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            Evie’s mother had gone ballistic once she had finally made her way home after the mugging. The moment she stepped in the door of their crappy motel room, she was plagued with things like “where were you?!” or “I thought you were dead!” or “Something seriously bad could have happened!” Once Evie had staunched the flow of her mother’s hysteria, she hurried off to her room, closing the door and falling into bed, still fully dressed. She pulled the covers up over her head and stared at the shiny gold locket in the darkness. It reminded her of something- the way things were before…before what happened with her father.

            It was a special night for her parents, in that beautiful old house of theirs. As always, they were mooning over each other, exchanging secretive kisses that failed to be subtle to Evie’s prying eye. At that time in their lives, Evie’s mother and father had been healthy, beautiful even. Evie’s father had thick dark curls, deep gray eyes. Evie’s mother had long, shimmery red hair. Everyone knew the couple- The Jakyls. Everyone loved them, envied their love for each other and their single daughter- Evelyn.

            The reason that particular night was special was because it was Rick and Vanessa’s anniversary.

            “Come here, my darling,” Rick said, holding out his arms to envelop his wife and daughter in a tight embrace. “My two beautiful girls,” he said. Evie was squished between her parents, the scent of her mother’s perfume floating around her as she leaned in to kiss her husband.

“Uck, mommy!” Evie whined, squirming.

            “Come here, you little fox!” Evie’s dad lifted her high into the air, tickling her sides while she squealed with laughter. He always called her little fox because of her red hair and because he said she was the cleverest girl he had ever met. Once rick had set his girl down, Vanessa turned to Evie.

            “Evelyn, sweetheart, I want you to go up to bed now. We’ll tuck you in.”

            “Yes, mother,” Evie said, smiling. She zoomed up the stairs to her room. Everything had been as close to perfect as real life could get in that single moment. Evie crawled into the bed and, tucked away by her beloved parents, drifted into the same dreamless sleep she did every night. She was awoke without precedent around 1:30 AM. She carefully removed herself from the plush caccoon of blankets and tiptoed to the stairs. Her parents were in at the bottom of the stairs. Evie was about to go greet them when her father pulled out a lovely golden locket. Evie ducked behind the banister, watching. Vanessa eyed the thing with a look almost akin to discontent.

            “This way you’ll always find your way home,” he said, hooking the pretty thing round Vanessa’s neck. Evie wondered- where would they ever need to find their way home from? Everything was perfect, right where it was.

            A few weeks later, something went wrong. Rick started drinking. Heavily. One night, in a fit of rage, he ripped the pretty locket off Vanessa’s neck.

            “There’s no home to find,” he yelled. That was the first time Evie ever saw her father cry, the first feather of change.

Reality

There was the sensation of grass sticking into Evie’s back, sharp, pointy little blades slicing into her clothes. The air was somewhat cold, making Evie feel frozen in place- except for the occasional teeth chattering tremor. A small noise escaped her lips as she struggled into a sitting position, slowly stretching her sore, stiff limbs. Sunlight dappled the ground, painting everything in this dusty town to look, for a moment, beautiful.

            Evie was about to stand up when she heard the shrill cry of a baby and the muffled gasp of who she assumed to be its mother. Crawling out from behind the cover of the trees, Evie watched as a man in all black ran up to the woman, grabbing her diaper bag, almost knocking the baby to the ground and then running away. A small crowd of spectators gathered, making sure the woman was alright. Though she assured them she was, I wondered if anyone else noticed the stricken look upon her face. It ran far deeper than what I had just witnessed, in fact, the woman seemed almost zombie-like. She had a dazed look to her eyes- there was no fear, though. Slight annoyance, maybe, but no fear. I watched as she held her child, rocking it slightly, crooning in a low voice.

            After the crowd had dissipated, the woman picked up a quick pace, walking in the opposite direction, as if pulled by some urgent, invisible thread.

            Evie sat back on her heels and wondered at the woman’s life- at the look in her wide, dark eyes. The image of the beast from the night before flashed before her eyes then. The beast’s look matched the woman’s- Evie realized that the similarity between the two seemed to be a deep loss of something. Reality, maybe? Evie knew she had certainly lost her own since of reality in the past few days.

