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The little girl’s vivid pink hair was stark amidst the silent black void.
She shivered. It felt like the darkness was trying to touch her.
“Help me.”
Trying to grab her.
“Please!”
Trying to smother her.
“I can’t stop it! I’m too… too… sm- ”
Tears welled within her crimson eyes as she tried and failed to muster up the last word.
“Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber!”
Blinding white light ignited the darkness. In an instant, the surroundings had changed into a bright, beautiful city of glittering crystal spires. As she caught her breath, the little girl was suddenly swept up in lavender fabric and strong arms. She looked up and gazed into a pair of sapphire eyes behind a white mask.
“Papa!”
She wrapped her hands around his neck as he tucked her into the comforting confines of his cape. He gave her a warm smile that made her insides fizz and burst with delight, and when he set her down, she was mesmerised by the way his dark hair fell forwards.
He grasped her hand, and together they walked through the sparkling streets. Many of the gentlemen they passed greeted them with a friendly wave, whilst many of the women shot blushing smiles at her Papa. However, the little girl couldn’t help but notice, every so often, all of them would shoot her a quick glance. It lasted for less than a second, but she didn’t like the look in their eyes. It made her feel embarrassed, judged, like she didn’t belong here, and certainly not with Papa.
Finally, they arrived at the palace, but the moment their feet crossed the threshold, they were once again cast into darkness. She tightened her grip on her father's hand and moved closer to his side, until eight pinpricks of light ignited in the shape of a small circle.
“Happy birthday!”
The darkness lifted, revealing several small children standing around a pink cake, two girls and two boys.
The little girl's face lit up brighter than the candles, and she released her father's hand to run over to the cake, promptly blowing out the flames.
“What did you wish for?” asked a girl with lime green hair.
“If I tell you, it won’t come true!” she replied, blushing.
“Here, this is for you.” A girl with violet hair handed her a wrapped package, tied up in a neat bow.
The little girl took the package and excitedly removed the ribbon and paper.
“Oh wow, what a beautiful dress!” She held the dress up to her chest, the flowing white fabric embroidered with golden ringlets around the bodice.
“Wait,” a confused frown began to cross her lips, “it’s too big for me.” Unable to hide her disappointment, she stared down the length of her own body, the dress falling far beyond her feet as if it were a blanket.
“That’s alright,” said the violet haired girl, “You’ll grow into it.”
The candles suddenly reignited, this time with nine flames flickering atop the cake.
“Happy birthday!”
The little girl’s brow furrowed as her confusion was compounded. But she cheerily blew out the candles all the same.
“What did you wish for?”
“Um… same as last year,” the little girl said hesitantly.
Another present was thrust before her, which she took with tentative hands and slowly unwrapped. It was a sparkling silver crown." “So pretty,” she whispered. However, when she placed it on her head it slipped down lopsidedly, obscuring one of her eyes. Her cheeks flushed with shame and embarrassment as she pushed it up straight and held it in position. Gulping, she tried to compose herself. “Um… I guess I’ll grow into this too.”
The candles reignited yet again. The little girl’s breath caught at the sight of her friends. They were taller now, towering over the girl by at least two feet. Accompanying them were other children, all of whom were small, as small as the little girl still was.
“Happy birthday!”
The little girl said nothing. She simply leaned in and, almost mechanically, blew the candles out again. She struggled more this time, but then again there were now sixteen candles.
When they were extinguished, her eye followed the wisps of smoke trailing up until she was looking directly at the older kids. Her breath rattled slightly as she averted her eyes hastily, unable to look at them for too long.
The next present was long, thin and so heavy that the little girl struggled to hold it. With much effort, she placed the gift gently upon the ground and began unwrapping it. After removing the last vestiges of paper and ribbon, the little girl gazed upon an alabaster rod that ended with a small orb enclosed within a crescent moon and topped by a tiny crown.
Spreading her legs a little and planting her feet, the little girl bent down and grasped the handle with both her hands. “It’s…too…heavy…” she grunted. “I’ll never be able to lift this.”
“Well…” said one of the girls, pointing, “ she can!”
The little girl looked up and saw a woman seated upon a crystal throne. She held the rod aloft as if it were lighter than air. Her slim, nubile body was garbed in a white dress, golden ringlets elegantly hugging her breasts beneath the bodice, the hem ending a little above her feet. A sparkling silver crown regally upon her head, nestled between two equally argent hair buns.
The cake reignited once again, now well over two dozen candles burning bright.
“Happy birthday!”
"The little girl tried to blow them out, but there were too many. The few she did manage to extinguish re-ignited immediately, accompanied by two more candles that sprouted up from the pink icing.
The ever growing blaze cast an eerie red-orange glow upon her friends, illuminating their sneers and toothy grins as they laughed and pointed at the girl and the raging inferno atop her small birthday cake.
They guffawed. They cackled. Then they began to change .
Their height increased again, and their hair elongated. The boys’ shoulders broadened out, dark stubble shadowing their square jaws and muscles developing upon their arms. The girls’ hips became curvier and sensuous, their lips fuller and alluring. Shorts, t-shirts and frilly party dresses were replaced with sharp suits and glamorous gowns.
