As the gates of the white mansion, Lilia's 'Cold Palace', opened and the silence in the car grew even more intolerable than usual , Lilia thought back to when she had been kidnapped, the incident that had caused her to acknowledge that her parents were scumbags. The day when her horizons broadened more than she could've expected.
She had just closed from school, waiting for the driver, Bernard, to come pick her up. As at then,she had told herself that her parents were tired out after doing some imaginary work to come pick her up and that they just happened to be there doing nothing every single time she got home. She'd watch longingly as some parents picked up their children.Lord knows the number of excuses she used to justify their actions, when the perpetrators themselves didn't even try justifying themselves. They just didn't care.
Either way, 10 year old Lilia waited, and waited. Uncle Ben, as she privately called him, wasn't this late,she had thought. But it wasn't Uncle Ben who had picked her up,it was some other person completely. A servant she had never seen before,in a rather opulent Jeep.
He had rolled down the windows, and said with a fake smile."Come on Lilia. I'm here to pick you up." The security guard had left figuring that Lilia was old enough to take of herself hence there wasn't anyone around she could rely on for help.
"I don't know you", she had said cautiously, already acquainted with various kidnapping stories that went along these lines. She was the last pupil in school, which made it a prime moment for a kidnapping. Her parents wouldn't like that, she had thought. Surely, they'd panic and worry about her and - she drew her mind off it before the idea of a kidnapping got appealing.
The smile dropped off his face, and he got out of the car. Lilia,sensing danger, backed away and tried running from him,only for the man to tug her hair backwards. She winced in pain, her pain tolerance already high back then, and hit his wrist as hard as she could in retaliation. A sickening crack was heard.
"You little...", the kidnapper muttered, his now broken hand hanging loosely, his eyes dark with pain and rage. And weirdest of all, his hand realigned and healed with a snap like some unread creature. It was a freakish sight.
Resisting the urge to freeze in shock, Lilia ran from him to a house nearby. This wouldn't have happened if they'd just pick her up from school. What on earth did they do at home that they finished with just enough time to look idle by the time she got there? She could hear the crunch of his feet as he chased after her, but she was ahead of him, her feet moving in strides too fast for a girl her age.
The main door of the house was locked, but her mind was on the telephone she would find in the house than any other help. She shook the door anxiously as she looked behind her, wondering if she should just try another house. She could feel her palms heating up, and she had assumed it was her anxiety, but the door suddenly pushed open. She ran in without any considerations and got to the nearest telephone and was dialling 911 when someone came downstairs.
"How on earth did you- what happened to you?" An anxious female voice sounded. Lilia looked up to see the school principal, Miss Smith. The woman lived near the school, Lilia questioned in her mind. But she didn't have time to voice out her questions, because the kidnapper just barged in, his expression even more livid and his nose flared as he panted for breath.
"I'm going to kill you, you..." he managed to get out before the principal knocked him out. With a snap of her fingers. No seriously, he just walked in and she went all Thanos and snapped him into sleep. He crumpled onto the ground, and she looked calmly at Lilia. Lilia looked at the man in the floor, then turned back to Miss Smith, eyes widened in shock. What has my life turned into, she had thought.
"Which kind are you?" she asked to Lilia's confusion. Her mixed astonishment and bemusement must've been visible in her expression,because the principal joined it with, "You really have no idea?"
Lilia shook her head,though she wasn't really sure what she was saying no to. Miss Smith shook her head sadly and said gently, "let's get you home,why don't we?" On the way out, Lilia had noted a weird burning smell around the door,but she hadn't really paid attention to it.
On their walk to Lilia's home, she recounted the story of how she had gotten herself into that situation. Miss Smith grew more and more grim as Lilia's story continued. The people passing by seemed a little surpised to see them walking together, with one woman raising a questioning brow at Miss Smith. "And you have no idea which species of mythical creature you are?"
"No. And also, mythical creatures?" Lily repeated.
Miss Smith gave her a sidelong glance. "Are you telling me that you haven't noticed anything at all peculiar about this town? Like how some of your classmates wrap themselves up and sit in a different enclosed classroom?"
"Yes,but isn't it because they're albinos?"
Miss Smith chuckled good-naturedly. "That's the impression, but keep in mind that sometimes that's what others *want* you to assume. Don't we already do that as living beings? This is just an extension." Lilia agreed with that wholeheartedly; she'd seen her parents do it often enough. But mythical creatures was stretching it.
Sensing her unbelief,Miss Smith muttered something under her breathe. A wave of power flew from where she stood, and time froze around the two of them. The people, animals stopped in their places, but the wind was blowing normally.
