Once upon a time, a raven flew over a house different from others. The house was made of candy, and it could be found deep in the forest. 

The raven landed on a young woman’s arm and rubbed against her cheek. The young woman walked into her candy house and gave the raven some food to eat. The raven ate the food gratefully and flew away from the house. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, little raven,” The young woman shouted.

The young woman’s name was Lucinda. Lucinda was special because she was a witch but a different kind of witch. She was kind, caring, friendly, and polite to everyone she met. All of the townspeople who lived in the nearby town loved her. When children came by her house, she gave them candy and sweets to eat and bring home to their friends. Lucinda would also do magic tricks for the children if they were feeling down. 

Whenever Lucinda would go into the town to buy things, the townspeople would always talk to her and she would be gone for a while just talking to everyone. The children all had something to show her and they would sometimes give her things they had made. It seemed everyone loved Lucinda the young witch.

Well, maybe not everyone loved the witch. There was a force that did not like the witch, in fact, it hated her. That force was called the Abyssal Shadow. Abyssal Shadow hated Lucinda because her power rivaled its own. And it did not like people that rivaled its power unless they could be convinced to help it. 

Abyssal Shadow could tell that Lucinda would not be easily convinced, so it devised a plan to get rid of her. Shadow was a very interesting thing. It wasn’t a person, but more like a concentrated mist who talks directly inside the head of the person it wishes to speak to. 

Shadow had a handful of followers willing to do anything to achieve its goals. One of its followers was beginning to think on their own. Shadow didn’t like that because its plan could be revealed before he could put it into play. It believed that one of its followers thought that Lucinda was a nice person, and it was beginning to think it was beginning to lose the hold over that follower. The follower in question was Ripley and she had been spending increasingly more time in the town. Ripley always said she was scouting the town to see what people were doing, but Shadow knew better than that. Ripley was one of the strong ones, and Shadow was going to lose her if he didn’t do something soon. 

“Ripley, I have a mission for you,” Shadow called.

“Yes, Abyssal Shadow, what do you require me to do?” Ripley answered.

“Go to town and see if there are any children there. I may need them for something later. Young children, not older ones. They are easier to manipulate.”

“Of course, I shall go immediately to the town to see if I can find some.” Ripley left and headed towards the town.

As Ripley headed to town she started thinking about Lucinda. She had seen Lucinda a few times while in town and she was starting to think that maybe Abyssal Shadow was not telling the whole truth. Abyssal Shadow had always said that Lucinda wished to harm Shadow and his followers, and Shadow was finding a way to stop her from doing anything. Ripley was so lost in thought that she almost ran into Lucinda walking into the town.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I almost ran into you,” Lucinda exclaimed.

“Don’t worry about it! I wasn’t paying attention,” Ripley answered, staring at the ground.

“Is something the matter? You seem lost in thought every time I see you in town,” Lucinda asked.

Ripley’s eyes got big, “Oh, no! Nothing at all, I just think a lot.”

Lucinda hesitated, “Well if you need anything, feel free to stop by my house. I’m always up to helping others!” She walked towards one of the stores. 

Ripley stood there lost in thought again, then remembered what she was here to do. She knew that there was a house in the woods that a family lived in. The family consisted of a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter. Ripley started walking to the house and found the two children sitting outside crying. 

She approached them and started talking to them, “What’s wrong? You two should be happy since it’s a beautiful day for being outside.”

The boy sniffled and said, “Our stepmother is very unkind to us. Today she told us we had to stay outside all day because she was tired of looking at us.”

Ripley responded, “Oh, that’s horrible! However, I can help you, but I do need something in exchange for helping you.” 

The two kids looked up at Ripley and the boy asked, “You would be willing to help us? You don’t even know us.”

Ripley smiled and nodded her head, “Of course I’ll help! Children shouldn’t be treated like that by their parents. So, will you accept my help, in exchange you’ll help me out a little bit.”

The two kids agreed to help, and Ripley had one question for them, “What are your names? Mine is Ripley.”

The boy answered, “My name is Gareth, and my sister’s name is Haleth.”

Ripley smiled again, this time a little more menacing than before, but the kids didn’t notice it, “Those are lovely names!”

Ripley followed the path to the children’s house and knocked on the door. A woman answered the door and asked who was at the door. Ripley responded that the person at the door was the last person she’d ever see. Ripley quickly grabbed the woman’s arm and jerked her outside. She used her other arm to cover the woman’s mouth. Ripley led the woman into the woods and into an area that had a hole in the ground. Ripley used the knife Shadow had given her to cut the woman’s left side. She then knocked the woman out with a punch to her temple, and the woman crumpled to the ground. Ripley dragged the woman into the hole in the ground and began to cover her with dirt. The knife had poison all over the blade and would cause the woman to die of poison in less than two minutes. The woman would be unconscious the entire time and it would be painless. Ripley walked away from the area with a smile. It had been quite some time since the last time she had done something like this. She walked to the compound where Abyssal Shadow and his followers stayed still with a smile on her face and one thought in her head: Shadow would be proud of her. 

