from. Raven glanced over at her girlfriend before she called out,"Excuse me? Who are you? Why are you in here?"

"...promise...not...tell...",the figure mumbled in a hoarse whisper. Morticia inched closer to the figure who seemed to be shaking like a leaf in the wind. Their hands gripping the well that she hadn't set up and neither did Raven. Both girls then gasped as the little figure turned around to see them. Its little face was paler than the movie princess. Dirtier than hers had been as well. She was no older than seven years old. Her cherubic face had tears running down her eyes and gross bile dribbling from her bottom lip. 

When the little girl giggled, they turned and ran as fast as they could out of the gym.