Enchanted, Enchanting

Chapter 1

Cass looked over at her new roommate sleeping, she did her best to be quiet and let her rest since it looks like she was having a hard time adjusting to her new position. It stirred up all the old memories of her first time arriving here.

It had been a normal night, her father hadn't been home a couple of days which could mean only two things: he was either doing really well at the tables or really poorly. Her Father always did love to gamble and he wasn't horrible at it, there had been good times. Father would return home and it would be steak for supper every night, beautiful new dresses, and new toys but there had also been a few bad times when mother would sell their pretty things so she could buy food and keep the roof over their heads.

"It's going to be ok mom, dad's due." Cass little brother had said, he was doing his homework next to her at the table. It was true, Father had been going through a rough patch and was due for some good luck. Cass really hoped her father would return soon, she hated to see mother worry. Her mother gave them both a reassuring smiling before she continued pacing the floors, wringing her hands in silence and looking out the window for any sign of father. Sometimes Cass liked to imagine that father never came home that night, that she hadn't been awoken in the middle of the night by her door bursting open, faceless soldiers grabbing her pulling her from her warm bed. She didn't watch her frightened brother being ripped from their mother's arms as the three of them were dragged from their home. Father on his knees in front of the house tearfully yelling to his wife and kids, "I'm sorry" as they were all taken away.

Thinking about that night still made her hands shake, she had never been more frightened. She remembers how cold she felt as she sat in the transport in only her nightgown. She tried to speak to the people holding her, she wanted to ask what was going on but no words would come out. Her fear only intensified when the transport stopped next to a shuttle. She had never been off the planet before, to her horror the transports that her mother and brother were in were nowhere in sight, as the soldiers dragged her on the shuttle all she could do was shake. Whether for fear or the cold, she couldn't tell.

Cass shook her head, there was no point in thinking about the past, this is her home now and the General takes care of her. The door bangs open at the top of the other staircase and Cass can feel the hairs stand up on her arm. The Supreme Leader always made her feel so nervous. Not that she spent a lot of time around him, but still the General said he is a dangerous individual and Cass is to avoid him at all time. Cass didn't want him coming down here, this was supposed to be a place for herself and her new roommate to rest and enjoy free time when not needed. The General himself had only ever come down a handful of times.

The first time she met the Supreme Leader was just after she signed her second contact. Oh, the General had been so happy that she agreed to stay with him, even after she told him about the error on the contact. She should have just stayed quiet, but she noticed that her birth date was wrong, not the date just the year. It would seem her father hadn't been honest when he filled out the forms and said she was two years older than she had actually was. The General was so upset when she told him she had only just turned 18. He went on and on about how he didn't want someone that young, apologizing over and over before he asked her to return to her room because he needed time to think. Cass was so upset, she thought the General was going to send her away for being too young, oh how she cried, but the next day the General had bought her a new dress and told her that he was going to take her to his favorite spot on the ship as a thank you for signing the new contract-- as if nothing had even happened.

Cass remembers standing on the bridge looking out the giant window thinking no wonder this is the General's favorite spot, it was beautiful and it was then that she met the Supreme Leader for the first time. The General pulled her close as the extremely tall and scary looking masked man approached them.