When Ripley had come back to the compound, Shadow had been observing her. She had a smile on her face and it wasn’t until she got closer did he realize that the smile was the smile of a psycho. There was a reason Shadow liked Ripley, and the psycho smile proved his point that she was someone Shadow didn’t want to lose.

“Did you do what I asked?” Shadow questioned.

“Of course, Abyssal Shadow. I found two kids willing to help you and I was able to have a little fun with it. They owe me a favor for ‘saving’ them from their stepmother. Of course, the stepmother won’t be able to yell at anyone anymore. I’ll need to go dip the blade in poison again.” Ripley responded.

“Very nice, and you didn’t get caught?”

“Don’t even think anyone knew she was missing. Sometime today or tomorrow they’ll figure it out, but no one would suspect me.”

Ripley walked to the room that she lived in and sat on the bed. She had recently been thinking about leaving the compound, but she didn’t know where she would go. Today made her rethink that because if she left she wouldn’t be able to have fun like she did today. She wasn’t sure what to do. Perhaps she should have talked to Lucinda when she saw her today. Ripley was going to go back to town tomorrow and see if she could find Lucinda because maybe she could help. As Ripley got into bed her last thought before sleep was her plan for tomorrow. 

Shadow now had the names of the two children and was planning on seeing them tonight, through their dreams of course. It needed to be able to get into their heads or its plan would never work. The girl was much easier to get than the boy, but both of them fell to his power fairly easily. Maybe Shadow would give Ripley a promotion for the good work she had done. 

Ripley woke up pretty early in the morning and headed off to town. She had planned to wait as long as she had to for Lucinda to come to town. Lucinda was a strong witch and could help her, Ripley was sure of that. Ripley knew that she couldn’t keep living in that compound forever as eventually Shadow would get tired of her and get rid of her. Ripley found a bench on the side of the road and sat down on it, but Lucinda came pretty quickly after she had sat down. Ripley immediately walked up to Lucinda.

“Ms. Lucinda, I have a question for you,” Ripley asked cautiously. 

“Yes, ask away. I’ve got plenty of time.” Lucinda responded smiling.

“I don’t want to talk about it with so many people around, but I don’t know of a good place to do that.” Ripley looked down at her feet.

“No worries! You should come back to my house with me. I’ll just grab a few things real quick, then we can get going,” Lucinda answered.

Ripley was relieved. Lucinda had thought of a good place to meet, and it was one Shadow couldn’t reach. Lucinda grabbed the things she needed quickly and found Ripley sitting on the bench again. Lucinda and Ripley started heading in the direction of Lucinda’s house. 

“What is your name? You know mine, but you haven’t told me yours,” Lucinda asked.

“Oh, sorry, that isn’t very polite of me. My name is Ripley,” Ripley answered.

“Don’t worry so much about the little things. Something is clearly on your mind, and I’m sure that’s why you didn’t mention your name,” Lucinda said thoughtfully.

They reached Lucinda’s house pretty quickly and Lucinda started to make some tea for them to share. Ripley was very glad that Lucinda hadn’t done any of the things Shadow said she would. Ripley was also starting to believe that Shadow had been lying about many things, including Lucinda. Lucinda seemed like someone wind, caring, and the kind of person you’d want to be friends with. Ripley told Lucinda everything. Starting with how she came to be with Shadow, what he was planning, and what he was expecting her to do. Lucinda listened to it all without changing her expression much at all. Ripley was on the brink of tears because she had finally found someone to listen.

“I didn’t know who else to talk to. I’m so scared. If Shadow finds out, who knows what will happen to me,” Ripley said with tears running down her face.

Lucinda put her hand on Ripley’s, “Calm down for a minute. Why don’t you stay with me for a couple of days? I don’t Shadow to hurt you in case he finds out. I have a spare room that would work just fine. I can also help you leave this town and get to another one if you’d like.”

Ripley looked up in disbelief, “You’d do that for someone you barely know?”

Lucinda smiled, “Of course I would. I don’t know you at all, and you’re willing to risk your life to help me out. It’s the least I can do.”

Ripley sniffled while she thought for a moment, “Oh, there’s one thing I almost forgot to tell you. Shadow has a couple of kids in his clutches and I’m sure he plans on putting his plans in motion soon. There is a boy and a girl. I don’t know anything about them besides that.”

“Thank you for letting me know, but I’m sure they won’t be much of a problem. Shadow can only rely on them so much. They are children after all, and children aren’t capable of doing something too extreme. The worst they can do is try and kill me with a weapon.”

