Life in the Shadows

The two teenagers slowly made their way back up to the Castle, one far more reluctant than the other. “Can’t I just wait out here?” asked the one with red hair
“No, Eva. I have a plan, you won’t need to go back in to that room” the dark one smiled evilly. Aurora had a plan; that much Evanna knew. What the plan was, however, Evanna didn’t have the faintest idea.
As the two drew closer to the back door, a grey figure began to grow bolder and bolder. Amalia stood there with her arms crossed, looking down disapprovingly at her daughter. Her cheeks were tinted pink, from when she had been blushing earlier, but her eyes were stony.
Damn it. Evanna thought as they gained yet more distance. Her Mother stood there, glaring down at the two girls, her arms crossed tightly across her chest. She wasn't happy.
“Back in” she hissed, beginning to steer Evanna towards the room that contained the waiting men.
Evanna’s eyes widened. Aurora! Help!She thought as hard as she possibly could. And as if by magic Aurora’s plan suddenly kicked into action.
“Urm, sorry Aunt Amalia, Evie here isn’t feeling to good, so I’m going to take her up to her room to lie down, if that's okay” Aurora said sweetly.
Amalia surveyed the two teenagers, her good eyesight failing to spot the prod Aurora gave Evanna before she began to cough.
“Very well, but, Evanna, you’re not getting out of this” and with that, Amalia turned on her heel and stalked back into the house.
Evanna smiled widely and began skipping into the house before Aurora grabbed a hold of one of her arms, pulling her back
“You’re ill, remember?” she hissed before they slowly made their way up to Evanna’s room in the East Wing of the Castle.
Ill...Evanna thought No, more like sick. Sick of this. Being trapped. Never allowed to be outside the massive iron gates. The gates sealing her from the rest of civilisation. Yup,Evanna decided. She definitely wasn't ‘ill’ she was sick.

As soon as the door slammed close behind the two teenagers Evanna pulled her arm out of Aurora’s grip and headed over to her wardrobes, dragging a suitcase out of the corner of her room. It looked as though this had been ready for some time, as if it had already been planned.
Evanna was flicking through rails of clothing, some she automatically snatched off of the golden rails and chucked on her suitcase and others she simply skimmed past, her ivory hands not lingering over them for more than half a second.
Aurora stood helpless. Not sure what to say or do. Was her cousin actually leaving?
She didn’t want to believe it. She wouldn’t believe it.

Evanna, on the other hand, would believe that she was leaving this prison. Sixteen years was enough. She couldn’t stand it for much longer.
“Evanna, you’re not leaving. Are you?” Aurora asked almost silently. Evanna looked at her cousin briefly before returning to her packing.
Aurora took that to mean yes; she was leaving.
“Don't go...”she whispered
Evanna pretended not to have heard her cousin’s fragile words, but in reality they echoed around her skull, rebounding from on part to another. Over and over again.
Don't go.

“I’m leaving” she announced, but the words didn’t seem to come out of Evanna’s mouth. It seemed as though an invisible stranger had uttered them, and she was merely a listener. It didn’t seem right for Evanna to be saying those words.
“I have to get out of here” Evanna tried a different way of phrasing it, but yet again it sounded alien like to her.

Evanna looked down at her fully packed suitcase and then to her window, the one that led to the balcony. Slowly, she walked over to it and stared out over the grounds of Schwarzes Lock. All of this would be hers to explore if she did leave, but all of it would be hers to be trapped in, without a way of getting out.
She had to leave...she knew that much. But she couldn’t escape into Schwarzes Lock; she would be trapped quicker than she had escaped. If she did leave...she would have to go to the Human Realms.
That thought scared Evanna; she had never been out of the Castle, let alone out of Schwarzes Lock. How would she cope with a whole new world?
Evanna was so consumed with her own thoughts she nearly missed what Aurora said next.
“Leaving so soon?”