Letter for Poppy

*This fanfic is underneath my folder titled “Shadow House fanfics”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewforum.php?f=403. This is my fanfic AU of the Dan Poblocki book series “Shadow House”. They are kids in the books but this AU takes place when the characters are adults. Valerian is my OC. Anyway, enjoy!*

Poppy’s eyes stirred open as the morning sun hit her face. She smiled. She liked the way the sun looked in her pink-painted room, the way it glittered on her white lace curtains. She didn’t have a lot of pretty things as a child, so she made sure to keep them close to her as an adult.

She sat up from bed and looked at the white mirror across from her. Yes, she heard stories that warned others not to put mirrors across from beds, but she wanted to greet Connie first thing in the morning whenever she woke up.

The mirror only showed her reflection. She called out for Connie, but no one answered.

Huh. Maybe Connie didn’t feel like coming. It was always a bit lonely when Connie wasn’t around, but Poppy still had Valerian in the spare room. She just had to wake him up.

She got up from bed and smoothed out the crinkles in her nightgown, walking up to her window to part the lace curtains-

Her heart stopped. Perched on the windowsill was a neat white envelope with a red wax seal, the address reading: “Larkspur House”. The only time she got that envelope was when she was twelve, but there was no way it was on her windowsill, no way it came back to her at twenty-one…

With a shaking hand, she opened the envelope and mentally read its contents:

“My dearest Poppy,

Do you think that I have forgotten you? Certainly not! I reached out to you many years ago, but you ran away from me! You ran from my love, my company.

I am not mad at you. Of course you’d be afraid. You’ve never felt the love of your real family before, so my love must come as a bit of a shock to you.

It’s quite alright. My doors are still open. They are still waiting for you. I’m still waiting for you. I know you’re not too old for treats and games, because you are not like them. You’re better than them. You always have been. That’s why you are an actress. You can put on a performance like no one else can. You can play dress-up and still be a leader.

You are extraordinary, Poppy Caldwell. Come home.

With love,

Your Great Aunt Delphie.”

It was signed by her “Great Aunt Delphinia” or as the letter said, her “Great Aunt Delphie”. That was what it called itself last time. But it was no family. It did not love her. The only thing that Larkspur House wanted was to eat her, to trap her within its weathered, fallen-from-grace walls.

The “treats and games” were all traps, designed to keep kids dead and forgotten, trapped forever. Poppy had escaped, along with Azumi and Dash. She did not want to think about what happened to Marcus and Dylan.

But that was just it. The house only took kids. Why would it send her a letter as an adult?

Poppy tried to tear the letter into pieces. It did not break. She tried again, still nothing. It wasn’t laminated or any kind of special paper. Just yellowed parchment, held together by magic.

She opened the window and threw it outside, letting the wind cast it away. As much as her heart raced, there was really no reason to panic. She wasn’t a naive child anymore. She didn’t have to answer Larkspur’s call. She could ignore it and then the house would forget about her.

Poppy almost fully believed it, but the way that piece of paper flickered in the wind, like it was taunting her…it was hard to do so.