Out of nowhere, more children appeared, undergoing the same metamorphasis. Once completed, they, like the candles, were joined by two more children and the cycle repeated itself.
The room was swiftly crowded with jeering adults and rapidly ageing children. Unable to support the weight nor withstand the heat from the continuously multiplying candles, the cake ultimately melted into a gooey mess.
The little girl fell to her knees and cried, covering her dirty face with her sticky, burnt hands.
“How undignified!”
“How unladylike! ”
“How unlike her!”
The little girl peered through her filthy fingers and found the party-goers kneeling at the foot of the throne. They were gazing upon the silver-haired woman with sheer reverence in their eyes.
The girl’s cries turned to sobs.
“Please stop crying, Princess.”
At the sound of the slightly high pitched voice, the girl wiped away some of her tears and turned around. She came face to face with a tuxedo clad hand puppet with a top hat and white mask. Within its ‘hands’ was a beautiful flower with scarlet petals.
“If you are sad, this rose will wilt.”
As the girl reached out to take the rose, the jeering voices and raging inferno behind her subsided. A faint smile began to crease her mouth.
“There. That’s much better,” said a deeper, more comforting voice.
Her gaze travelled up from the rose to the puppet, finally to the kneeling man dressed identically to the puppet, but with sparkling sapphire eyes behind his mask.
“Endymion…. Mamo-chan….” The new voice was soft and gentle, yet it chilled the little girl like winter wind through a graveyard.
Tuxedo Mask stood up.
The jeering increased in volume.
He stepped over the little girl.
The heat of the inferno abruptly returned.
Lovingly, he took the extended hand of the woman who once sat upon the throne but now stood tall and proud.
The little girl felt her heart stop beating altogether.
They drew closer together.
He enveloped her in his cape and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
His head lowered. Hers tilted up.
Their eyes closed in perfect unison before, finally, their lips met.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The little girl half ran, half tripped, in her haste to separate them, but was thrown back by an unseen force. She fell into the middle of the party, smothered in gooey cake and burning candles, the guests jeering all the louder at her. On her back, struggling to breathe, she looked over her chest, seeing a black boot print staining the front of her clothes. Raising her eyes higher she saw that the silver haired woman was now blonde and in place of the white dress she wore a stylized school uniform and red boots.
A bright light materialised above them. Through pained, squinted eyes, the little girl saw a beautiful silver teardrop sparkling above the kissing lovers. The illumination intensified, blinding the girl even more than the inferno she was caught up in.
Tears streaking down her face, the girl covered her head with her arms and curled into a foetal position, trying to wish away the crystal, the party, the lovers and everything else.
“Poor little rabbit.”
The voice was little more than a whisper.
“Life’s been so cruel to you hasn’t it.”
She felt cold again.
“No one has ever really loved you have they?”
She whimpered as a fresh round of tears broke free from her eyes.
“You can be loved, you know. You can have everything you ever wanted. Everything you ever deserved. ”
The girl’s tears slowed.
“... You can even have… him …”
Then halted altogether.
“… All you need to do is take my hand…”
Her vision cleared, and, despite the blinding light, the girl beheld a strange sight.
It was a tree. A massive tree half composed black bark and ebony crystal. From what she could observe, it had once had four branches, but three had been broken off. The remaining branch hung low, its foliage so thick, it gave the impression of a hood. The branch stretched out to her, sprouting twigs and reshaping itself into a ‘hand’. Shakily, she reached out herself and grasped it.
From the ‘wrist’ two more twigs sprouted, their tips glittering with tiny black stones. The twigs extended to either side of her head, and the little girl felt a small ‘bite’ upon her earlobes followed by a sudden tug.
Instantly, she felt something build within her core. But unlike the fizzing delight her father had once induced, this was slow, steady, rhythmic. And as it built, the light behind her seemed to fade.
She moved onto all fours then, a little unsteadily, stood up, feeling something cold and slightly sharp lightly graze over her shoulders. Tentatively she lifted her hand to her ears and felt the ebony earrings that now dangled from her lobes.
It was only then that she realised that the energy that had been building within her had radiated, reaching from her core throughout her entire body.
She felt a tingling sensation around her scalp then something soft and tickled down her back and pooled at her feet. She reached behind her and, with amazement, realised it was her own hair, albeit impossibly longer! However, as the seconds ticked by, the pink locks seemed to rise and unfurl from the untidy heap at her feet.
Her arms and legs began to tingle just as her scalp had a moment ago. Refocussing, she looked upon the gigantic tree. However, it didn’t seem to be quite as gigantic now. More strangely, the branch that had gifted her the earrings seemed to be somehow moving away from her, and yet not moving at all. Then a soft, slithering sensation trailed across her skin as ebony garments clothed her.
Finally, the very centre of her forehead burned hot and made her mouth crease into a frown. As the pain subsided, so too did the light, leaving her once again leaving the little girl in total darkness."
Except she wasn’t little anymore.
“...Welcome to our Clan…”
Black Lady smirked. “Thank you Wiseman.”