A memory flashed through her mind... Silk had hoped she'd lost it, but knew that would never happen.
Somewhere, an autumn in the early '20s.
Five young girls moved slowly through the hallways of their dormitory. It was almost an hour past their curfew, but The White Witch -the name the kids at boarding school gave Miss Jamesson- had just finished her round through their wing and wouldn't be back for at least another 2 hours.
Quietly whispering and giggling they sneaked through the hallways on their way to the southern exit. From there, it would only take a short sprint across the grass to the bushes and through the cover of those bushes they could easily make it to the back entrance of the swimming pool building, which had been jammed from locked by... what was her name again, Stephany?.. this morning during swim class.
The girls didn't have much trouble finding their way through the unlit hallways or the dark garden; Catty -short for Catherine- and her elven eyes had no trouble leading the way in the moonlight. She was at the rear of the group, confident she could get back to her room without being caught if they ran into one of the wardens.
They reached their destination without trouble and waited, the boys from the dormitories on the other side of the grounds wouldn't be much longer.
The girls heard them coming before they saw them, an "ouch" coming from behind the bushes, followed by another voice with the same "ouch" and a couple of swearwords. A few seconds later the boys emerged, two of them slightly limping from hitting their leg against a statuette.
The girls giggled when their 'dates' entered the building.
"What took you boys? We got here long before you.", she said in her most mocking voice. She practiced it a lot.
"Oh, I bet they were just afraid in the dark.", Merissa laughed.
"And we did it without getting hurt, too", Josy -Josephine- added.
"Bah! We don't have a pointy-ear to guide us!". Henry's ego obviously hurt more than his shin.
"Yeah, we got here ourselves, without needing a stupid Dandelion Eater!" Johnathan -Henry's faithful lackey- spat, happy to get a chance to use a word he overheard his father use last weekend.
Catty was furious. "You take that back!", she shouted.
"Or what? You're gonna make me?"
She ran towards him and aimed a kick at his already hurt shin. "Yeah, you stupid..."
It just happened, a simple accident, could happen to anyone anywhere anytime. Johnathan defended himself by pushing her away, Catty fell backward, hit her head on the side of the pool and landed in the water. Her soaked heavy clothes dragged her unconscious body down.
"Shit, I didn't mean to... where is she?!"
A couple of bubbles floated up, the body stayed down in the darkness of the water, she saw a dark black cloud forming around the body. "I think she's bleeding."
They all panicked and ran back into the night. None of the girls noticed that she was in the lead now and didn't seem to have any problem moving in the darkness either; she didn't think anything about it herself.
No one talked, not then, not ever. School was suspended for that week, the children sent home because an Elf girl at her school had snuck out by herself at night and had tripped and drowned.
Later at home, all her father had to say about the accident at her school was "Just goes to prove that those things can only see that good in the dark to prowl around at night, who knows what secrets those lurking freaks are hiding. Good riddance. Let it be a lesson, baby girl: never trust those pointy-eared devils!"
That night as she lay quietly crying in bed, she heard her father beating her mother and shouting that she should have told him that his little angel had been put in a class with one of those mutant freaks.
She knew where prejudice could lead.
Comm: "You know, there was a moment in history when most people probably thought just the same about dwarfs. Freaks of nature, better to have never been born. Can't trust those things. Small, strong and eyes that can see body warmth, so they can stalk you at night, the Devil's little imps."
