Mysterious girl

The mother who this story is referring to is me. My name is Marianne. I live in a village surrounded by woods. So yes our village is pretty much secluded from the rest of the world. Maybe out there were communities who were more evolved than us, we simply didn’t know and most of us didn’t care. We did have all we needed. We had a bakery, a grocery, a blacksmith, a church and a doctor. Once a week a merchant came from the big city delivering stuff that we couldn’t produce or find here. All we had to do was ordering it to him. All of us had a small garden in which we cultivated vegetables and crops. Fruits we could find on the trees near the church and in the woods. The church was like an entrance to the woods. Sure you could enter the woods from other sides but there were hardly any gaps. Chances were big you would tear your clothes on the branches and get scratches on your body. I once tried it when I was a kid thinking I was small enough to do so but I got such a scratch in my face that I ran home to my mother crying because my cheek was bleeding. My parents had forbidden me ever going to the woods on my own again. And even if they are not alive any more and I’m now a mother in my thirties, I still don’t go into the woods without a companion. I know in broad daylight there is no danger but at night yes than you shouldn’t go there. There are no wolves in the forest at least none of us has ever seen one. But there is something in the woods we don’t know what but we all feel that it is something evil. That is why you would see no one outside when darkness had fallen and definitely not anywhere near the woods. Long time ago there was a young girl named Melissa who got curious and went into the woods at night. She was never seen again. Searching for weeks did not lead to anything not a single trace. Everyone supposes she was taken by that evil thing whatever it was and it had eaten her. That’s why we all stayed inside our houses. We felt safe there but all of us realized that evil would strike again and might even come to us if we didn’t go to it.

I thought we saw the first signs of our common fear when my daughter and only child Cina came home with a girl with a ragged dress and long dark purple hair. She had no shoes on her feet walking barefoot. I had not seen anything like that before and “witch” was the first thought that crossed my mind. I wanted to grab my daughter and take her away from that girl, but the purple haired girl quickly went after my daughter’s back hiding herself. I was surprised that the girl was scared of me instead of me of her. My daughter turned around and put her arm around the girl saying: “Don’t be scared Alexandrina. This is my mother. She is nice.” Alexandrina said nothing hiding her face on my daughter’s shoulder as if she was afraid she was going to get hit. Cina looked at me and said: “Mother, do we still have some bread left? Alexandrina is so hungry, she hasn’t been eating for days.” This was a pretty direct request from my daughter to invite this girl in and eat on our table. I wanted to say that it was not possible because there was no more food left in the house but that would be a blatant lie. Cina knew that I always had something in reserve and besides I couldn’t lie to her. It was as if my daughter knew I was unwilling to give in to her request as she started talking in a begging voice: “Please mother, look at her. She is so skinny and pale. You always told me we have to help people who are in need even if we don’t know them that well.” Alexandrina turned her head to me with sad eyes and tears rolling down her cheeks. I sighed. If there was anything that would make me want to comfort a person it were tears. Just like my daughter said, there was no colour on the purple haired girl’s face and she looked so thin and fragile. I said: “Ok, bring her in. I just have baked some fresh bread.”