Hey guys!! (:

Just to let you all know, I've edited Chapter 2. So if you haven't checked back in a while, please go back and re-read the last part before continuing here. Or you will be confused. Sorry for any and all inconvenience caused.

If you're a more recent reader, do proceed (:

See that MV on the side? Do NOT click on it until I tell you to further down. And make sure you play the music!! I feel it works superbly well. xD

Hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

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" Since that day I just haven't been the same, the curious that wander are my prey."

-  from ' Dearly Departed' by The Creepshow

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Watts

Well, well. Who would have thought we'd ever cross paths again. 

It took me awhile to recognize her, but then again, it has been almost five years since I last saw her. And my, has she changed. I saw the flash of surprise and puzzled-ness in her eyes before she switched back to her steely gaze.

She doesn't recognize me. Yet.

Well, in all fairness, I guess I'm not the person I used to be either.

Fussy, obnoxious, petty, selfish, downright annoying and a world-class brat. Half the governesses quit their jobs because of how rude and stubborn I was. The other half, I scared away with my pranks.

I was a very, very naughty girl.

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I was ten, sitting in a lavishly furnished living room with elegant finishings. I still lived in the mansion back then. Before... Yeah. 

"Back, straight! Don't hunch. And stop sulking, Ontario. It spoils your pretty face."

"Yes, Mother."

I glared at her and straightened my spine but I kept the sulk. The look on my face was enough to turn fresh milk sour. Mother sighed and shook her head. 

"Ma'am, Mrs. Goldpenny is here. Shall I show her in?" One of our maids asked Mother, setting down a tray of delicious looking shortbread and some tea.

"Oh, yes, yes. Please bring her here."

As soon as the maid left us, Mother turned to me again.

"Please, Tari (pronounced teh-ree) I'm begging you, just please behave yourself for once. And be nice. Goodness knows how many governesses you've been through already. I hope this one stays-"

She stopped just as the maid entered, followed by Mrs. Goldpenny. Mother stood up and plastered a big smile on her gorgeous face.

" Welcome, Mrs. Goldpenny! Please, have a seat."

"Ah, good afternoon Mrs. Watts! And this must be little Ontary you were telling me about."

"Ontario..." Mother corrected, giving me a sidelong glance, eyes prodding me to get up and welcome our guest.

Just then, a little scheme formed itself in that devious little ten-year-old brain of mine. Hehe...

I got up, straightened my dress and put on my most blinding smile. 

"Hello, Mrs. Goldpenny! I'm Ontario Emberly Watts and I am ten years old this year." I smiled and curtseyed.

Mother looked taken aback by my sudden change in demeanor and I simply smiled sweetly at her. Although my angelic smile hid what I was thinking pretty well, I think she had a hunch that I was up to no good.  She widened her eyes, silently warning me to behave but I just tilted my head to one side and gave her a look that said: what do you mean? I always behave.

"Why, isn't she the sweetest little thing!" Mrs. Goldpenny exclaimed and pinched my cheeks.

Ugh. I despised those overly endearing grandma types. Didn't they know people feel pain when they are pinched?

I resisted the urge to rub my throbbing cheek and continued to smile meekly at Mrs. Goldpenny. We sat down, Mother and I on one couch and Mrs. Goldpenny on the one-seater opposite us. Mother quickly began outlining the aspects of her job and what she was supposed to do. I smiled and nodded whenever I heard my name being mentioned but wasn't listening to whatever they were talking about. Grown-up talk bored me to tears. Mother kept glancing curiously at me from time to time, obviously waiting for me to lose my tantrum like I usually did.

Mother's phone buzzed and she hastily excused herself before turning away to answer. After a few hurried whispers, she flipped her phone shut. 

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Goldpenny but that was my agent. I have been unexpectedly called in for the shooting of  the next scene. Wasn't supposed to start filming until tomorrow. Well, I guess I'll just leave you two to get acquainted..."

( Cue music now!!! )

Mrs. Goldpenny assured her that she would be fine. Mother got up and planted a gentle kiss on my forehead. "Be good," she whispered softly before nodding at Mrs. Goldpenny and floating gracefully out of the room.

Yes! I thought. With Mother gone it would be all the more easier for me to carry out the plan I had in mind.

