The small village on the outskirts of Russia lived a quite life, until Ivan Koshka came bringing with him his 2 year old daughter, Karen. The other kids were scared of Karen for unknown reasons; every time they saw her, they would run away in fear. Karen wanted to make friends, but no one wanted to be her friend. Even the adults acted odd around her, they talked to her like she was an adult. Karen hated her life because her father seemed to hate her. The one thing that Karen wanted most was a mother; her mother died in child birth. At least that is what her father told her before telling her to shut up and leave him alone.

Then Karen’s life was turned upside down on the day of her 6th birthday. Her father used her birthday as a way to get drunk with his friends. Karen usually hides in her room; she made the mistake one year of coming into her father’s view when he was drunk and he threw a knife at her. The knife luckily missed, but it still scared Karen. But on this night she heard her name mentioned and decided to investigate. Karen hears nothing at first, then one of the friends speaks, “So how did you come here, and how come you have a child but no wife?”

Karen’s dad laughs loudly and says proudly, “it wasn’t always just me and that brat; she did have a mother one time. I met her mother when she was pregnant with Karen. I married her because there was a legend that there was a powerful witch that would be born of a non-pregnant woman.

“The birth of the child would require a human sacrifice so on the day of Karen’s birth I killed her mother; cutting open her stomach and removed the child. Instead of milk as her first drink I fed Karen her mother’s blood.” At those words Karen let out a little gasp but covered her mouth before her father heard her. “The village we lived in before became suspicious after her mother died so I left and came here bringing Karen with me,” her father finished proudly. Another man spoke, “what will you do if she isn’t this witch that you are talking about?”

“If she turns out to not be the witch I’ll kill her,” Ivan replied.

Karen ran to her room after she heard this and collapsed on her bed. She punched her pillow; crying hard. At that instant there was a shattering sound and Karen looked up to see the shattered remains of a vase on her floor.

Karen’s father had left last night and still hadn’t returned so Karen used the opportunity to look through his room. Now that she knew he had killed her mother because he believed her to be this witch Karen wanted to know where he had gotten the idea from.

Karen walked around and began to look through his drawers and his closet. Finally she looked under the bed and found a box. She took the box into her room and opened it. Inside where two items; she pulled out the first item, a large book, and then took out the second one, a picture of a young woman. The woman had long brown hair and sparkling brown eyes. Karen knew that this was her mother because it looked exactly like her. Karen placed the picture of her mother on her bedside table and picked up the book. It was a pretty old book; the cover was faded so the lettering couldn’t be seen. The moment Karen picked up the book it started to glow.

Dropping it quickly, Karen backed away from it. She was scared of it and decided to take the risk and ask her father about the book before she started to read it. She left the book lying on her bed, afraid to touch it again, and sat waiting for her father. He arrived a few hours later and Karen slowly approached him as he sat in the living room. He looked up when she entered the room and said gruffly, “what do you want?” Karen took a deep breath but decided that it wasn’t worth the risk seeing as he would probably get mad at her for going into his room. So she said simply, “nothing,” and retreated back into her room.

Karen paced her room, wondering what to do about the book. She wanted to read it to see if it said anything about this supposed witch child but she didn’t want it glowing again. Finally, with her curiosity eating away at her, she sat down and picked up the book again. This time it lay dark in her hands and slowly she opened the book; the first page read one word, “Megara”. Skimming through pages full of spells Karen found a section about creating a witch. The child had to drink the blood of the dead mother and they will be filled with the evil magic. At the bottom there was a note about a special witch; this witch was born to a non-married woman. Karen read further and found out that the child would be born even more powerful than a regular witch.

Karen couldn’t believe it; her father had told the truth. But then she noticed something else; not all children that were fed their mother’s blood and those who turned out to not become witches were killed. Karen hoped that she was a witch so that her father wouldn’t kill her. She also wondered how long it would take for her father to know that she was a witch. She decided that it would be cool to be a witch and she would also have the strength to kill her father out of revenge for killing her mother.

Karen read the book in secret; making sure that her father wasn’t around whenever she would practice some of the spells. She knew that she must be a witch because the magic came too easy; she was reading spells that said were complicated and she was completing them like it was nothing. She could no longer use the magic in the house because she would break things by mistake so she went to the outside of the village to a small cliff where there was a small cave; allowing her to practice her magic in peace.

