The Backyard

She watched him. She studied him. She knew him so well that she could steal him out from the house with the parents present even. The house was blue, cold, and next to a brown pond with green algae. He wouldn't go willingly by any means, but that didn't matter she could lure him out with a magic or something. She knew many of those, invented many of those, she even practiced them when walking the woods looking so menacingly in her black hood and white skin, all tattered and bony. He was playing with his friends in the backyard. He was a cute little boy. He was white with brown hair, brown eyes, and a little belly. His friends were brats however, all loud and obnoxious, she could barely stand their screams when watching him. He was quiet though, and nice. He would be a good listener. She would rear him, teach him the dark arts. It would be trying at first, he would miss his family, but after a while of conjuring and bending the monsters of the earth, it would be easy. She could animate paper, make a few dolls of his parents full of web and dust, it wouldn't take long. She knew that she had to keep close to the trees or else she would be seen, she was rather hideous after all. When she would first grab him he would make herself beautiful and appealing. But as the time would go on she would let her spell falter and eventually he would understand that a monster raised him. There could be no lies when teaching with the dark. The sun was going down, his mother would call him in soon. The sky was turning orange and red as the sky drifted. He hated to go inside and see his friends leave, he would wait and stand to look at the edge of the woods. He would do that again tonight she knew it, that would be her moment. She opened her white withered hand and a butterfly appeared, one of pure ruby light, that hummed and danced. She sent it out of the woods gently, across the fresh-cut green backyard towards the boy who had begun staring into the dark.