The first thing that she saw was the sky.
The pale, way too bright blue sky for such a horrid place.

The second thing she saw her mother and father leaning over her. 

Her father was a sturdy man with a fine jaw and grey hair at temples who had bloodshot eyes and wrinkles all over his face, but when he saw her, his eyes immediately brightened and he broke into a smile. He reached his rough, trembling hands to pull the baby and gently touch her face.

Her mother was a demon. A demon with pale skin, green eyes, a small nose, and surprisingly human-like features. The demon groaned with pain as she snapped her fingers to mend her body, but even her eyes lightened up when she saw the baby. 

And the baby?

She was the most astonishing of them all. One half of her had pale skin, flushed cheeks, a dotted nose and wide expressive eyes. The other half of her had sharper, demonic features. She was basically a bridge between the worlds. The nearby demon families who were imprisoned stared at

the baby with shock in their eyes. All they knew was that humans were monsters, people who made them forget the sting of icy wind and tormented them into hollow monsters who only remembered the scents of ash. All they knew was that the world was black and white, and they were the black side.

But what if they were wrong?

To everyone standing nearby, this was a miracle. A tragic but beautiful miracle.

And this thought gave them the hope and determination to fight again, to fight the void and to refuse to let the humans kill their spirit.

“Perhaps,” The baby’s father leaned over the baby, tapping her nose and rubbing her lavender-scented skin with wonder. 

“You could be a beacon to all, and be free one day.” 

The demons called the baby Evelyn for her demon side, and Anna for her mortal side. They were a perfect balance of light and dark and everywhere they went, inspiring all the demons with Anna’s softness and

Evelyn’s determination. Anna x Evelyn thought this was the only life they could have, and gratefully enjoyed it. When they were behind bars, they would chat with each other and light up the cells and get lost in a world of beautiful imagination. No matter how many dark events happened, they had each other and would keep each other up. Whenever Anna was wounded, Evelyn would use her strength to help her. When Evelyn lost her spirit, Anna was there to motivate her and protect her mind from losing humanity. At night, their mother would take them out to see the stars and the would lie on the cold, biting stone, reaching for the precious orbs of glinting light and trying to find their way out of the dark. “Someday,” their mother would whisper, “You’ll be a great, bright star shining above everyone in the sky, and I would be in the heavens, watching over you. You’ll find your way out. I know you would.” 

Anna would get so lost in tears and Evelyn would squeeze her mother’s hand, finding their way strength under all the negative to believe. 

That was life, until the fire.

When Anna and Evelyn reached their fifth birthday, word was spreading across the land and the high priests soon found out about this hybrid child. Citizens and even common folk were intrigued! But the priests saw them as a threat. 

They paced in the pristine white halls as they sat on their thrones, their eyes filled with horror. 

“My lord, your orders.” All the priests of the kingdom had been summoned for a meeting, after they had discovered Anna x Evelyn. The high priest smoothed his white robes out, looking out of the glass windows at the sea of villagers gossiping and spreading rumors. He turned towards the other priests and sighed gently, his voice gentle and small. 

“This is a hybrid, an undeniably” He paused, “incredible situation.”

He rubbed his chin, looking as if he were deep in thought. 
“But this kind of situation will lead to false rumors and it disrupts the

system of dark and light, and our poor, poor citizens would start getting manipulated by those demons.”

The waves of priests were intrigued and mortified, and their shoulders went stiff. They were trained with the high priest, and having been around him a lot and knowing him as a brother, they knew what he was implying. 

A priest in the back row slowly raised up his trembling hand, and the high priest raised an eyebrow. 

“Yes?”

The priest’s voice came out in tiny squeaks.

“So you are suggesting we burn her?”
The high priest shrugged his shoulders and looked at the ground, a man of weariness and a shadow of the young man he once was. 

“But isn’t that wrong?”
The whole hall of priests went silent. Dead silent. So silent that you could even hear the fall of a feather. 

The high priest’s cheeks went crimson red and he rose up from his

throne, his eyes narrowed and his voice dangerously soft. 

“You dare question the great leader of us all? The light cannot be manipulated by the dark, and if the dark shall ever succeed, it will be the death of us.”
He walked over slowly towards the torches with white fires, and he got one torch. He headed towards the young priest and touched his cheek, the fire erupting in brilliant white flames. The priests in the hall had to bite their tongue to not let out a wail of horror, and the young priest gasped, shocked as a burn mark settled on his cheek. The charred flesh of his skin was outlined in clear detail by the bright fire. He sighed, his eyes actually tired as he did it. 

“I don’t like doing this, but please, never question me again.” 

The young priest urgently nodded, tears welling in his eyes, and all the other priests began to praise the high priest, secretly scared. One priest seated next to the young priest secretly gave him an ice pack to press against his wound. The young priest shot him a grateful glance and ducked under the table, hoping that no one would see him.