Work Text:
Chapter one.
In the woods, there lives a young woman, in a large abandoned and old mansion, hidden within the green.
In the woods, there lives a fledgling, in a white dress shirt, who likes pomegranates.
In the woods there lives a selkie, in a pure white coat, who swims in the lake.
In the woods there lives a very blunt Fae, who likes cacti and working on cars.
In the woods there lives a werewolf, who runs in the sunshine and swings on a swing set.
In the woods there lives a nymph, who enjoys s’mores and making sandwiches.
In the woods there lives a witch with a fear of the dark, and a love for science.
In the woods there lives a gargoyle, who likes makeup, and enjoys snow.
In the woods there lives a Kelpie who likes to splash in the lake and enjoys blueberry pie.
In the woods lives a HamaDryad who likes warm sweaters and roses.
In the woods there lives a poltergeist, who likes to play catch and embroidery floral designs into clothing.
The soft hair was swept off her shoulder, dark brown locks that waved in and out would bob up and down while she took every step, her foot tapping on the ground lightly as she did. Cloudy grey eyes looked towards a beat up, Building. The building was large, brown and beige with green accents, hidden in the dark green woods near a lake. It was a rather large mansion, dusty and old, but rusted up a bit.
Their, right in front of the building was a young woman of twenty two years of age, her dark oak hair falling just below her shoulders and her soft young face shape looking up towards the building's second floor, her Grey cloudy eyes scanning across the house she had worked so desperately on, her project, her mission.
She had worked two years on this place, cleaning, renovating, buying, negotiating, everything really. Her goal, everything she did the last two years was for this, this moment. Her Orphanage was finally opening, Finally a place for kids to go, a safe place, a safe haven, a home for those who have none.
Today it was officially open.
Of course she knew no one would come on the first day! I mean you can’t expect an orphaned child to just show up on your doorstep, so instead, she focused on herself and preparing. She would stock up food that didn’t go bad easily, she’d raise money, buy clothing and blankets, decorate a bit, garden,
She would write letters, and stock up on fire wood, continue cleaning, and read.
It was starting to get a little lonely really. A large old creaky mansion, she’d talk to herself sometimes you know, just about little things, like the old baker man, or the mail boy who would always rush off when he came to deliver the mail. He never wanted to talk with her which made her quite sad, but it was fine, she understood not everyone is a people person and that’s okay!
There was a town not too far away from the orphanage, that’s where the mail boy and baker live, along with the crazy cat lady, or the pretty gardener girl, and the kind farmer with the funny accent. She never really talked to them very much, but she knew who they were, every once in a while they wave and say hello and such.
One day she tripped and sprained an ankle while running to the library. The kind farmer found her and patched up her leg, you know? Apparently his name his ‘Alder’ and he’s a single father with his two kids ‘Sierra’ and ‘Blaze’, he was very kind, asking if she wanted to stay, she apologized and kindly dented the offer, saying she had too tended to the orphanage.
Did you know ‘Blaze’ was the Mail boy? It made sense, his hair was a bright red, like strawberries really, she thought it was quite humorous as when she gave a basket of them to him he freaked out and said he hated strawberries, so She told him to give them to his father instead.
It had been three months since the opening of the orphanage.
Did you know the pretty gardener lady who tended to the church garden's name was Rosaline? She met Rosaline when she was praying in the church that day, Rosalinda hair had red tops at the bottom of the brown locks, she desperately hoped Rosaline didn’t get trialed as a witch.
Did you know the young woman took up baking, and she was talking to the old cat lady a lot? They talk about their feelings and how difficult life could be, they talk about the young woman’s past, and how hard the death of her parents was. They talk about how hard it was living on the streets and how proud the old lady was of the young woman.
Did you know the young lady was in pain, but she was getting better?
It had been four months,
The rain was harsh, it was close to midnight, the dark charcoal black sky with the hits of blue and the beauty of stars was spanning the vast open sky as the young woman walked, shivering in the cold rain, harsh and unyielding. She had to make a shortcut, she sped up her walking as she went down an alleyway, but stopped abruptly, as she heard a shriveled whine.
She stopped, scanning the area, it was incredibly dark so she couldn’t see very well, she squinted a bit trying too see, she found herself looking around the corner at a dead end, wooden crates filled with garbage and compost for gardening, tools and rusted forks and spoons filled a few bins,a rope was beside one of them. Another high pitched whine came from behind one of the bins, the shall the young woman had one was soaked as she took a step forward, she bent to the side to look behind the bin, it was dark but she could see it now, or him now.
Ruby red eyes stared, dark long hair a tangled mess in front of his face, the tangled mess having parts sticking together with some sort of…oh my god that’s blood. Blood all over him, a dark crimson colour, god he was coloured in it, he was small, really small, looked to be about eight? Incredibly skinny, with cheeks a dark violet colour and heavy eye bags, you could see some of his veins under his eyes, those eyes being a bloodshot Red.
He was dressed in…a? A stained dirty shroud was wrapped around him, blood was all over it, staining it a Cherry red colour. He was pushed into the corner shivering in the cold, the rain soaking his shroud and rats' nests of a head of hair. He hurled In on himself staring directly at the young woman.
In his hand he held something, the young woman couldn’t quite make it out, it looked soft and squishy, a peach and blood red colour, with blood dripping off of it. His hands had nails incredibly sharp and longer than usual, the young boy snarled.
It was flesh.
The boy was holding a piece of flesh.
The young woman gulped,
“Are- Do you- Are you okay dear?”
From where The young woman stood you could see he had sharp canines, but they weren’t white, they had blood dripping from his teeth.
He still shook and he didn’t respond, but he stopped snarling and barring his teeth,
She gently got on her knees and slowly held out her hand for him to take, she looked at him with soft eyes, he was just a child, small, cold, terrified, bloodied.
He snarled again, baring his sharp crimson covered canines at her, those things could peirce skin easily.
She slowly put her hand back to her chest, then slowly, and carefully put her hand to the side grabbing the rope that was placed next to the bin. He flinched, the child flinched, this concerned the young woman even more. She slowly wrapped the rope around her wrist tying it to herself,
“Here…you can- can you take the end of the rope for me, you don’t have to touch me at all just the rope okay?”
Her voice was incredibly soft, close to a whisper even,
The boy was still snarling but he yanked the end of the rope as hard as he could. The young woman flinched but stood her ground. She slowly very carefully got up from we’re she was, the boy surprisingly followed, still clutching the end of the rope in his hand.
“Alright- let’s- I have a house we can go to? I’ve- I’ve got food too? Do you want food?”
The blood ridden child simply stared, the eyes just as red as the blood on his clothing looking directly into the young woman’s cloudy grey ones.
They walked, the rain still plaguing the sky.
They walked past buildings, large and Victorian, then went through the gate out of town, dark silver metal lining it. He stayed as far away from it as possible when They went through, holding onto the rope tightly.
They walked through the dark emerald green forest, it was just them. It felt completely isolated, just those two walking slowly through the rain, a young woman who was soaking wet from the rain, and a little boy beside her, drenched in blood.
Then, they were there.
In front of a large mansion surrounded by a gate, a gate made of wood not silver, on one of the wooden posts was a dark wooden sign with words etched into it. The child looked up to the young woman, tilting his head slightly,
“Oh that, that’s my name.”
Her soft, yet warm voice said, just like sunshine.
“Venus, Venus Philomena.”