Prologue

A Chapter by Annah

An introduction

The Miracle family had lived in the town of Greysville at 4117 Barnaby Lane for over seventy years. It was an awfully boring house on an awfully boring street in an awfully boring town. Greysville wasn't known as the birthplace of any celebrities, or the home of interesting museums or recreational activities. There weren't any scary stories set in the town or any brutal and gory murders or crimes that the public took any interest in. It was a town were old folk go to finish out the last few years of their lives, where the newest establishment was an abandoned gas station from 1967. The most defining characteristic of Greysville was that nothing had ever happened here, and nothing every would.

The Miracle family was the only exception to this boring way of life. Hope Faith Miracle lived with her mother and two younger sisters in the old farm house that had sheltered her family for many generations. The children bore their mother's name, the family name. Wendy Miracle had not taken her husbands name after they were married quickly and unceremoniously in their very own backyard. Her father died mysteriously in an explosion many years ago. No one knew how it happened, or more importantly, where. You see, the night of the tragic event that ended Henry McCallister's thirty-four years of life, the Miracle family received an envelope on their doorstep. Inside was a piece of ripped parchment with that read:

June 8th, 1992

Henry McCallister

Deceased

Several photographs were also included in the envelope depicting an unmarked car bursting into flames, with Mr. McCallister sitting, no doubt, in the passengers seat. One month later, Wendy McCallister had gone to the doctors and was told that she was pregnant. Hope Faith was born on Monday, March 8th of 1993, exactly nine months after her father's untimely death.

The thing is, Wendy Miracle hated her daughter more than she's ever hated anyone else in her entire life. You see, Wendy had gotten it into her grieving head that her baby was going to be the exact reincarnation of Mr. Henry McCallister, sent to her from a higher power. A boy with bright blue eyes and black hair, very rambunctious, and not afraid to put himself out there. She was going to name him Henry McCallister Miracle, and the void that was left in her heart would be filled. Instead she gave birth to a sickly girl, who looked nothing like her father and everything like her mother. With her bright red hair and dark green eyes, Hope Faith was the spitting image of Wendy.

Because of this, Wendy despised Hope and had planned to name her Maleficent, after a certain villain in a certain fairy tale. However, on her death bed, Grandma Miracle declared that she was to be called Hope Faith, since she was proof that even in the darkest of times, the light would always find its way back through. And although Wendy hated the name and the child, she had to respect her mothers wishes.

And thus, Hope Faith Miracle was brought into the world, and up the cobblestones to 4117 Barnaby Lane, through the halls, and into the nursery kicking and screaming the whole way there.

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