There once was a girl. She had a name then, one she loved and cherished. She had a family too, a father and a brother. She loved and cherished them, too. She had a shadow, as long as her fathers, and it loved and cherished her more than she could love and cherish anything.

The girl, her father, and her brother all lived in a village. The village was full of folk who saw shapes in the shadows. The girl had long shadows, too long. This made the village folk nervous. They looked at the girl and told her she was evil. Her father and brother told her she was wonderful and kind. They said they could see it in her eyes. The girl could see something in their eyes too; That same nervousness that other folk held lived deep within her family.

One night, after folk had said mean things and shouted meaner, the girl tried to hide in her room. They called her wicked, and evil, and it had grown to be too much. So She cried and cried. Her family wanted to help her, comfort her. But their hands felt rough on her skin. Like treebark, their comforting gestures and words felt abrasive and harsh.

"It wasn't your fault." her father would whisper, though she could hear the truth.

"There's no one to blame" her brother would say, but that wasn't true either.

The girl hated her too long shadow, but she knew it loved her more than all the world. She hated the world for that too.

The girl couldn't stand it, she shouldn't stay with these people that knew her to be wicked. She couldn't bear to look at her too long shadow. She was so small, her shadow too big. So the girl left. She ran into the woods, tears in her eyes blinding her to the world. She ran into the darkness of the night, running from her family, her shadow, her name. The girl ran until the dark of the night grew bright and clear. Not wanting to face what she was running from, the girl hid in a cave and slept. If her eyes were closed in the light, she couldn't see her shadow.

The girl kept to this routine, running by night and sleeping by day. Eventually, she came across a cave with a door at its mouth. What an unusual sight.

The door opened to a comfortable place. A woman sat by a fire inside, old and motherly.

"Come in, child. Let me look at you." There was no way the woman could have seen the girl. Without much else of an idea of what to do, the girl did as told.

"What is your name, little one?" The woman asked the girl. She told the woman that she in fact, had no name.

"Where is your family, little one?" The woman asked the girl. She told the woman that she in fact, had no family.

"Where is your shadow, little one?" The woman asked the girl. She told the woman that she was a wicked girl, and her shadow was too long. Couldn't the woman see it?

"I cannot see your shadow, for I cannot see at all, child. Not in that way, anyhow. Come, you smell hungry." And the girl was hungry. The woman fed the girl, gave her a bath. The girl did as the woman told her in return

"Clean the fireplace, little Marionette." The Woman would call the girl, for the girl had no name and did as the Woman told her to. It was thus how the woman and her Marionette spent some years.

"Cut me some fly-eaters, little Marionette." The woman would say, and the girl did. She collected some heads from the fly-eaters the Woman had growing outside every window. Later on, when the girl was older and the woman grew old, the old woman would say:

"Put the cauldron on to boil, little Marionne" And Marionne would do so.

"Try this brew, Marionne." and Marionne would do so. It took a few years, and even more thinking on Marionne's part to realize that the old woman had been a witch. One day, Marionne asked the old woman about this.

"Yes, Marionne, I am the wicked witch Popette, but you can call me Poppy. I've been a witch for years and I shall be for years more." She said, Marionne was confused. Didn't the old woman have a name? A family? A normal shadow? Marionne asked the old woman about this.

"No, Marionne, I do not. I did once, but I left them behind. I needed them no longer. Now I have new ones. You already know my name, you already are my family. I have no use for a shadow, as I cannot see it. Not in the way you can, anyhow.

Marionne spent many years with Poppy, the pair growing close as only a mother and daughter could. Then, on a day significant to Marionne, Poppy gifted her a cat. It was a dark thing, made of the night itself. The cat had a normal shadow: Not too long, nor too short. The only things missing were a family, and a name. Marionne gave the cat 'Edwin' for his name and herself and Poppy for his family. Edwin was a happy cat, his eyes yellow as the sun.

More time passed, and Marionne began to see the way Poppy did. It was a strange and unexplainable thing. Colors tasted particular tastes, sounds looked particular ways. All things grew to use more and more of her senses. This news made Poppy very happy, and she began teaching Marionne magic.

"You can make it rain, you simply must grab the smell of rain and pull it overhead." Her lessons didn't make sense at first, but that was because Poppy was starting too grand. So she simplified things.

"You can start a fire, but you need to ask the wood if it understands warmth." Poppy said. Marionne tried, and while the wood certainly sounded like it heard Marionne, it did not respond. If nothing else, Marionne had grown clever in the years with Poppy. That morning just before bed, Marionne tried tasting the fire. The taste of it sounded warm and sharp and smooth. The next night, Marionne told the wood this. After letting her words sink into the wood, she asked it if it understood warmth.

WoosH!

The sound of the fire said that the wood did in fact understand warmth, but it had simply needed to understand something warm to do so.

Poppy was proud of Marionne, and told her she was great. Marionne couldn't see that nervousness other folk felt toward her in Poppy, and Marionne knew that Poppy loved her.

One night, after learning more of the colors of sound, and the tastes of sight, time had slipped from her mind. She hadn't noticed the sky growing bright and she was afraid of seeing her shadow after so long. To her surprise, her shadow looked, smelled, tasted, sounded, and felt all the same. It felt like love, and it was no longer too long to her eyes. It loved her- it always had, and she loved it. Joy filled Marionne, and she ran to Poppy to share the news with her.

She came home just as day broke and found someone. Someone unwelcome was in her home, where her family lived. Someone unwelcome was in the place where she grew her own name, her own family, and into her own shadow. She called for Poppy, but Poppy did not call back. The man held a sword, and his hands were red. Marionne saw red. She tasted red. She heard red.

She fought the man, sharing with his hair the meaning of warmth. It caught fire, and he cried out. She shared the meaning of cold with his skin, and it froze. In doing so, the man who was swinging his weapon at her couldn't move, but the motion of his swing carried itself forward toward her.

She and her shadow cried out, and the sword plunged into her heart. The world around her went black, and Marionne could no longer taste the colors of the sky.

....

Then she could again. It tasted dark out, it sounded cold. Marionne stood, and saw the man still frozen. His skin was blue, she could hear it. She looked in Poppy's room. A perfect circle of red stood out on the comfortable chair Poppy used to sit in, and Poppy's clothes were set perfectly around it. Poppy was gone. Marionne wept.

She moved back and found Edwin on the ground. He wasn't moving. He wasn't hurt, not that she could see, but he was not moving. She heard the man facing the door cry out.

"Please... oh stars in the dark- please."

Marionne shared the meaning of sleep to the man's heart. The man stopped pleading, his heart never to wake.

After she buried Edwin and Poppy's clothes, after burning the man's body, Marionne started a fire. Poppy did not tell her to do so, but she did. She built a fort of wood in the hearth, then told it of heat. It took little time before the wood caught aflame. She and the trees were very close friends now, and she knew what to say.

She caught a glimpse of her shadow in the light of the fire. It was her shadow, the same length as it had always been. However, there was something off. Circles of light bled through her shadow to her shock. It would've been a perfect grid of 9, but one Circle was missing. 8 Circles of light remained in the center of her shadow. Next to her, from seemingly nowhere at all, Edwin's shadow sat. She made her shadow's hand hover over it, and pet her cat. She was a witch now. She was alone. She had no more family, she had lost them again. Poppy was gone, and Edwin was too.

She was Marionne, A Most Wicked Witch.