Reflections of Light

Youth

Emilia had nowhere really to go, and so, consequently, had ended up being put up in a hotel by Evelyn, alongside all the other people that the woman looked after.

And then had promptly been  forgotten about.

And worst of all is, she had lost her lead.

She'd arrived on a mission, with one plan in mind, and somehow had ended with it being forcefully shoved aside and squashed to make room for some earth-shattering disaster that was the Draugr virus.

Way to take the wind out of her vengeful sails.

Now, she was sitting, sipping from a cardboard cup of coffee as she eyed Evelyn from across the room, watching as she was sternly dissuading two over-enthusiastic children away from a cloudy-eyed, silver haired old woman with ugly, jagged scar tissue marring her otherwise comely appearance around the higher portion of her face, her weathered hands clutching at an elegantly carved cane.

Old Mags.

Emilia could remembered her from the short stint she herself had done in Evelyn's care, when her parents had become too much.
Mags hadn't seemed to age much between then and now.
In fact, she was one of those people you could believe had always been the age they were, was never any younger, and would never get any older.

Mags was a kind, lovely woman... Assuming you were the kind of quiet, polite, well-behaved person she liked.
If you were not... Well, she had no shame in making it blatantly clear when she did not approve.

In fact, every kid who'd ever stayed under Evelyn's care could claim to have had a nightmare about Old Mags at least once.
She was that fairytale witch that haunted their bedtime stories, looking for children to gobble.

The adults loved her.

She was a bit overly-religious sometimes, but great conversation generally. Chock full to the brim of Grandmotherly advice, she was one of the most respected members of the community, a leadership figure second only to Evelyn.

Emilia snorted. She'd never really cared for the old woman. Been jabbed by her cane one too many times.

No, now what she needed was not to be revisiting the memory lane of her delinquent youth, but to be working out her next move.

And her next move was to confront Evelyn, and demand answers.

Honestly, I've been wanting to properly include Old Mags for ages.
See, when I invented the community that lived within Evelyn's home, I couldn't help but invent several detailed characters and families within the community, and whilst I know I won't be able to fully include most of them (just because apart from being interesting, they don't add much to the story in the long run,and would just drag it out and eventually get boring.)

But there was no way I could not include Old Mags, she is one of my absolute favourites.