Foret Noire

Prologue

I watched as an apple glistened in front of me. The right part of it was cherry red, and the light reflected off the left side of it. My foot ached painfully, but I just sat there. What was there to do anyway? But on the left of me, a butterfly stared upon my dark face. It appeared to be...angry?

Chapter 1

"Do you believe in magic?" I was once asked from a child. She looked at me intently, as if expecting me to answer correctly.

"I'm not sure," was all I said. "Maybe it exists, maybe not."

The girl continued to stare at me for a long, long time. "I've seen them," she grimaced. "The fairies are everywhere."

I just smiled at her. I knew that it was impossible for magic to be real, but I didn't want to crush her child dreams.

"All magic is real except for Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny." she continued.

This I knew for sure to be true, and I was glad that she agreed. But when her mother came to pick her up, I whispered to myself all the way back home. "Magic isn't real," I laughed for a minute. There was fog just about everywhere, and my glasses were clouded. I wiped them against my scarf. Pure cotton. If I did believe in magic, however, then everyone at school would make fun of me and embarrass me more than I ever was embarrassed. I also had proof of it. Proof of it all.

The next day at school, I made sure that I made contact with nobody. Even the few friends that I had.

Today we had a lecture about the Pathagereum Therum. Basically this guy named Pathagerus discovered something, therefore math is harder than she should be. When school was over, I heard my phone ring. The girl's mother wanted me to babysit her again. So then I decided to do something very, very stupid. I was going to prove to her that magic wasn't real.

"Hello," I greeted her with a hug.

"Lindsey!" she leapt up and down.

But when her mother left, I notioned her to the table. "Listen to me. Magic is not real. I'm sorry, but it isn't,"

"You're very funny, Miss." the girl turned her head in amusement. "My daddy kept documents and recorded everything he saw. And he saw the creatures every day."

"Show me then."

The girl disappeared into a room and came back out with a large book. It seemed as if she'd tip over by how heavy it was. "My daddy's documents."

I looked at the book for a moment, then flipped the page. A tuft of white fur was taped onto the page.

"That's unicorn fur," the girl rubbed the fur.

I laughed. "Your dad must be crazy."

The girl appeared sad. "Was." she sent silently.

"Do you mean-"

"He died."