Acceptance

On the outskirts of Daydream lived a single person his name is Belladonna. He lived in a small cottage with little of anything, only the bare minimum. The only things he had that were out of the ordinary was his pocket watch and the key they both hung from his neck every second of everyday. Belladonna was forced to live outside the village of Daydream because of his odd appearance, he was often called a demon or a monster. He never felt loved, not even his parents loved him. 

 He’s lived on his own since he was 5 he learnt to talk by listening to others talk and learnt to write by practicing in the mud on rainy days. He learnt to hunt on his own and all the things he can do now he learnt on his own. No matter what happened to him or what others did to him. He still protected the people of Daydream because they were all he knew besides the forest of Dane which is where he hunts to feed the village and himself. Even though he was used to this he always wanted to see what was in Bloodwood Grove, the forest behind his house.  Everyone said “It’s haunted” and that the devil himself lives there. Belladonna just felt like he should go in there, but he ignored the feeling. He often catches himself looking out into the forest to try and see something really. He was currently celebrating his 24th birthday alone again he made the same wish every year every chance he gets i wish for someone to love me he thought to himself and heard a knock at his door he got up and opened the door to see his mother stella she said “The village needs you to go and hunt tomorrow so don't get to cozy thinking you'll get a day of”. She walked off without a response and Belladonna closed the door and signed “Why can’t they just leave me alone?” 

He asked himself to get no reply. He sighed again and went over to his bed and layed down thinking someone love me please. He cried himself to sleep but he woke up to the sound of water running not to far away from him so he got up and followed the sound to find a river, he followed the river to find a waterfall with a large waterhole he felt angry knowing the villagers had taken him from his home again but as he looked at the water underneath the cliff he was standing on he felt his anger slowly disappear as he started to feel calm he thought to himself well i might as well enjoy the water will it lasts. Belladonna took his shirt off leaving him in his shorts as he went closer to the edge he took a deep breath and jumped off the edge of the cliff to dive into the water he felt the cool water run on his skin and cool down his nerves and emotions. He broke the surface to breath when he saw the stars glinting in the dark sky he smiled and went back to enjoying the water soon enough though he had to get out and walked up the path to the top of the cliff to find his shirt still there thankful none of the animals decided his shirt was a good night snack he put his shirt on and started to find his way home.

As the sun started to rise Belladonna could see where he was walking. He found his house easy enough he walked into his house and changed into his hunting gear and headed towards the forest of Dane when he entered the forest he took a deep breath and started his hunt. By midday Belladonna had collected enough to feed everyone in the village for 3 months so he headed to the village to give everyone their portion of the meat he got before he exited the forest he did his little forgiveness prayer “Please forgive me for taking the innocent souls to feed the people of daydream.” Belladonna after he gave everyone they meat he headed home to get some sleep which he locked his door so he could sleep uninterrupted. When he layed down he fell straight to sleep he ‘woke up’ on the border of the Bloodwood Grove. Belladonna got up, dusted himself off and stared into the trees only to catch a glimpse of a shadow running through the trees in the opposite direction to where he was standing. Belladonna decided to ignore what the people of daydream said and ran after the shadow calling “Hey, why are you running? Where are you going? Who are you? Slow down please.” His breathing is fast and quick. He looked behind him to see a large group of ghost-like creatures chasing them. He heard one say “grab the hybrid, Alastor would like a plaything I’ll grab the thief.” A smaller group separated from the rest and started to chase the figure in front of him as some of the others sped up to try and grab him. Belladonna swerved and ducked behind trees and tried to follow the figure but he soon lost sight of them and he was growing tired but he could still hear the creatures following him. There was a faint sound of hooves on the ground in front of him horses large black stallions came into view Belladonna slowed to a stop as the beautiful horses passed him and ran straight for the ghost like creatures he was running from he heard a voice in front of him say “Are you going to stare into nothingness or are you going to get on?” Belladonna turned around and looked at the person on the stallion and said “I'll get on.” He moved to the side of the horse and climbed on the back of the saddle as the person turned around and started a fast gallop to somewhere. He decided to ask“What’s your name?” “Octavia, yours?” “Belladonna pleasure to meet you.” They could see a few buildings now Belladonna asked “Where are we?” Octavia replied “Welcome to wondermare.” As they slowed to a trot the people who were out stopped to stare. “Octavia!” A voice yelled further down as Octavia got off the stallion she said “Good boy Stolas, good boy.” She helped Belladonna down and turned around to find a male she said “Finnian take Stolas to his stable and while you're at it tell Marian to get me a glass of fresh blood and some food for our guest, also tell Gray that those blasted ghouls were chasing me again.” “Yes, Octavia.” Finnian left with Stolas. Belladonna turned to Octavia and asked “Where are we going?” “To the palace numbnuts.” “Ok.”

