Young Writers Society

Lydia

"Okay, Miss Willow." Lydia said apologetically and she walked out of Raven's dark room so that there was more space for Miss Willow to work. She saw María and Nero sitting together in silence so she walked over and sat next to María and keeping away from Nero. She hated boys and she didn't really want to talk with this one. He seemed kind of shady after all but that didn't mean that she wasn't impolite.
"Hey you two." She smiled a little, "Sorry that y'all had to come at such a bad time. This doesn't happen too often but I'm sure this is really weird for you." She paused and then continued, "My name is Lydia. I would say that I'd show y'all around but I think we should stay here incase Miss Willow needs our help. I can show y'all around after Raven's fixed." She gave another smile and looked between the two new people.

María

María nodded politely. "Hola, I'm María."

She stared at the wall again, wishing she could fade and not have to face her social awkwardness.

Then again, this was a place for strange children. No one would blame her. At least, she wouldn't have to be seen by them.

As she faded again, Lydia gasped. "Oh!"

"Sorry," said María, staring down at her faint hands. "I just feel more comfortable like this."

Raven
Raven was still living in that horrible memory. Suddenly, she could feel a tether around the middle of her chest, pulling her back to reality. It pulled gently at first, then it gave a sharp tug. She was flying back and then... SNAP! She sat up with a sharp breath in her room, Miss Willow and an odd assortment of peculiars.

"Raven, dear," said Miss Willow, softly, "Are you alright?" Raven looked around the room and her eyes fell on the shape shifter. Her eyes filled with horror and she screamed.

"No!" she shrieked, pointing to the shape shifter, "No not him! Not again!" Miss Willow stood up and took the shape shifters arm.

"I need to get him out," she said, "Lydia, calm her down and put her to bed."

Nero Sapienti:

Miss Willow suddenly grabbed him by the arm. "Hey!" he protested, slapping her hand away. "I'm in the middle of having a conversation here. And I don't care if you're the one who owns this place - I'm not going to respect you or anyone else here if they don't the basics of being polite."

Nero glared at the woman. When he gave her a moment to speak and she didn't respond, his attention turned to the girl. He got to his feet and walked over to her. "Look, kid," he growled. "I don't know how you know it's me. I don't know why you're here. Who cares if you're an orphan?!"

His temper exploded. It had been pent up for far too long. "You keep acting like the whole world revolves around you! Like this place is the setting of your own little sob story! The rest of us aren't living a comedy! I don't care if you're a little kid! When I was your age, I had been locked in my room for years! When I was your age, I could barely sleep at night because my mother would hit my back a hundred times before leaving me in darkness! When I was your age, I was convinced I was a demon! Even now, I still think my powers are a curse given to me!"

He didn't know why he did what he did next. Maybe it was because he wanted to drive his point home. Maybe it was because he wanted to give her a taste of what he had gone through. Maybe it was because he really was a demon, like his mother had told him for his entire life.

He slapped the little girl across the face. She stared up at him in shock, her small hands slowly raising to touch her face, which was already turning red from his slap.

The anger faded. The realization that he had slapped a child came crashing down on him. He held his hands up in front of his face, his eyes wide as he stared at them in horror.

He tried to hide his guilt by saying, "My mother told me I was a monster. I don't need a creepy little girl to be telling me that too."

But, unlike when he had pretended to be an orphan, the tears that slid down his face were real.

María

María was very glad she had re-faded. She stood in a corner, trying to stay out of the way.

She told herself how lucky she was to have something as . . . harmless as fading and . . . No, must keep that one to myself. No one would trust me otherwise.

Her heart went out to Nero, despite him being a stranger still. His own mother had called him a monster.

María touched her face to find that it was wet.

You were lucky, María Teresa Romero Sánchez. At--at least you were able to hide from them. It saved you.

But she was still reminded of their faces when they saw who she truly was. And from that day on, she was alone.

"No es su culpa," she whispered, slipping into Spanish. After all, she was sure no one was paying any attention to her. In fact, they couldn't even see her. "Usted es una persona como todo el mundo. Seré su amiga."

There, she decided that she would be kind to him, even if no one else did.

Miss Willow
"Young man!" she snapped, "How extremely rude! You don't understand what Raven has been through! Her parents were tortured and killed in front of her by shape shifters and she was incapacitated in between dimensions for hundreds of years until I found her and released her! I can't believe..." Her voice faded and she took a deep breath.

"Go," she said to the girl and boy, "I shall speak with you later."

Lydia

"Get back!" Lydia exclaimed as Nero withdrew his hand from Raven's face. She stood between the two but didn't scold or even get mad at Nero. She understood him. She had lived on the streets since she was two because her mother had died when she was young. Her father had abandoned her mother when he found out she was pregnant, not wanting to have children. Lydia had begged for food until she was ten and that's when Miss Willow rescued her. She knew how this young man felt and she understood that he needed someone to take his frustration out on. But she still shouldn't hit a girl, let alone a child.
She just stood, tense, in between Raven and Nero.

Nero Sapienti:

He didn't bother to wipe his tears as he turned and glared at Miss Willow. "How rude," he mockingly repeated, doing his best impression of her voice he could, "says the woman who doesn't know what manners are herself. 'How rude!' she cries out when we've all been through the same freaking thing. We might have not had our parents killed in front of our eyes, but we've all lost things too!"

He gestured at the others in the room.

"María, Lydia, and that little girl have probably lost their families too! We're in an orphanage, not a daycare! So her parents died. Who cares?! I never knew my father! My mother hated me! She's always had people who loved her! I HAD NO ONE!"

