1 The Carriage

It's been long since anyone remembered a time without the carriage.

I've only read about it in books, an old book I got from a travelling market to be exact. It said that one day the forest's core was swallowed up by mist that devoured anyone who dared wandered into it.

The carriage came soon after and it was mainly curiosity that drew people to give away their daughters. A piece of parchment asking for their eldest unmarried daughter and an unimaginable sum of gold would be found inside. To even lift the gold you had to accept the terms, and by nothing other than witchcraft the carriage knew and would release your riches. Your daughter was then pulled into the carriage and never seen again.

Falkvar Forest is a massive, dense woodland that stretches over the northernmost part of our country. It's home to hundreds of tiny towns and villages who all focus on forest related industry. In Hyst, my hometown, most people are fur trappers and hunters. My father is a senior hunter, he is often away from home leading hunts with our neighbours. My mother was the best tanner around and could make hides look absolutely perfect. I tended a garden of herbs and flowers, we lived a happy life. We're far away from the misty forest center and rarely see the carriage.

I look outside the window and see trees and villages that dot the road. People would wait at the roadside checking if the carriage had found its prey and cry in relief when they saw me.

How wonderful for them. I saw a mother hug her daughter tightly and sob happy tears.

I suppose I am bitter. I had dreams, I had wishes for my future. I wanted to be an apothecary. I spent my childhood wandering the woods and collecting herbs and studying them. I got a rash so many times from poison leaves.

I didn't really have a choice, unfortunately, my mother is ailing and my father wants to move to the prairie to live safely with my older sister and her family. My older sister Cordelia ran as far away as she could when she became the age the carriage prefers to take.

She's a coward. My family wouldn't have been put into the situation where they'd sell me to some unspeakable horror if she had stayed. My mother wouldn't be sick because of the cold that clings to your bones and eats you alive in the forest. My father would still have the fingers that froze off in the wintertime during a hunt. I hate her. She left us and now I have to die. I have to be selfless and be the sacrifice.

That is what elder sisters are supposed to do.

I think it's been three days on the road. It gets darker as we reach the center so I am starting to lose track of it. I fall asleep on the plush seats and find food to eat when I awaken. I don't question anything anymore, I'm in a demon carriage rolling to my doom.

I haven't seen a town or village for ages now, the birds stopped chirping and the wildlife is suspiciously absent. The trees grow impossibly tall and it sounds like we're on cobblestone now.

I look out the window to see a bridge. Lanterns dot the stone railing but they emit no light, its almost as they create the fog from their flames.

The air feels heavy.

I feel sick.