 They started walking to a large castle that towered over the town. Belladonna was shocked he hadn't seen it from his house. They quickly got to the very large castle that looked almost abandoned. They walked in the double doors to hear the sound of a clock chime somewhere deep in the castle and Belladonna checked his pocket watch to find that it’s 11:30 he asked “Why is there a chime when it’s 30 minutes until 12?” Octavia replied “Because the king  Abberline is getting more impatient for the right person to have the key to open the grandfather clock he was imprisoned in from the moment he turned 8 till he gets out of the clock unfortunately none of us know where the key is or who has it.” “Oh that's not good, I hope he's ok.” Octavia says “He’ll be ok, he's just getting impatient, he's been doing his duties as king even though he's trapped.” “Well if you say so.” They continued walking until they found a room with an ornate door. Octavia knocked on the door in a rhythm. “Come in Octavia.” said a deep and silky voice from the room. Octavia opened the door for Belladonna to walk in and followed, closing the door behind her. “Ah you have a friend with you Octavia or is it just a guest?” The voice said “Just a friend of mine your majesty.” “Oh you know how I detest formalities like that, Octavia.” “Yes I know Abberline, you were never one for tradition.” “Introduce me to your friend Via. I hardly ever see anyone new.” “Well, introduce yourself.” Belladonna took a shaky breath and said “My name’s Belladonna sir.” “Just call me Abberline, my lady.” “Umm I'm male Abberline and I'm 24.” “Oh my apologies then you're not too much younger then me i’m 27.” “Oh well that's interesting, not many of the people i meet are close in age to me actually the closest was 9 years younger than me.” “Oh wow well you're welcome to stay as long as you like.” “Thank you Abberline.” “No problem now Octavia show our guest to his room and give him all the hospitality we can give.” “Yes Abberline, come on Belladonna.” “Coming.” They leave Abberline to silence as they walk to Belladonna's room. As they walk they run into Finnian and he says “Octavia i have your  drink here and the food is in room 27 the maids have finished cleaning it and everything.” “Thank you Finnian, we’ll head that way now.” Octavia replied after taking a long sip of the blood in her chalice. Finnian left after that and they continued on their way in a comfortable silence, they soon arrived at a room with a silver plate with Belladonna carved into it in cursive. Octavia broke the silence “This is your room till you decide whether you want a house in town, outside of town, or you stay in here ok?” “Ok thank you for everything Octavia.” “No problem Donna.” “Good night Octavia.” “Good night Belladonna.” He closed the door and locked it. He walked over to the bed and layed down thinking as he sighed. Maybe my key works. I don't know, I'm just too tired to think. Belladonna fell into a dreamless sleep that was the best sleep he’s ever gotten. He woke up to the sun streaming through his window.