Mrs. G smiled at me good-naturedly at me and asked, "So Ontary, what would you like to do first?"

Sheesh. She couldn't even get my name right. I resisted rolling my eyes.

"I want to play pretend dress-up." My eyes glinted with mischief.

"Uhm, okay.." She agreed hesitantly, a little taken aback at my request.

Even for my age it was a little childish, but my wish was her command. I led the way up to my bedroom, swung the door open then flounced into my playroom and flung my costume chest open. The chest held all my past Halloween costumes and whatever other dress-up stuff I had demanded to have. I yanked one costume after another out of the chest and threw them into Mrs. G's arms, searching. When I found it near the bottom of the chest, I held the Snow White dress I loved wearing up against myself.

 "I'm gonna be Princess Snow White and you're," I pointed my index finger at her startled face, "gonna be my doll...Dolly."

I put on my dress. I could tell she wasn't in love with the idea but I simply continued grinning cheekily at her, oblivious. Ah, poor Mrs.G. She had no idea what she'd just gotten herself into.

" Come, sit Dolly!" I lugged her over to my little pink, plastic table set and pushed her down, albeit roughly, onto a stool. 

" Today," I announced while pulling out my set of magic markers, a box of paints and a few hair rollers I'd "borrowed" from Mother from a drawer, "we're gonna be doing Makeover Takeover!"

My green eyes sparkled and I clapped my hands, feigning excitement while Mrs.G gazed at the items I laid out on the table, looked up at me, then back onto the table.

"Now, close your eyes, Dolly."

When Mrs. G hesitated to do so, I raised my voice.

"I said, close your eyes!" And I went as far as reaching my hands out and pushing her eyelids down for her.

 "Okay, Princess Snow White is gonna do your make up now." 

I took out my paintbrush and dipped it into a little cup of water. I looked at her face, trying to decide on where to start. She had a nice, smooth complexion which she probably spent a lot of money on. Well, too bad. I quickly unscrewed the lid of my bottle of red paint and swiftly dabbed and swirled on one cheek, making a large crimson circle. She started due to the sudden coolness on her face and opened her eyes.

" Close!" I demanded, lifting the brush.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something but thought better of it and shut her eyes. I proceeded to do her other cheek. Then, I painted a gigantic green spot on her nose and covered her entire face with tiny blue spots. I set my paintbrush down and admired my work-of-art-in-progress. 

This was fun.

Next, I uncapped a purple marker and started colouring in one eyelid, pressing down hard onto her eyeball. I did her other eyelid in shocking-pink. I picked up my black marker and outlined the crimson spots on her cheek before giving her a wonderfully curled moustache. Perfect! My masterpiece was almost complete.

I padded behind her and began putting her carefully blown silver-grey locks into rollers, taking care to yank mercilessly at her hair. I yanked extra hard when doing the last roller and chuckled when she winced.

"Oops, sorry!"

I held up a mirror in front of her face.

"Now, open your eyes!"

Her eyelids fluttered open. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she caught sight of her hideous face in the mirror before her and shrieked. She moaned, clutching and feeling her face, unable to believe what I had done to her.

"What's the problem? You don't like it? I can change it..." I said, a look of polite bewilderment on angelic my face.

"NO! N-n-n-no...no...."

Mrs. G got up and started backing away towards the door of the bathroom, away from me. It was clear that she wanted to wash away my hard work. Couldn't let that happen now, could I?

"Where are you going? You can't leave! It's princess tea-party time! Come back here and sit down, Dolly!"

I went over to her, grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her back to the stool. I brought out my tea-set and went to fill up the teapot with tap water. Then, I mixed some of the brown paint I had into the water to make it look like tea. I promptly poured the 'tea' into two cups and placed one in front of Mrs. G. The whole time I was doing this, she was watching me with a wary look on her face.

"Earl-grey tea, Dolly. Have some!" I said, nudging at the cup before her.

She gingerly picked her cup up and stared in disgust at its contents. I pouted.

"Drink, Dolly!"

Then I shoved the cup towards her lips. 

Well...I pushed a little too hard and half the 'tea' ended up sloping over the rim of the cup and splashing down the front of her pristine, white blouse. She choked and spluttered, gagging at the liquid which had invaded her lips and insulted her tastebuds.

