• My Dearest Diary:

    Today I learned something I wish I had years and years ago.

    The guard was around me, tight all day. I couldn't even pick up a flower without them crushing it into the ground first. I still have that flower, pressed into the very pages of this book. Petals are mashed; the single leaf became detached before I could get the thing to safety. It used to be very pretty, but now is broken and dead, just like I am.

    As soon as I could get away, I sprinted to the forest. I climbed a tree and remained still for hours until they finally showed up at the roots and called up my name. I refused to come down. They threatened by telling me they would cut down the tree with me in it. Of course they wouldn't, I'm too valuble to them to risk my safety.

    So in the branches I remained until the morning light came, the guards snoozing beneath my feet. I wish with all my might that I would've climbed down to escape while they were sleeping, but I knew I would've made it down in time without waking them. The slightest rustle of leaves would've set them off.

    I eventually let them pull me down and lead me back to the castle -- which was more of an insane asylum in my case -- to face my father, my creator.

    "I wish you would have obeyed, Rana. Now I'll have to punish you." My father had said in a soft, gentle voice. My father loved me, but he did what he did to protect me.

    "Do as you will." I said and took a quick bow. I knew he would go easy on me; I was his perfect daughter, his most prized creation.

    I was sent to my room without the large buffet I usually aquired, but instead received a light meal of juicy fruits and warm, toasted bread. It's what I mostly ate any other day, but my father must have forgotten that fact.

    The light soon dimmed from my room, leaving me in the pitch darkness I revelled in. My maid brought a couple candles, one after the other, but I puffed them all out before I could lose my sight of the night.

    I was waken from my slumber by a faint green light in the corner away from my bed. Curiously, I slipped into my robe and stepped across the room, then stooped to the light. It was radiating from a small green stone that sat as if it had been placed there moments ago. I moved to pick it up, but the light created a soft frost on my hand. With a little enthusiasm, I held the rock in my palm, then closed my hand around it. The frost moved up my arm and froze every bit of me, slowly but steadily. I turned to go back to bed to see if I would wake up from some dream but stopped when I saw her.

    A small girl was sitting on my bed, face covered by her long, raven black hair. She was wearing a thin dress the same green shade as the stone. She looked up at me with knowing teal eyes and stood, then touched my forehead with her index finger.

    "You now belong to me." She said faintly, then disappeared into the darkness.

    Surely I was dreaming, but the next morning I still felt the chills I had the night before.

    The maid was scared stiff when she saw me rise from the bed, though I couldn't tell why. When I spoke to her she fled the room in a panic.

    I looked in the mirror and was amazed at what I saw. My flowing golden hair had turned a deep black that curled its way to the floor. My skin had turned a snow white, my lips the bloodiest of reds. My eyes had turned a strange green color that seemed to glow in the morning sun. As I stepped closer to the mirror and softly stroke my delicate features, it froze solid, creating large spikes of ice that rose high in the air. I gazed at my palm, which was radiating a soft greenish color.

    I had become something I had only read about in books. The lavish dress and glitter around one eye proved it to me.

    I was now my father's worst enemy.

    Nothing could've been better in my life.

    But even now as I write to you, it worries me deeply that someone will come and find me out in this dark cave I have made my home. Maybe just a slight paranoia. Or maybe a premonition? Will I ever really know?

    The small girl visits me every night of the full moon, watching my power mature.

    The height of my power is almost reached, she says. Soon I will be able to attack my father's kingdom and rule as my new self with the small girl by my side. A reign of ice cold cruelty, so that everyone will feel my pain, that everyone will feel exactly how I felt under the rule of my own father.

    True, I will be sad to see him pass, but now my father could not loathe me more in his life. Shall I end that fury for him, so that he may rest in peace?

    The plan has been developing for years on end now. The ice that surrounds me keeps me the way I was that one fateful morning. I will be young as ever when I go to confront my father, the traitor that kept me penned up from my destiny my whole life.

    I've learned something I wish I had long long ago: revenge is a stake that everyone must take now and then, to keep the mind and soul fresh and close to your heart, because reality is something you can't rely on anymore.