A Strange Story: Chapter one

Chapter one

I leaned out of the window and took a gulp of the cool, fresh spring air. Who am I? Well, let me introduce myself. I am Lydia, just a normal girl like any other girl. Well, not exactly like any other girl, but sort of. I’m nineteen years old and I study mathematics. Somehow, numbers have always interested me, I don’t know why. Anyway, there I was, leaning out of the window, when I heard my father cough in the room next to me. He was very ill and the doctors said they couldn’t help him. He was probably going to die very soon. With a great sigh I walked into his room and stood next to his bed. I layed my hand on his forehead in a loving gesture.
‘Oh dad,’ I said softly. ‘Please don’t die.’ I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I talked to him nevertheless. It comforted me. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around. There was my stephmother, looking at me with a face of pure contempt. She didn’t like me very much, but I didn’t care. I felt likewise about her.
‘Hello, daughter,’ she said, and her voice was, as always, cold.
‘Hey mum,’ I replied. She insisted on calling her that, God knows why. ‘Something wrong?’ She laughed, but it didn’t sound happy.
‘Why would there be something wrong?’ she replied. ‘O wait, maybe there is. Maybe I just read your father’s will and I’m not in it! Maybe he’ll leave everything to you!’ I stood there, totally bewildered, mouth open. I guess I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t really fond of my stephmother. Not that it came as a total surprise, I knew how my father had talked about her, but I didn’t expect him to leave all his posessions to me and nothing to her.
‘That means, dear child,’ she went on, ‘that even this house will be yours.’
‘O,’ I said. It was the only thing I could think of. Inside I was filled with joy, but I fought not to let that show on my face. It would only make matters worse. I stood there silent while she glared at me, and when she realised I wasn’t going to say anthing, she turned around angrily and left the room, her long dress sweeping behind her. When I was sure she was gone, I allowed a broad smile to appear on my face.
‘Thank you dad,’ I whispered, and I squeezed his hand. ‘I’ll let you rest now, please get well soon.’ I returned to my room and set down at my desk, where I was brewing a nice poison from some new herbs I found in the forest the day before. Yes, I brew poison. It’s a hobby of mine. A bit macabre maybe, but I don’t really poison people with it. It’s just for the fun of doing it. I also prepare the antidotes, that’s part of the fun. I sometimes like to test both of them on myself. Lucky for me, I never mess up and those experiments always turn out fine. I just have the feeling for it, I guess.
I gently stirred the greenish liquid while I added so more weeds. It’s amazing really, you can make a very strong poison with only a few plants you can find just right around the corner. It really fascinates me, and that is probably the only reason why I do this. I’m not really into killing people. Thought I must admit I have been tempted.
I gazed up at the neat row of small bottles that I had collected over the years and nodded approvingly. It may be a strange hobby, but at least I was enjoying myself. I stood up and walked to my terrarium, where Edgar (named after E. A. Poe), my pet bearded dragon, was lying lazily under his heat lamp. Got to love those little things, really. I took a grasshopper from a plastic container, put it in the terrarium and watched how Edgar suddenly became active and started to chase his meal. He was so adorable.
‘Lydia!’ my stephmother suddenly shouted. ‘Time for dinner!’ I reluctantly walked to the dining room. I shouldn’t have been complaining really, I was lucky she even fed me. I just didn’t like sitting there alone with her, staring into my plate and saying nothing. It’s that kind of silence that sounds awfully loud, if you know what I mean.
When I arrived she had already started to eat, slurping her soup. I sat down, took the spoon in my left hand and gazed into the tomato soup.
Fresh from the can, I thought, just like everything else you make. I started to eat, although I wasn’t hungry at all.
You can’t even warm up some soup without doing something wrong, I thought, because I noticed it tasted funny. She had probably let it burn or something. Nevertheless, I ladled down the whole plate, not in the mood for argueing. When I finished eating, I noticed that she was looking at me with a twisted smile on her face. A horrible thought came to my mind, and I stood up so fast that my chair tipped over. I started to feel dizzy and grabbed the table.
‘What did you do?’ I asked, and my voice was a mixture of anger and fear. She held up a small glass bottle and let out an evil laugh.
‘I thought I’d borrow one of these. Hope you don’t mind?’ There was no time to waste. I sped off to my bedroom, leaving my stephmother roaring with laughter. The poison was working quickly and I felt my legs grow numb. I skidded to a halt and ran to my desk, panting. I scanned the neat row of bottles as fast as I could and tried to find out which one was missing.
‘Damn it!’ I cursed as I started to feel weaker and weaker. Then suddenly I fell, and everything became dark. Dark, so dark...