Lucinda got up and headed to prepare the spare room. That’s a lot for someone as young as Ripley. She’s not a child, but she’s not an adult either. And all those things Shadow made her do. She didn’t even know that he was a bad guy. She had nowhere to go and Shadow took advantage of that. This is why I left that place when I did; Shadow no doubt remembers how he felt when I left. I left because I realized what he was doing. I’ve gained much power since then, but I don’t know if it’s enough to take him on, she thought to herself. She sighed. She couldn’t believe that she thought that she could go on living life normally. 

As Lucinda walked back towards the kitchen, she said, “The back room is yours to live in now, so feel free to hang out in it. I have something that I need to do real quick, but I think you should go take a rest. You seem like you need it.”

Ripley hesitated then stood up, “Do you need my help for anything? I want to be as helpful as I can because you are allowing me to stay in your home.”

“I can handle it myself. I’m just going to grab the few things I didn’t grab this morning.” Lucinda walked out the door.

Now, Ripley was all by herself in a stranger’s house. Ripley stayed where she was sitting instead of going into the bedroom Lucinda had prepared for her. The was a knock at the door. Lucinda wouldn’t be back this quickly, would she? Ripley thought to herself. She got up and opened the door.

Ripley gasped as someone started talking, “Abyssal Shadow is looking for you. And he has chosen to forgive you for all of this. He wants to speak to you personally, and he just wants to talk. Just between us though, he seemed sad. I think Shadow misses you. You’ve always been its favorite.”

Ripley looked down at her feet, “He was lying about Lucinda.”

The person responded, “Maybe he was but I was told to bring you by force if you didn’t cooperate. Shadow just wants to talk. He doesn’t wish to cause you harm in any way. Just come back with me and everything will be okay.”

Ripley wasn’t sure what to do. Shadow had always been nice and kind to her, but she had just learned that he had been lying about Lucinda. Maybe he just didn’t like her. Maybe he was just trying to protect them. Ripley walked outside letting herself be led forward.

“You made a good decision. We will be going back a different way though. Shadow doesn’t want Lucinda to see us in case something were to happen.”

Lucinda was almost back to her house when she noticed the door was open. She never left her door open and she doubted Ripley would have just left it open unless someone came and forced her to go somewhere. She ran into her house setting down what she was carrying carefully. She went to check the back room and found it empty. She went back outside and checked all the nearby areas.

“Shadow must have sent someone after her,” She said to herself.

“Of course he did. Ripley is Shadow’s favorite right now and wanted to make sure Ripley was not lost forever. Shadow would have preferred this not happen at all, but Ripley is the favorite, so Shadow should have known that she was smart enough to find this out.” A young boy walked out of the forest with something in his hand.

“Ripley won’t be harmed regardless of what you might be thinking. Shadow would not hurt her under any circumstances.” A girl about the same age walked out of the forest opposite the boy with something in her hand as well.

Lucinda got in a defensive position, “Who are you two? I would offer you a cup of tea and some sweets, but I don’t think you children realize what’s going on.”

“Oh, we know exactly what’s going on. You killed our stepmother! We may not have liked her, but that doesn’t mean we wanted her dead! But I’ll be polite, my name is Gareth and my sister is Haleth,” The boy, Gareth, responded.

Lucinda was shocked. “I’ve never killed anyone in my entire life! And I don’t plan on it either.”

Haleth bounded towards Lucinda, but Lucinda had already started for her house. She shut the door just as Haleth reached it. Lucinda had no plan but headed towards the oven to turn it on anyway. Just as she turned it on, Gareth came crashing in through the window. Lucinda got a good look at his face and his eyes were clouded with revenge. She could tell that there was part of him that didn’t understand what was going on. Shadow must have given them these ideas. Lucinda was suddenly angry, not just at Shadow but at herself as well. She had allowed herself to let someone in, Ripley, and that same person had told her what Shadow’s plan was, and now that same person was back in the place that she had just left. All of a sudden, Lucinda grabbed Gareth’s arm and pushed him into the oven. She didn’t know what made her do that, but some part of her had said that was the only way she would be safe. Haleth came in the same way Gareth did and Haleth was quicker than Gareth. Haleth lunged towards Lucinda who had no choice but to dodge. Lucinda quickly grabbed Haleth’s arm when she got a chance and pushed her into the oven as well. She closed the oven door, left her house, and walked to town, all the while tears were streaming down her face. She had never wanted something like this to happen. Now she hated all kids. Kids were the ones who ruined her life once, which caused her to start following Shadow. Now kids had ruined her life again and she was not going to take that chance again. Sometimes, not all people are who they seem to be, so for everyone reading this, be wary of people you don’t know.