This feels like a fantasy novel, Lilia thought in awe. And she was apart of it.But, "How come the wind is still blowing?"
"That's your question? Not how I did it or if you can do it too?" Miss Smith asked surpisedly. "Nature is an aspect one can only directly control. She can't really be a victim of another force, she's the origin of them all."
She clapped and time began moving again. "These people think their lives are going on as usual, without even the slightest realization that they've been stolen from." Lily wondered the number of times she'd been a victim of such a spell, and of course why Miss Smith could do what she did.
"Is it because you're a witch or there's another reason?" Lily asked.
Miss Smith smiled knowingly."I can pull off a spell this powerful because I'm the head of my coven and my mother was a devotee of Hecate, so she blessed me."
"So the Greek gods exist?" Lily asked excitedly, her Percy Jackson fantasies coming to life. Could Camp Half-Blood actually exist? Should she fly to USA? Wait, why was she assuming her parents would even let her,she thought downheartedly.
"Of course they do, as well as the rest. They exist as much as we so-called mythical creatures do. The point is, we all have some divine source of power, unless you're a vampire; there's really no explaining those people. Your family is a bit of an enigma since we don't know what they are, what you all are. So we've been cautiously keeping our distance.
"Your parents should know how you have the power you do.Maybe. I don't really know what you are. Or them for that matter, there's something about them..." she paused thoughtfully. "But we'll find out soon" , Miss Smith said as they drew closer to Lily's parent's house. "But I'm especially curious which divinity gives you the power to do what you did to my lock." Lily frowned in confusion. What did she... oh. *Oh*, she thought, looking down at her hands.
They knocked on the door, and when the doorman opened the door, and looked surprised when he saw Lilia. Surprise, but no relief, Lilia had noted. But what did it imply, she thought with a sense of foreboding.
He led them in, to see her parents having a rather lavish dinner at the table, even for them. You could almost here the record scratch as they both snapped their heads to see their daughter.
"What are you doing here?" James, usually the uninvolved one, had asked. 'What are you doing here', what an interesting question, Lilia had thought, feeling a numbing coldness wash over her. So many implications she wasn't sure she wanted to go into.
"I was almost kidnapped", she said simply, still hoping somewhere in the back of her mind that it would draw a better response. Hoping that they'd actually care for once, hoping that they'd just tell her something,even a white lie, something to keep her faith in them going.
"Almost", Susana said in an almost regretful tone, and left the issue at that. And with that, Lilia's faith was squished. Lilia looked at their features his black hair and her blonde, and thought of her own, and she finally accepted the truth she had been trying to avoid. There was no way she was related to these two. And yet she felt lighter, like a burden was taken off her. And there was some other feeling ...relief? Yes, relief, though she couldn't tell why.
"That school is obviously not secure enough. You may as well stop going completely", Susana continued whilst she played with her food,as if she had lost her appetite.
"No,I want to keep going", Lilia had said firmly. She needed a way to get away from them for good of course, and running away would just make everything needlessly complicated. She could apply for some scholarship and just leave them behind or something.
"Mrs. Wilde, a child's-"
"This has nothing to do with you", James had snapped at Miss Smith. "She isn't coming back,that's final."
Miss Smith looked at Lilia, her eyes asking if she wanted to stay. In that instant, Lilia had the greatest feeling that if she offered any sort of sign, this woman would've dealt with her parents as she had the kidnapper and brought her away. It woukd be like that old Matilda movie.She let herself savour the thought of such a future, reminded that not all people were like her parents.I'm staying with them, she signed to her principal. Former principal now, she thought sadly.
Miss Smith nodded at her, and with a final cursive glance at her parents, left the house.
Lilia looked at her parents, her nonchalance clear in her eyes. "I want a credit card and a personal bank account. Replenished very month", she said like she had every right to.
Susana narrowed her eyes."And what do you need it for?"
"Would you prefer i came to you for every doll house, shoe,bicycle and movie i wanted to buy?" Lilia retorted.
"He should've gotten there quicker", James muttered as he took out his phone, unconsciously revealing them as guilty parties. Lilia smiled coldly in reply. If they knew me any better,they wouldn't think I would use the money on that, she thought calmly.
"And it's not like you can't afford it. Or am I wrong?" she asked provocatively. Even then she knew that they couldn't stand any accusations of them not being able to afford something. Almost made her want to say they couldn't afford being good parents to her, but she knew that that was the last thing on their minds.