"Aww...look what you've done now, Dolly! Better get you cleaned up."

I tugged her off her stool and pushed her all the way to the bathroom while she struggled to break free from my grasp. With one last almighty push, she was in the bathroom. Then without any warning, I slammed the door shut behind her. And flipped the bathroom lights off. Time for Part 2 of my plan.

I hurried to the light switch on the other side of the room and turned off all the lights. Then I ran around yanking the window shutters down, plunging the room into pitch darkness. Mrs. G was banging and knocking on the door, sounding like one of the best percussionists I'd ever heard. Then, Mrs. G gave up on trying to open the door and stopped wringing the doorknob.

"Ontary?! Ontary! Let me out! NOW! Your mother won't be happy about this...ONTARY!"

 I shrugged out of my costume then grabbed hold of my fantastically life-like zombie mask and slung it around my back. I placed an old squeaky toy on the ground, right outside the bathroom door before silently unlocking the door from the outside. I covered the doorknob of my room with Slime-Goo before darting out into the hallway and switching off all the lights there and drawing the blackout curtains closed as well.

I knew I didn't have much time until Mrs. G realised the door was no longer locked. Sprinting downstairs, I made sure downstairs was as dark as possible as well. I grabbed some bubblewrap from the kitchen and ran back upstairs, leaving a few pieces here and there along the way. I made sure there was plenty in the room.  Then, I stood right outside my door waiting for my cue. I heard the bathroom door swing open and a sigh of relief. And then...

Squeeeeak!! and "AAAAH!!!"

That was soon followed by a cacophony of popping sounds and a series of surprised shouts. I silently chuckled. Then, complete silence.

" Ontary...?" came a shaky, uncertain voice.

And that was my cue. I slammed my bedroom door shut.

And Mrs. G let out a deafening shriek.

I scrambled downstairs, laughing. I paused for a second to make sure it was once again complete silence, then pressed the button on the kitchen intercom which connected to the one in my room. I could hear the shrill beeping of my room's intercom from the kitchen. My toes were curled in anticipation as I waited for Mrs.G to answer. 

"H-h-h-hello? Um...w-w-who is it?"

 I grabbed the empty bottle sitting on the counter and began twisting it at the speaker, producing  the most perfect crackling sounds while I made some weird alien noises in the background. 

"H-h-h-h-hell-l-lo? W-w-who's there?! " 

Mrs. G was positively trembling now. I twisted a few more times and made my alien noises grow increasingly louder. Then, I stopped everything. And in my best Darth-Vader voice, I growled -

" RUN."

Mrs. G let out a bloodcurdling scream and I heard the violent rattling of the doorknob as she struggled  to get a firm grip on it. I dashed to take my place by the foot of the winding stairs, awaiting her arrival. As soon as I heard the door being swung open, I let out a high-pitched scream of my own.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhh...! Heeeeelp.....!"

Then, I yanked the zombie mask up onto my face. Mrs. G came plundering and stumbling down the stairs. I think she even tripped and slipped a few times. And bubblewrap? Genius!

Just as Mrs. G approached the bottom of the stairs, I leaped out at her. With my outstretched hands, I gripped on to her shoulders and brought my masked-face closer to her's, until we were almost touching nose to nose. I made a deep guttural sound in the back of my throat.

And Mrs. G screamed her head off. Pushing me to the ground, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her towards our front door. She tore it open and sprinted out through our porch and conveniently open gate into the road without a backwards glance. I stood at the doorway guffawing as I watched her trip over her own feet in her haste to get away from our house.

"Bye bye, Dolly! I'll miss you!" I shouted, waving my hands above my head.

Then I fell onto the floor laughing hysterically, slapping the hardwood floor, tears of pure joy trickling down my face, tummy hurting.

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 I smiled to myself as I recalled one of my favourite childhood memories. 

"Aww...would you look at that, there's a smile on her face!" Zach cooed, grinning at me. "Must be raining in heaven..."

The sides of my mouth immediately pulled down into a scowl as I whacked Zach's shoulder in mock indignation.

"Shut up!"

I stuck my tongue out at him and turned back to my calculus book. He chuckled.