He spun around to face the creepy girl, the one who was older than he could have ever guessed. "You've had hundreds of years to get over their deaths. I haven't. I've had fifteen pitiful years to come to terms with the fact that no one loves. That no one will ever care for me. That I'm not normal. And who cares if shapeshifters killed your family? You don't see me screaming everytime I see a woman my mother's age!"

He turned his back to her and stormed over to the door. "If this is how things work here, I don't think you'll find me hanging around too much longer."

Raven
Raven's eyes flew open and she stood up. She put her hand out and lifted the shape shifter boy up by his throat, using her telekinesis powers. The ground around her began to erupt with skeletons, crawling out of the depths of the underworld.

"Never," she said, her voice steady, "Insult. Miss. Willow. In. Front. Of. Me." Chairs began to move off the floor and Raven's eye's flashed.

"Interesting, isn't it?" she said softly to him, "how your life is hanging in the balance by an eight year old girl." She began to circle him.

"I may not be the most kindly girl," she said, "but I'm not afraid. No matter how much you try to scare me. I've experienced the torture of the ones I love. I've experienced their death. They've even tried to kill me because they thought I was a spider. You don't understand anything, shapeshifter." The boy's eyes were panicked and he gasped for air. Raven turned to everyone else in the room, who were looking at her in horror.

"This is why I don't have friends!" she shouted at them, "Because they always think I'm weak. They think I hate everything. Well guess what. I do. I hate everything. And it's all because of what people think of me." The skeletons started clawing at Raven's dress, ripping it to shreds and scratching at her legs. She tilted her head to the sky and shouted to the heavens;

"Take me!" she screamed, "Punish me if you do wish!"

María

"STOP! Please put him down!"

María didn't even realize that she had been the one who cried out until everyone turned to her corner.

Raven's dark, cold eyes drilled into her.

María reappeared, swallowing nervously. "P-please, put him down for now. T-talk to me instead."

Did she really just say that? And why wasn't Señorita Willow doing anything to help Nero? Weren't all children supposed to be treated equally here?

"Why should I?" A sadistic smile spread across Raven's face. "He's just like that filth that killed my parents. And what would you know? You think you're such a great mediator, don't you? Well, you're not. I've seen so much pain and suffering." Her voiced dripped with hate. "No one has ever suffered as much as me. And this shapeshifter thinks that he deserves pity when he hasn't even suffered compared to me!"

How immature, thought María, an unusual wave of anger slashing through her, for someone who is supposedly hundreds of years old. How dare she take other people's lives so lightly when she herself has known how painful the loss of life is?

María could feel herself shaking. "Y-you do not have to listen to me, that I know. B-but everyone here has suffered, w-whether something small or big. And that's the reason why I'm here. Why Nero's here. And . . . why you're here."

"And?" Raven retorted. "If you don't have anything good to say, Funny Accent Girl, you can join that boy." She smirked maliciously.

"I--I just . . . You're not alone. You have Miss Willow. She--she even defended you against Nero. At--at least you have someone who cares about you. Things don't have to be like this."

"That's enough!" snapped Raven. "You are a fool. All of you are fools!"

María felt an invisible hand wind around her throat, and her feet left the ground. Raven shrieked like a banshee.

The one time María even tried to stand up for another person, she failed miserably. She hadn't even had the courage before to defend her parents. So why would she have ever believed she could face a little girl?

"Señorita Willow!" María choked with what breath she had. "You saved . . . before. Why . . . no help?"

Would she just stand by and watch two people get murdered?

María's vision had spots in it as she tried to see how Nero was.

"Mamá, Papá," she whispered with her last breath, and the world went black.

Lo siento.

Miss Willow
"RAVEN!" Miss Willow shouted, "PUT THEM DOWN AT ONCE!" Raven's eyes flashed, but she did as Miss Willow said.

"Bring them to the infirmary," she sighed, "I'll have a talk with Raven."

Ollie
Ollie was just enjoying herself in the infirmary (the peace and quiet was very relaxing) when Lydia and Ester came running in.

"Help!" said Lydia, "We have two seriously injured people!" Ollie stood up, her long frame unfolding.

"I'm coming," she said, "Take me to them." Ester and Lydia grabbed her hands and ran her to where two newcomers were lying. Ollie bent down over them and studied them.

"Its not fatal," she said, "But there will be bruises. Make room." Ollie started with the girl. Her hands started to glow and she put them on the girl's neck. She coughed and opened her eyes. Before the girl had a chance to say anything, Ollie put a finger to her lips.

"Rest, dear, " she said, "You won't be able to talk for a little bit." Ollie moved on to the boy. She repeated the same ritual until he coughed and opened his eyes. Ollie put a finger to her lips and made a rising motion with her hands.

"Oh servants of the earth," she said under her breath, "Raise these two to help them walk." Vines began to sprout from the floor tiles and they made their way under them and lifted them up.

"Come, my friends," said Ollie, smiling kindly at them, "I shall take care of you here."

Lydia

She watched in shock, her face pale at everything that had just happened. She felt numb with shock and she was very scared but she tried not to show it.

Ollie
Ollie glanced over at Lydia and saw that she was as white as a sheet.

"Oh me lassie," she said to her, "Come. Sit and tell me what happened."

Ollie
When poor Lydia didn't reply, she looked over at the two newcomers again. They had their eyes closed and they were soaking in her healing. Breathe, dearies. It'll be over soon. She turned her focus up to where they's come from. She could faintly hear Miss Willow and Raven talking. Poor dear, she sympathized, she's been through a lot. She then looked down at her current patients. They all have...