She reached one spell that would require the blood of an animal. She was able to catch a squirrel but couldn’t bring herself to kill it. Finally she reached over and grabbed a branch and slit the squirrel’s stomach open. The bright red blood flowed over her hand and she felt a surge of power. She smiled to herself as the squirrel died in her hands. She loved the feel of the blood and she loved the feel of the energy surging through her. She cast the spell; sending a giant explosion out and destroying her cave. She loved that rush she got when the squirrel died so she decided to try it on something bigger. She was able to catch a fox and when its blood flowed over her hands she felt even more of the power surge through her.

She spent more time out by the cliff then usual and by the time she started home the sun was already setting. She ran through the village carrying the book under her arms. She ran into a man who was in the street and he shouted at her to watch where she was going but she kept on running. Karen finally reached her house and slipped quietly inside hoping her father didn’t notice her missing. Suddenly a gruff hand appeared and grapping her around the throat; causing her to drop the book. Karen felt herself being pulled into the living room and being forced into a seat. Her father leaned over her and asked, “Where have you been young lady?”

Karen cowered in fear before her father. He asked again, “Where have you been? Are you going to answer me or am I going to have to beat it out of you?” Karen took a deep breath and said, “I just went for a walk, I lost track of time and had to come running back.” A big hand came down a struck her on the face, “Don’t lie to me. You think I am an idiot? You have been reading that spell book,” he said walking over and picking up the book. “Why have you been reading this? You think you are some great witch?” he said. Karen was too afraid to speak so she sat there whimpering. Her father grabbed her face and pulled it up close to his and he whispered, “If I ever find you reading this book again it will be the last thing you do,” As he said this Karen could smell the alcohol on his breath. He released her face and stormed off taking the book with him.

Karen sat curled up on the coach for some time crying. Finally she stood up and walked to her room. She collapsed on her bed thinking what to do. She found herself thinking, why don’t you just kill him? But there was no possible way that she could take a human’s life. Why not, remember the thrill you got when you killed those animals? Just imagine the power you would get as human blood soaked your hands. And besides, he killed your mother; make him pay! Karen shuddered at her own thoughts; killing animals was one thing but killing a human was just something that she couldn’t do.

Karen turned to look at her mother’s photo. Her mother looked so young, so innocent. Karen again found herself hating her father for killing her mother. This time the anger didn’t die down and Karen decided to take action; she was no longer going to hide or cower in front of her father. She walked up to him, he was sitting in the living room, and just stood there staring at him. He finally spoke, “What do you want?” Karen just smiled sweetly and raised her hand. Her father let out a gasp; clutching his stomach. He looked up in fear at Karen who just simply smiled and explained, “I am crushing you using the air around you.” And with that her father exploded; his guts and blood spattering against the walls and all over Karen. Karen stood there with her eyes closed, covered in blood, for awhile then she slowly opened her eyes and tipping her head back let out an evil laugh.

Karen stood there in the remains of her father laughing. She felt so alive; the blood was even more wonderful than the animals. She looked over to see the spell book glowing and picked it up. She wanted to learn more but didn’t know how. The book seemed to respond to her because it opened to the first page with the word “Megara” written on it. Karen looked at it for awhile than it hit her; Megara was the name of the author. Karen wondered how many books that Megara had written and if she could get her hands on all of them.

Karen walked out of the house and looked around. It was a gloomy day; the darkened skies filled with thunderclouds. Karen walked up to the first house she came across and went inside. There were no children living here; just an old man and his wife. They were sitting by the fire when Karen walked in. The old man jumped up and demanded that Karen leave but she just looked at him; her eyes glowing green. The man screamed as he was hurled into the fire. He tried to scramble out of the burning flames but couldn’t break free. His wife yelled and reached in the fire to try to pull her husband out. Karen walked casually up behind the woman and pushed her into the fire too. Sitting cross legged on the ground Karen watched as the man and woman struggled to escape the flames; eventually fighting less and less until there was nothing left. Karen breathed in deeply taking in the scent of burning flesh and smiled happily.

But those two deaths weren’t enough to sustain her; she wanted more. She killed person after person enjoying the sound of their screams. One child had managed to escape her; that didn’t bother Karen, she simply followed after the running child. Karen followed the child for a few yards before rushing forward and pinning the child to a nearby tree. Karen held the child by the throat; enjoying the sounds of its frantic screams. She slowly raised her hand up and hardened her nails then drove her nails deep into the child’s chest. The child let out a terrible scream as blood poured out of its chest. Karen twisted her hand so that the child screamed louder. When the child became limp Karen released it and moved on to the rest of the village.