Introduction...

Not long after I had turned 14 two girls started to appear in every hidden corner of my imagination. I was drawn to them like a magpie to diamonds. Their names were Margot and Lucy, and through the forest of my thoughts they ran daily, playing an eternal game of catch, ending always with the loser entrapped within the hollow trunk of a great Oak. There the disheartned child would remain (often, and unfortunately, this was Lucy) until she found the strength to break free - and the game would recommence. As I grew older the children stayed with me, until aged 19 (and fast approaching 20) the two grew tired of incessantly running and hiding, became lifeless porcelain figures, cracks slowly appearing amongst their rosy smiles. Intruders tried to take over the forest and shelve the fading dolls. Too scared to know where to turn, they turned instead on each other, attacking both themselves and the attackers of the woodland. The war of the children had begun and a visible end was not in sight.

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When the children took rest, they did so in seperate parts of my body. Lucy was housed within the chambers of my heart, whilst Margot planted herself and her temptation in each and every one of my senses. Usually at night the game stopped, and I slept. But sometimes the attacks were so fierce that they pierced through the nights sky, and so to any other being they were well hidden amongst a starry night. On these evenings sleep was not welcome in the forest, the quarreling children scared it away until they too wanted rest but could nolonger themselves find it. Slowly, relentlessly, the sleep, stronger than before, crept, armed with dreams, hope, peace, across the wooded border of my mind, until my eyelids closed and the dreams sang lullabies to calm the young ones' spirits.

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As days past, such a routine rooted itself firmly into the earth, growing and twisting, until no discrepency could be found there. It would take a large gust to stir the leaves and uproot the poisened trees from the enchanted forest.