• Her fingers closed around the silky folds of her crimson dress, hefting the weight up from around her ankles. The clicking of her low heels on the marble steps was barely audible and she hardly glanced at them as she made her away across the grounds with purpose.

    Her large brimmed hat was pulled low over forehead, shadowing moonlight from reaching her copper skinned face. When a man who was all alone grew curious of watching her, he stepped out in front of her and she halted.

    He stepped forward to see her face under the hat but as he reached up to pull it away, he staggered back, horrified. A smile slowly crept across her face, her teeth as white as pearls before she let go of the handfuls of her dress and pulled her hat away from her face.

    "Is something wrong?" She called out to him in a sweet voice, the sounds twisting around him like a melody of an orchestra playing their concerto. The church bell rung out in the distance as the moonlight poured over her copper skin, revealing the horrible scars stretched out across her face.

    "Uh...." He stepped back again and tripped over a barrel, toppling into the dirt as she advanced. She followed him up until he was cornered against the village wall. She stopped right as she was in front of his face, forcing him to look at her. Into her mysterious cerise pink eyes.

    "Can you tell me where Winter's is?" She hardly breathed. His mouth hung open, but he could hardly speak and only a squeak rose to the surface.

    "Left of the cathedral" He spluttered and looked down at the lacey bodice of her dress, not daring to look into her eyes any longer.

    She chuckled softly and stepped back, plucking a flower from a nearby bush. The man swallowed as she lifted it to her nose. A Belladonna flower. He recognized it. She inhaled deeply and chuckled again, plucking a berry from the small bud and popping it whole into her mouth.

    "Thank you" She chewed the berry and smiled, her lips stained with blue berry juice. She walked off down the dirt path towards the cathedral and disappeared around the back end of it, leaving the man standing speechless.

    Impossible... he thought. Those berries are as poisonous as a scorpion...She must be a witch...

    He turned and fled for the town pub, hardly able to contain his excitement at the new town gossip.