It's getting dark

Melinose sat cozily in a warm comfortable carriage that offset the harsh English weather. The outside of the family vehicle was a sleek rosewood with tiny gold accents and handsome black stallions that led in front of it. Some lamps accompanied the outside to assist a sleepy conductor. The inside was padded with a luxurious upholstery interior of cream color and a matching soft carpet made to protect the carriage from the elements. The ivory forest outside held snowflakes dancing like the sugar plums that lay from Melinose’s favourite book.

Melinose played with her doll as she thought about what to wear for the upcoming Christmas ball. All of her friends were going to be in their best dresses and she wanted to be a princess with them. These plans suddenly shifted when a loud noise struck the whole carriage. The last thing Melinose remembered was that she hit her head. Hard. And it made her think about sugar plums again.

The first thing Melinose thought when she awoke was “My doll! Where is my doll!?” It didn’t take long to find, thankfully. It was simply in front of her. She dusted the snow off of its soft body and looked at the conductor and her parents. Playfully, she assumed that the grown-ups were playing a silly game and left them to sleep. But she had a major problem. Because of the game, she could not go home to get ready for the ball. She realised she needed to go home by herself and left the grown-ups to play.

It felt like forever until Melinose got to the first house in the forest. It housed a very large family. Melinose remembered learning about counting but she couldn’t remember what numbers went where. She thought 8 whole people lived inside! The house was also rather shabby. Wooden planks were covering the walls and it looked like it was about to fall apart. It reminded her of the haunted houses her father went to when he went to work. At first, she was scared to go up but she also knew it was important in order to get home. So slowly she walked up to the door and knocked.

A woman yelled out “Who is it!? It better not be the debt collector again! How many times do I have to say we don’t have any money to give you!” “i’m not a collector of anything,” Melinose cried out. “I need help to go home.” The woman opened the door to see a tiny girl no older than 9. She had on a thick red hood with ears resembling a fox that covered her dress. The coat also came with red mittens and boots made with the finest reindeer fur.

The woman stared at her for a few minutes and went to tend to the crying baby.

She left the door open for a few minutes. It was getting very cold outside so Melinose decided to go inside. When the woman returned, she immediately pushed Melinose back outside, slammed the door and locked it without saying a word. Melinose was temporarily defeated but she knew she couldn’t let herself cry. So off she went to find someone else.

Melinose thought it would be better to be in the actual wood instead of the beaten path. Luckily it worked out as she spotted a house deep in the forest. This one looked much better. It reminded her of the lodge her family would go to during the summer. She cannot deal with the cold any longer. She went to the door of the lodge and knocked on it because she was far too short to reach the handle.

A man with a dark hood opened the door. He looked around him as if someone could be ready to ambush him at any moment. After 2 minutes he spoke. “Who sent you, little girl?” “No one, sir. I need help to get back home.” Melinose’s fingers felt stiff. It had been hours since she last saw her family. She always thought that grown-ups were meant to protect children, but she was now starting to think otherwise. The man was looking at her sideways as he was studying her garments. “I cannot help you, little girl, my work is far too dangerous. It is not safe for you here. Go home.” Before Melinose could explain her situation, the door met her face yet again.

It was dark and Melinose was starting to regret not bringing a lamp with her. It was then she realized that her doll wasn’t on her. She must’ve left it at the mean woman’s house. She feared the worst possible case. As she was near the main path, she heard the noise again. “This noise was what made everyone play that game.” She thought. She also heard the sound of dogs, but these ones were angry. As the night grew, everything got louder, the forest, the animals, even the wind!

The wind got harsher and she got even colder. When she saw the next sled, she felt instant relief. Unfortunately, she stopped feeling it as she heard the loud sound one last time. It was like she was playing the strange game herself and immediately, she fell to the ground. She could hear cursing coming from the man in the sled. He left the scene without even a single glance. Darkness approached but it was getting harder to tell by the second.

Once on the ground, she stopped to think about the life she once had. Melinose was always jealous of the other girls. While she always got what she wanted, it never seemed to be enough. It always seemed like something was missing.

Melinose thought about the abundant dinners her family always had. They always had the best of everything. The best garments, the abundantest of foods, the most exotic of furniture that not even she was allowed to be on. Her parents always talked about all the cool things they had and because of that, there was a feeling Melinose had always had a target on her. Her friends would leave the room whenever she would walk in and wouldn't let her play with their toys.

She thought back to her favourite book of all time “The Nutcracker”. Melinose thought about Clara and how they were similar. Melinose envisioned herself winning the love of the nutcracker. Her family was supposed to see the play this Christmas. It would've been the first play she’s ever seen.

In a way, she saw the rest of her life. She met her first love, got married and had multiple children. She smiled, the warmth of her heart contrasted the deep cold of the forest.

A few days pass. No one has seen the Bexley lineage for several days. A bounty of a couple thousand pounds was set to find them, dead or alive. Many men went to find them but none had luck. One man was lucky to find the stuffed doll of the prestigious Melinose Bexley.

A few men, however, found Melinose all alone. A bullet wound was found on her side. One man wanted to find her mother and father but he was told there was no point. “It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark.”