Where Shadows Lie (Once Upon A Time)

London, late nineteenth century.

Wendy ran in the front door, her eyes scannning the newspaper in her hands. She frowned. Disappearances were happening all over London, once every year, for the last seven years. And nobody knew why. Last night had been one of those times. Ten boys, it read. The youngest fourteen. It really was odd. How could no one put a stop to this?
It's utterly preposterous, she thought.

She brought the paper into the drawing room, a florid testament of her family's wealth and status. It was here where her parents were seated, drinking their tea out of fine bone china. The room was high-ceilinged and rectangular, and sumptuously decorated with patterned wallpaper featuring oriental flowers and birds. A grand piano stood in the corner, a large chandelier hung from the decorative ceiling, and grand, curtain-draped victorian windows looked out onto the busy street. Wendy set the paper on the table, sat down on an armchair, and poured herself a cup of tea.

"Minerva can do that.", her father said.

"I like to read the news first.", said Wendy. She took a sip of tea, then helped herself to a scone. Her head tilted to the side. "Is china actually made out of bones?", she asked.

"What?", said Mr. Darling, looking at Wendy as if she had too heads.

"Fine bone china? Is it actually made out of bones? Given the name." Wendy shrugged.

"Why would you wonder about such a thing?", her mother asked, before taking a sip of tea.

"I don't know. Just curious, I suppose. It says in the Bible. . ."

"Wendy! Please, give us a break.", said her mother tiredly.

"Sorry." Wendy often went on like this. She could talk about how the paintings on the ceiling compared to the Cistine Chapel one minute, and how God invented the world in six days the next, which, she didn't think was possible. Wendy's gaze drifted over to the bookshelf on the wall. She took out an encyclopedia, and began leafing through it.

Her father studied the newspaper. "There's been another one.", he said. His brow furrowed. "More boys have gone missing again. I wouldn't be surprised if the sufraggettes were behind all this, those wild women." He shook his head. "What's this world coming to?"

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Some time later, Wendy sat on the windowsill in her room, flashlight held aloft as she read, well into the night. As her eyes began to droop, she switched it off, blinked a few times, and placed the book (Pride and Predidice) on her bedside locker. She stared up at the moon-lit sky, her mind awander. She could always get lost in the clouds of her imagination. And, because she read so much, she could see a perspective of the world that her parents were blind to.

About half an hour ago, she had descended down the stairs, to get a drink of water, when she overheard her parents arguing. She sat down on the stairs, where, if they came down the hall, they wouldn't see her. Even through the shut door, she listened.
"It's the best thing for her." It was her father. "She will marry him. He's the best suitor in England."

Oh, not this again, thought Wendy. She was to be engaged to an Arnold Cartwright, the stuck-up son of a rich nobleman. Wendy hated him, and rightly so. It was not a love match, but a business transaction, if nothing else.

"Isn't she a little young yet?", said her mother in a hushed tone. "Maybe leave it for a few more years."

"Plenty of girls are married well younger than she.", said Mr. Darling.

"But she hasn't become a proper lady, yet. There's still so much she needs to learn.", Mrs. Darling urged.

"I agree with you there. She's always reading those old books. They won't do her any good."

Wendy climbed back up the stairs, and a big, fat tear slid down her cheek.

She heard one of her parents sigh. "Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to find someone wild enough to run away with them."

Now, Wendy's eyes fell onto the two other empty beds in the room. The room that was once the nursery where she, and her brothers John and Michael used to sleep. Now, her brothers were at boarding school. How she missed them. Why couldn't she go to school too? Instead of being married off?
It's because I'm a girl, she thought. She sighed. But that's the way the world was, and she didn't think that was going to change anytime soon. She gazed longingly at the bookshelf. John and Michael used to love her stories. And now, while she wasn't reading them, she wrote stories to share with them when they returned. She spotted an old favourite, wegged in between the books. Alice in Wonderlamd was a character she could always relate to. Sometimes to a fault. Lost, and mad, too. How she longed to fall down the rabbit hole, to escape the insanity they call reality.

Wendy looked up at the moon, and wondered if someone, somewhere, was looking at it too.

Her eyes narrowed. For a second, she thought it was as if the light of the moon blinked out, just for an instant. Evanescent. As if something had flown over it, momentarily blocking it from view. There. A black shape glided down from the sky. She must be dreaming. Wendy closed her eyes, and opened them again. Then she pinched herself. The black shadow was still there. Was it getting closer? Yes, it was. Wendy pressed her hands against the window panes. It was the shadow of a person. And it was flying. . . down towards her! She jumped back, just as the window flew open. A great gust of wind blew into the room. She screamed. But somehow, she knew, that nobody outside the room could hear her. It was like. . . magic. The shadow slithered in the window. Wendy stood, frozen stiff, as the shadow levitated in the middle of her room, and stared at her. She knew it was looking at her. She backed against the wall. Was it a ghost? A demon? Wendy couldn't think clearly. Then, the shadow reached out a hand, and grabbed her by the arm, and began to drag her out the window.
"No! Stop! Please!" Wendy fought and twisted frantically, but the shadow's grip held.
She tried to hold on to the window, but the shadow was too strong. She was dagged out the window, and up, into the air, towards a star.