"You'll have your stupid bank account. Now budge off", James said vexedly as he angrily stabbed at his dinner. Lilia went upstairs to her room, the beginnings of her scheme to establish herself away from her parents already blossoming in her mind.
The present day Lilia looked at her hands, long and self-manicured, and gave into the urge to summon that heat that usually calmed her down whenever she thought too hard about her parents. You either laugh off your hurt or show indifference, but she prefered having her head in the clouds, it was a perfect blend of both. And also made for the best sneak attack.
Slowly,the heat built up in her palms as she walked towards the mansion's elegant yet unfeeling doors. Susana made a beeline towards her husband and almost on cue, they began their usual stealthiness. What are these two always hiding, Lily thought with narrowed eyes. She still hadn't been able to find out after so many years.
"I'll have my dinner upstairs", she said perfunctorily. As expected, they ignored her, and their continued mutterings sounded behind her. Now why did she never decide to figure out what they were so intent on hiding, Lilia wondered again. The book warmed up in her pocket again,which Lilia was once again ignorant to. She subconsciously put her hand on the handrail,leaving a scorched hand mark on the wood when she remembered not to. The servants are going to hate that,she thought with a twinge of guilt and continued upstairs.
A nice meal in the privacy of her room and hot bath later,Lilia lay on white bedsheets, a bowl full of peanuts beside her on her bed. Metal frame, bought in Amazon, she remembered.She remembered how long it had taken to get here, and how many times she had to ask her parents to tell the servants to help her assemble it,before she did it herself out of exasperation since she was clearly a powerless figure in the house. The servants perform the most basic of services,but otherwise don't give a fuck about her. Clearly, they see no point in serving someone who's out of favour with the masters of the house. Not that she'd ever *been* in their good books.
The Wilde's way of parenting was impersonal. They give her an allowance, and she spends it on what she wants. When she was younger, the money was regulated by the nanny, but when she was finally sacked(age 7), and no replacement seemed to be coming in,Lilia started doing it herself. She had assumed the new one was just late, but it was now clear that there was no replacement. It was a nicely executed cut off from the rest of the human race by her parents. And now she fangirls over novel boys and glances at the cute boys in Chanville, even though she knows the town was wary of them. Normal teenager stuff, only she was too paranoid for online friends. Last thing she needs in a gaslighting scammer too.
Lilia looked out her window, as usual seeing the black cat that had been coming around ever since the day she was made to quit school. She had known instantly this was Miss Smith's way of checking up on her, which started Lilia's quest of finding 'which kind' she was,though nothing really seemed to fit.
The cat blinked his glowing green eyes at her, and Lilia raised up her hand in a thumbs up at it, and as usual gave it some leftover fish. The first time it had come around,she had thought it was an Animagus sort of thing, but then upon entering her room the cat didn't turn into Miss Smith or anything, which successfully dampened her Potterhead hopes. "Hogwarts is 6 years late", she muttered as she fed the cat. Speaking of which... she thought as she drew out the little book she had 'coaxed' out of the man at the store.
The cat blinked again upon seeing the book, and got out of the window without so much as a caring lick on her finger. Cats, Lilia thought as she shook her head lovingly. She'd get one after moving away.
She looked at the book's cover,then opened it up. The pages remained blank, even when she adjusted it to other lighting. Well,this was pointless, she thought, but then had the most interesting thought. She looked at her finger, instantly reminded of system webnovels and how those plots usually began. What if the book was of that kind, she wondered.
She looked around for something sharp, then spotted a pin laying on her table. Sleeping beauty time,she thought as she pricked her finger and let the blood drip onto the book. She closed her eyes, waiting for a mechanical/childish voice to say,"Contract established" or some other cliché shid. After hearing nothing, she opened her eyes and looked down at the book. Okay, now it was glowing faintly, so did it need more blood or was it slowly waking up or what? Where is the drama? Had she been reading too much? Or was she a little to accepting of fantasies?
"What on earth are you doing?" Lilia muttered to herself. As if responding, golden ink started appearing n the pages, forming words,then a sentence.
*Taking you where you need to go*, it said. Then suddenly, a great sense of fatigue settled on Lilia.Her eyes felt heavy, and the light seemed soft to her. She was so tired, she needed a good nap. A nice, long nap on her soft, cosy Amazon bed. Dang, daydreaming and scheming and putting on facades was exhausting. And all these worries would go away once she closes her eyes, just for a second. She needs sleep...sleep.
Before Lilia succumbed to the Hypnos' charms, her last conscious thought was, 'this really *is* Sleeping beauty time'