Beast

Evie stepped into the Castle Apartment room and stared around in wonder. She had entered a different world entirely. She stood on the precipice of a cliff, overlooking a strange land filled with sights, such that, only a great imagination could behold. The sky of this place was a deep, rich, purple. Stars drifted through the misty air eternally. Mechanical trees sprouted from sweet, shocking green grass. She could see a market place not too far off and small, otherworldly adobes inhabited the cliff face.
The golden necklace her father had given her glowed brightly, pulsing with an ethereal light. She stared at it in awe, cupped in the soft palm of her hand. Webs of light sprouted from the stars eight points, growing, spreading, shaping a massive glowing map. Evie stood in the very center of the map, on a point called “Makeshift.”
Suddenly she was six years old again, an innocent, blossoming little girl, enthralled by the tales of her brave daddy and the kindness of her beautiful mother. She sat on her fathers knee, leaning into the soft cashmere of his sweater, feeling his voice reverberate around her. He smelled fresh and clean, a smell he hadn’t had for years. His hair was tidy and his belly was round, soft against the forgiveness of her cheek.
“Makeshift is a far away land, my darling,” her father said, his baritone voice vibrating her ear. “A place where everything you imagine becomes real. But you have to be careful in places like that- the greatest wonders are often an illusion.” “So, you’re the daughter,” a woman said. Evie jumped, dropping the necklace. The map disappeared in a resounding whir of light and color.
“Who are you?” Evie asked. She bent, picked up the necklace and tenderly hooked it round her neck.
“I am like you,” the woman stated. “I do not belong. This is a place where lost things are found, forgotten things remembered, a place where little girls who don’t fit in belong.” The woman looked familiar. Her hair was red like Evie’s, soft, flowing. It glowed slightly in the light from the falling stars. Her eyes were wide and, unlike Evie’s, dark as pitch, calm as an uninterrupted pond.
“Sorry but...I have to go,” Evie said. “My mother will be waiting.”
The woman smiled, her full red lips lifting into a brilliant crescent. Goosebumps rose on Evie’s arms.
“Alright,” the woman said. “But you’ll have to come back and visit me.” Evie nodded and, shaking, backed out of Makeshift. the door closed with a soft click an Evie turned and absolutely ran out of the building. She walked for a long time, contemplating today’s discoveries. It was bitterly cold outside this close to Christmas and Evie deeply regretted only having a light jacket. The image of the falling stars lit her mind, complimented by the memory of her father’s voice. everything had changed so much. What if this was her chance, her only chance to make her father better? The high wrought iron gates of Sherwood park watched her as she stepped through. She ambled about between trees, kicking up bits of pine with her sneakers. There was a loud screech from high above her. Evie looked up, surprised. The hair on the back of her neck rose. A beast sprang upon her, forcing her to the ground, pinning her there. The putrid stench of the beast’s breath drowned out all other senses. Evie squeezed her eyes shut, wondering if it would kill her.
“You don’t belong, silly girl,” the beast whispered. “You belong nowhere, to no one. You will never save your father...not unless you come to our world, that is the only way.” Its voice was soft and melodic, tempting. It started singing, a lullaby, long forgotten. It was what Evie’s father used to sing to her every night before bed when she was little. She found that her eyelids were drifting shut, pulled down by gravity or this horrific creature’s might. Darkness surrounded her and, right as she began to truly drift off, the beast’s voice permeated her dreams, suffocatingly sweet.
“Goodnight, my darling,” it said. And then there was nothing.

Storm

Evie sat on her bed. In her hand was a small golden necklace- dangling from the delicate, glittering chain, was an eight-point star.

Evie sat on the edge of her father’s hospital bed.

“Take this,” he said. “It is the key.” When Evie asked what he meant, he didn’t answer. He drifted off to some distant place within his mind, leaving her with a thin gold necklace and a million unanswered questions.

It had only been a few hours since she acquired the strange little necklace. All she could do was stare at it. On her bedside was a sheet of paper with a list of things it could be the key to. A door, a trunk, a window, a diary…but none of those things made sense. Evie had never SEEN any of those items with an eight-point star shaped keyhole.

            “Destroy any evidence of who I am. After that is done, move to the apartments next door. That is where you will learn what you need to know,” her father had said. “They can never know.” That was what he had told her. Evie had assumed he was delusional- blood had been seeping out of his body, draining his already senseless mind of what sense it had left. Then at the hospital…this necklace. Either her father really was insane- meaning her mother was also –OR Rick Jakyl had just dragged his only daughter into a deadly otherworldly battle.

            Evie stood then. She must be crazy- what would anyone want with her drunk washed up father anyways? It didn’t matter though, whether or not Evie thought he was crazy, Rick had spiked her curiosity with the necklace. She needed to know what it meant and there was only one place to look.

            Evie donned a light jacket and pulled a scarf over her vibrant red hair so that anyone who might recognize her, wouldn’t. She climbed the rickety stairs to the top floor, a sharp pain exuding from her side, he little necklace clutched tightly in her fist. On the thirteenth floor, there was a thick carpet, sanguine, the color of blood. A long time ago, artists contracted paints from the subjects they were named after- a long time ago, sanguine was created with blood, giving it its deep red hue.

            Goosebumps ran along Evie’s arms, giving her a strange prickly feeling within. She took a step onto the carpet, puffs of ink black dust rising.

            How strange…Evie thought, prolonging  the moment when she would have to walk to the end of this dark hallway and open the door to the uppermost room of the uppermost floor. Taking a deep, ragged breath, Evie travelled the distance to the door. A tall mahogany door, brass numbers adorning the dusty surface. If she didn’t have a feeling that her whole life would change once she stepped through that door, it would have seemed completely unthreatening. She reached out a hand, berating herself all the while for playing into her father’s ridiculous games. Being shot isn’t much fun, it wouldn’t make for a good game, a tiny voice within said. Evie  tried to open the door, bracing herself for a world of wonder. The door was locked. Looking beneathe the handle, she saw a small star-shaped keyhole. Evie slid the necklace into the keyhole and the door clicked open. From outside, wind and rain pounded the building, the windows rattled. Lightning flashed like Evie’s life, changed forever.