He yawned and stretched to hear a few satisfying cracks. After that he got up and went to one of the doors in his room to find a bathroom he closed the door and went to the other door in his room to find a balcony and closed it to walk over to the wardrobe to find a lot of clothes he grabbed some and went to clean himself up in the bathroom. Belladonna had just finished getting dressed to hear a knock on the door. He walked over and opened the door to find Octavia “Good morning Octavia.” he greeted “Good morning.” She greeted. He walked out and closed the door behind him as they started towards the meal hall for breakfast. “How'd you sleep Belladonna?” “Good, what about you, Octavia?” “pretty good.” they arrived at the meal hall to see it’s empty so they walked in and sat at one of the tables making small talk when Finnian ran in and whispered something to Octavia that had her stand up so fast she knocked her chair on the ground and running out of the hall with Finnian leaving Belladonna to his own devices. Belladonna decided to talk to Abberline to see if he could try his key on the grandfather clock. The hallways were quiet aside from the rain that started pouring down suddenly lightning flashed, lighting the already dimly lit hallway as the wind howled and blew out the candle light with thunder crashing outside. Belladonna continued walking now on high alert from the storm that started out of nowhere he walked until he saw the familiar door he saw yesterday. He picked up his pace as he grew nearer to the door when he was in front of it he walked straight in terrified from the storm. Belladonna turned around to find the grandfather clock with no Abberline in the glass he ran over saying “please still be there, please, please, please still be there.” As he pulled his key from under his shirt to try and open the clock when he heard a growl from behind him he stilled frozen with fear as to what could be behind him when he remembered the poignard on his waist for self defense purposes. Belladonna slowly grabbed hold of the intricate poignard and waited for something to happen when a chime rang from the clock in front of him causing him to flinch which sent the creature behind him into action. It leapt at him and dug its claws into his shoulder drawing blood Belladonna swung his blade up and into the creatures eye causing it to let go and fall to the floor in pain it quickly recovered and went after Belladonna again as he swung to slice its stomach which left it to lay on the floor Belladonna didn't want to take any chances and pierced its heart. He pulled his poignard from the body and turned to the clock and asked “Abberline are you still there?” He heard a shaky voice reply “yes but I'm terrified of storms. I hate them. Can you stay here and talk to me when the storm rages outside?” “Yes, I'd love some company as well. I hate storms too.” “If you don’t mind me asking why are you afraid of them?” It was this question that made Belladonna sigh and think why not I've kept it secret for as long as I can remember. 

“I suppose I can tell you though you can’t tell anyone else it’s been my secret for as long as I can remember.” “I won't say anything without your permission.” “thanks Abberline.” “No problem.” “So it was a stormy night much like this. I was in my room playing with my teddy bear’s when my mum walked in and asked “why aren’t you in bed yet?” I told her I couldn’t sleep with the storm but she just told me to get in bed so I did but I couldn’t sleep no matter what, I got out of bed and walked downstairs and out the door to have a walk because the rain normally calmed me down but I got to the edge of bloodwood grove and decided to turn around and go home but my mum had different plans as she found me and told me to stay were I was, I sat down and stayed put but she never came to get me so I built a little shelter to keep the rain at bay and slowly i built the house that now stands there and I asked my mum why she never came to get me but she just told me that she didn’t have the room to house me anymore so I left it alone but I’m still scared of storms just because my mum left me out in the storm alone and cold.” When Belladonna finished he was crying. Abberline said “now my reason sounds silly to me now yours is justified.” Belladonna wiped his eye’s to get rid of the tears and said “I won't judge you can tell me and I won't tell a soul living or dead.” “haha thanks Belladonna, that means alot to me.” “no problem and you can call me Donna if you like.” “Ok Donna, well I used to like the storms and the rain but I always had a nightmare on stormy nights that someone would be running and having fun in the rain but they got lost and had to live alone from then on.” “That sounds scary.” “Yeah, I guess it does.” “Thanks for hearing me out, Abberline. I've kept it a secret for so long I forgot how much it helps to tell people even if it’s just one.” “Thank you too Donna. I've never really opened up to someone and shown someone my more vulnerable side.” “Well, while I’m helping. Could I try my key on the clock?” “You have a key?” “Yeah I keep it hidden under my shirt all the time.” Belladonna said as he pulled the key from under his shirt. Abberline said, “yeah you can try but I highly doubt it will do anything.” Belladonna stepped closer and put the key to the lock and inserted it shaking slightly thinking please work please work please. As he saw the key go in the lock he turned it slowly and after what felt like hours but was only a few seconds they heard a click come from the lock and Belladonna slowly opened the door for Abberline to slowly walk out of the clock. Abberline stared at Belladonna for a few minutes and Belladonna was getting nervous he said “I guess you're free now.” Abberline replied, “Yes and I have you to thank for everything.” “No need to thank me, I don't deserve thanks.” “Yes you do, you deserve so much more than what's happened to you.” As the storm slowly started to soften, Abberline walked closer to Belladonna and asked While, staring into his mitch matched eyes “may i?” 

All he got was a nod and that was all he needed as he leaned closer until the gap between them closed and their lips met in sweet gentle bliss, the rain soft and their love full. While they made gentle love that night the ghouls were defeated and the town of Wondermare was peaceful for the first time in forever and the people slept soundly that night. Belladonna woke up the next morning in his house on the border of Bloodwood Grove and started to cry.