Truths Desire ~ Emerald Lodge (Aphmau fanfic with inserted characters)

Flashbacks of the Past

*Snows POV*

I opened my eyes and gasped for air, but instead I swallowed in a lungful of water. My thrashing hands were tiny, the size of that of a child's. I was a child once more...but why this moment?

I remember it like the back of my hand. Only seconds before, I had been sat on the river bank, trailing my feet into the cold refreshing water, as my hands busily worked to bind flowers together. My mother sat nearby, cradling a baby while tending to another. I must have been only about 7, while my sisters were only mere babies. They didn't face the terrible memory of their father dying only 6 months before. But father taught me to be strong, he said I'm the only one who could lead us past this. And I was going to... or at least try.

It's then that I fell. My concentration slipping as I dove deeper into my thoughts. But now that I look back at it... I didn't slide in over lost concentration...something grabbed me. A silky material rapped around my ankle and pulled me in. I screamed but there was nothing I could do as it pulled me deeper into the river.

I thrashed for several seconds but there was nothing I could do. I was confined by the water, trapped and dying, my breath running out. Then a darkness washed over me, as I was pushed into another memory...something I couldn't remember. It felt like a memory...but it also felt so real...

My eyes stung when I opened them, but I was no longer drowning, I lay on a white bed. silk pillows and sheets lay over me, tucked up just under my chin. The room around me was a large open space, decorated with paintings. The walls were covered with beige wallpaper, spotted with colourful flowers. I pushed the sheets away, feeling flustered and confused. Why was I here? I sat, swung me legs over the side of the bed, and stood up. Pictures and paintings, some of fields of different flowers, which were knew to me...others of things I could remember. As my eyes scanned over the pictures, my heart dropped, lower and lower. Whoever lived here - if anyone lived here - they had been watching me. Watching me my whole life...

The pictures were of various different times in my life... my childhood house, the field I used to play in, even my bedroom. Worse still, there were pictures of my current house which I shared with Ali and Misty. All the pictures were focused on me... there was not one clue to who lived here, no pictures of them at all. They even had my birth certificate, which showed my full name. Snowella Elizabeth Rosa Annabelle Hill, but no one calls me Snowella. It's still a mystery to me as to why my name is so long, but my mother could never bring herself to tell me the story, so I learned to just give up asking.

As my eyes scanned over the room once again, I noticed a picture that, until now, I hadn't seen. The moment in which it froze, I could hardly remember. But the memory was still there none the less. I closed my eyes and it all flooded back to me.

The children, the school yard... the warlock... even the car which I hid behind... it all flowed back to me. My father... my fathers last stand... to save those children... and my magic... magic so powerful it almost killed me... driven forward by rage and fear and depression. This memory was the start of it all.

It was a normal day, no different from any before it. My father had picked me up from school, Golden Oak Primary. We decided that today we would walk... and that was a fatal decision. The sun shone brightly above our heads, my fathers hand wrapped around mine. We jumped around, laughing and talking in delight, telling each other of our days. But that didn't last at all as long as I wish it had. My father was always so brave and honourable... putting others lives before his own. There was a reason for this, but a child of my age didn't have the courage to ask, and my mother would never allow me to know, she just wanted me to have a pure memory of my father, she saw no need to poison it with things which did not concern me.

As we turned the corner and crossed the road so we were a short distance from the school yard, my young seven-year-old eyes saw no danger, they saw only what they wish for me to see. However me father saw different. A group of children, normal human children, pushed against an alley wall, a man of great strength and anger stood over them. My father pushed me behind a car, whispering for me to be safe. Then he was gone.

I pushed my head around the side of the car, searching for the movement of my father. His black business suit now was streaked with a blur of furry white. His brown hair also smudged with white. His ears and tail were showing... He pushed around the few people who crossed the streets, making his way to the alley. I may have been young, but my father taught me well enough about witches and warlocks. A rare few were good in nature, while the rest were driven mad, tainted with rage. This warlock was one of many. Tainted.

He held a child by the throat, his back towards me so I could see little of what he did. Then my father was there, pushing him back. He released grip on the child, his attention turned and pinned against my father. But there was little to be done, and it was over before it had really begun. By father was overpowered, this warlock was of mighty power, larger power than any I have yet to see. Even Lucinda doesn't cut close to the power he had.

The light which shone was as black as night, burning into my eyes, forcing me to look away. That was the last time I ever saw my father alive. When I looked back, the light had cleared and children had fled. The warlock stood over my fathers body, smirking and kicking at him. I screamed, tears flooding my face. I knew my father would have wanted me to stay hidden, but when you see a loved one die in front of your eyes, there is little you can do to stop your body from running to them.

The car which I had hidden behind melted away as I bolted towards him. His body lay still, the warlock watching me as I ran forward. Fear was the last thing on my mind. A great sadness made tears trickled down my face, while rage made me want to face the warlock. So I did.

I was seven at the time, the warlock was an adult, powerful and tainted with rage. What could I do? More than you may think. He may have had power, but so did I, and what made me even more powerful, is the fact that I didn't know I had it, let alone control it.

He reached out to grab me, but he shouldn't have. I remember the light that pulsed from my body. An Icey blue. My body went cold, ice forming on my skin. He jumped back, fear striking his eyes.

Then the memory was gone. I opened my eyes and I was faced once again by the room I had awoken in. I could remember nothing else... but I knew there was more! Suddenly I thought about it more... I couldn't remember anything which had happened after that awful day when I was seven... I couldn't only remember what had been shown in the pictures... but why?

Footsteps sounded behind me, echoing off the walls. I turned around slowly, scared of what I might see, but what my eyes turned to surprised me. Brown hair, crystal blue eyes... strong hands which had held mine and kept me safe as a child... I knew who it was... but I couldn't bring myself to admit it... because to do that... would mean I would be admitting I would never be able to live my life again... to love... to be free... to save my friends... The man who stood in front of me... was dead... all memory of him... lost into the back of my mind...