I broke.

It was as if all of the hate, pain and anger geared towards me finally crushed what was let of my
soul. Yes I was an odd child and grew up without parents, but that wasn’t my fault. My parents died by
the curse of a witch. It was the witches fault, never mine. But in the small village of Fogs Hollow, it
doesn’t matter whose fault it is. If something happens, people tend to make a point out of it.

Unfortunately for me, that is exactly what people did.

You know those stories about how princess get locked away in a tower, awaiting their prince to come
and rescue them. The prince kisses the girl, saves her from the dreaded tower and they ride off into the
sunset on his trusty steed. Then they fall in love like soul mates and get married and rule their kingdom.
Blah, blah, blah.

This isn’t one of those stories.

I mean, yes. I am locked in a tower, but not for those sappy fairytale reasons you keep reading about.

Cleona was frail, unlike the others. She had to fend for herself seeing as she had no parents to hunt or
her and get her food, unlike the others. She was incredibly bright as well. She figured out how to set
traps for animals at such a young age. People took notice and shamed her. Cleona didn’t understand
what she was doing wrong. She was just trying to survive.

Unlike the others.

Cleona remembers one day, when she was around 7. She was walking back to her home with the rabbit
she had just caught and killed and then all of a sudden, a rock hits her in the head. Cleona drops the
rabbit from her arms and falls to the ground, unconscious. When she woke up, she was inside her house
that was in the midst of burning to the ground, tied to a wooden chair. Cleona was scared, but she knew
she had to get out of the house. She burned the rope that held her to the chair and freed her hands and
feet. She then grabbed a half burned picture of her parents and escaped the house from the front door,
to see that the entire town was watching.
Gasps came from everywhere in the crowd and people were whispering to each other. Cleona was
coughing up blood and black soot from the fumes she inhaled. She wouldn’t understand why people
would try to kill her. She just knew she had to leave.