When the Blade Calls (Open Novella Contest)

Chapter 2:

Mira had come back after picking flowers looking extremely ill. The next day, she had set the laundry on fire with her bare hands while hanging the clothes with her mother. Mira had remembered letting out the ear-piercing shriek that didn't sound as though it had escaped from her very own lips. The next thing she knew, her mother had grabbed the stick used for the laundry and pointed it accusingly towards her, her voice fearful, "Leave this house. You are not my daughter. Why have they replaced you with a Monster?"

Mira's eyes widened. Her mother advanced with the stick threateningly, the fear in her face mingled with disgust. In her eyes, the girl that trembled before her was not Mira. She was a creature beyond a human, with a soul twisted by otherworldly creatures, undefinable, unwanted. No, Mira was lost forever, and the horrid creature in front of her had to be banished from the village. Such was the law in this village. "Leave!"

Mira's mother was soon joined by her father, pointing his blade at her from a few feet away. By now, the commotion had attracted the rest of the village, who now gathered around Daisy's family at a safe distance.

"The girl's been cursed..."

"Must have strayed too far into the forest the day before..."

"Such a shame, she was sweet girl, but what must be done must be done"

"We have no choice, the village can't keep a monsters who will burn our houses in our sleep"

Whispers crept into Mira's ear as her heart started to beat erratically. She'd seen the fate of all the other girls before her. It was leave or be heartlessly killed by one's own family. But where would she go?

Mira's father cautiously approached her, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. "Don't drag this, creature, or the blade will be the last thing you see. Mira's lip quivered and the words spilled out of her in a rush. "I only stepped into the ring! They told me nothing would happen. Please, Father! Don't do this! " She stared pleadingly into her mother's eyes, then her father's. The former looked back at her in fear, in the latter she saw a glimpse of sadness, which hardened into something colder. Harshly, he spat, "The cursed have no place in our village. Return to the forest to those who did this to my daughter or be killed."

    Tears were now spilling out. "But...but I am your daughter. I promise I won't hurt you, please just let me stay..." Again, her pleas fell on deaf ears. Villagers eyed the tiny sparks that danced at her fingertips, her red-hot palms that occasionally flared like the embers of a stove, and the blackened patches of her dress. No one saw the desperate little girl who had merely obliged to a merry dance with a fairy and had suffered all the more for it. Mira's father took another step forward, his stare unwavering. Mira took one step back, gazing at her parents for the last time, before running into the forest.