A woman’s howl pierced the air.

A male voice growled in more than warning. “Silence. You know our way. These are not worthy.”

“P-please! Just one; let one live! We don’t-”

Several growls droned out the mother’s distressed pleas as large beasts descended upon her squalling babies. 

Not a one of them survived the attack.

#

Far away in another world, a fourteen year old laughed at the silly Dalmatian who visited her and her sister from time to time. “Here, girl!” she called.

The dog bounded over at once, grinning widely and wagging her tail in an even wider arc.

#

“Still nothing! You aren’t worth the life I’ve given you,” a mother spat at her eldest child. “Or you.” She sighed, cupping her toddler’s face between her hands.

“Get rid of her as I told you!” The father handed off a ceremonial knife.

His wife trembled. “…I’ll do it alone.” She took the baby to their bedroom.

“You’re next,” the man told his seven year old.

The girl simply nodded and waited to die. When it was her turn, she went quietly, never to return.

#

Back in the other world, “I’ll come back for you,” a man whispered to his five year old.

“You absolutely will not,” his soon-to-be ex-wife forbade him. “Fate can take everything else from me, but her. I will not lose her too. You will not touch her; do you hear me?”

But she was wrong. 

#

Her neighbor held onto her own young daughters. As did their father. They raised their girls well albeit somewhat covertly, for they were special children, conceived and formulated in witches’ magic and therefore illegal.

#

An agitated teenager turned her back on an empty,