"You know you can't stand being angry at this hunk of irresistible hotness for long," he teased.

I scoffed.

Zachary Edmund Wolfe. My best friend. Well, he was my only  friend. But that suited me just fine. I didn't need a bunch of nosy loudmouths hanging around me. Besides, Zach is pretty much the top-of-the-line friend package. Plus, he is smokin' hot. He jokes about it, being good-lookin'. But that's the problem. He only jokes. He has no clue that he is total eye candy. And that's how I can stand being a round him. Well, that and the fact he doesn't have a pack of dumb blondes following him around like bloodhounds onto a juicy piece of meat. Why? You'd probably ask. Well, let's just say women, in general, are not his target audience. If you know what I mean.

"So what are we doing after we're done with our jail sentence for the day?" He asked, messing with his hair.

"Go murder an innocent old man and chop him up into little cubes before throwing them into a cauldron to make stew? And stir it with the poor guy's walking stick while we prance around the mulberry bush? Or is dancing a bit too cheery for you?" He cocked one eyebrow, mocking me, ocean-blue eyes sparkling.

"Sounds terrific." I monotoned, continuing to ink a pattern onto the back of my hand.

"But perhaps we won't have to go old man hunting and I won't need your help, since I'm considering bringing you to my torture chamber and chopping you up instead." I said off-handedly. " And I'll even do you a celebratory tap dance routine on your grave."

"Ooh...burn!" He chuckled gleefully. 

Calculus ended and Mr. Brownlow had already walked out of the class. Lunchtime. 

Zach was already up,  eagerly bouncing on the balls of his feet. He was constantly high on his own brand of adrenaline. Don't even get me talking about when he's on a sugar-rush. I got up begrudgingly and let him throw one arm over my shoulders, half dragging me towards my locker as I shuffled to keep up with his pace.

Zach is a giant compared to me, the tops of my spiked pixie barely reach his shoulders. While I'm the friggin' doomsday prophet, he's like one of them Strawberry Shortcake characters. Every single item of clothing I own is either in black, grey or white while he dresses like he's gone and dumped his clothes in some rainbow neon pool or something. Today's outfit epitomised it all - bright yellow T sporting the words "America's Next Top Unicorn" in rainbow-coloured block letters with ripped bleached skinnys and his favourite magenta high-tops. Needless to say, he hated my monochromatic wardrobe.

I dumped my books onto the pile in my locker with a huff. Zach, however, was cheerfully humming a tune, rearranging his neat stack in the locker next to mine. I punched the locker door shut (it was the only way to make sure it fully closed so I could put the lock in) just as Zach slammed his. I let out another yawn and sighed.

"Aw...come on, sweetheart!" He hooked my arm with his and started lugging me towards the open field. To my annoyance, he even began skipping. The only kind of skipping I'd ever even contemplated doing since I landed in this miserable hellscape was skipping town. 

"Let go and live a little! Fill your dark, dark soul with some joy for a change! ...look, even the sun wants you to be happy!" 

Then, he unhooked himself from me and started whirling around under the sun, arms outstretched. Standing there, watching him, I felt the corners of my mouth begin to lift upwards. 

But something was stirring within my depths as I was reminded yet again, of a day much like this. The sun had bathed the land in all its glorious warmth and the sky was beautifully blue with the fluffiest of clouds.

It seemed like it was just yesterday when on a bright summer day like this, a dark, penetrating chill had attacked the core of my soul.

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Author's note:

First and foremost, I would like to thank my Snow Angel (@Elysea/Yukigosa) for the endless motivation and encouragement and support to help me complete this chapter. Without him, I wouldn't have gotten this done quite so quickly...well, it's fast for me ;P GUYS PLEASE CHECK OUT HIS STORY 'A PROMISED FULFILLED' and if you love it, you don't need much strength to move the cursor up to the little ' vote' button at the top. :D Oh, and he was the one who came up with the name Zachary Wolfe. (x

And to those who've added me to your library or given me help at any time ( you know who you are ;) ), a million thanks!

And thanks for reading!!! x) Please leave a comment or two below to let me know what you honestly think. And, of course, vote! ;D

Remember to look out for the next chapter!!

♥ Peace