Chapter 1.1

People usually think that their families are either the most normal group of people in the world or the weirdest people to exist.

Lilli “Lillith” Rune-Smith knew for a fact that her family was in the latter category.

They were the very definition of strange, odd, and weird.

Very, very weird.

If she were to list out their weirdness, it would take days and days, and she would probably shrivel up and die first.

Don’t believe her?

Here are some examples.

Firstly, her parents named her after Lillith, a literal demon, and to make matters worse, their last name, which sounded nice and normal, was in fact adopted from an ancestor who supposedly successfully tricked the devil.

Secondly, from the moment she was born until she graduated high school, Lilli was forced to wear the strangest things (in all black, of course) and follow a bunch of rules that absolutely made no sense.

‘Everyone you speak to must get a background check every six months, with health checkups monthly. (This rule started on her first day of preschool.)’

‘Never tell others your full name. Ever. (This rule also started her first day of preschool.)’

‘Don’t look people in the eye until you have to, then make sure you don’t look away.’

‘Avoid all mirrors during the third week of the month. Scratch that, avoid all mirrors. All of them. (Introduced during elementary school when she wanted to do her own hair).'

‘Avoid ducks. (This rule was discovered in kindergarten.)’

Use this custom journal to take notes (it was quite nice), wear this brand (uncomfortable), sleep at this exact location (painful and tiring), and walk in a particular way.

The list of rules was endless.

It went on and on, and truly, and at some point, Lilli had called the police because she believed her family members were mentally ill and needed help or imprisonment (due to that incident, she was quickly transitioned into being homeschooled).

To make matters worse, nobody in her family had real jobs.

When she asked, they said they had careers in ‘demonology, exorcism, ghost studies, hunting night terrors, and so on’.

They kept feeding her nonsense excuses about made-up jobs until she gave up asking.

She just bided her time while following their rules, while secretly vowing that the moment she was free, she would do the exact opposite of them and avoid everything her family was obsessed with.

And the moment she graduated high school, her life did a 180, and her dreams came true!

She could finally live the way she had always wanted to live.

Her favorite color was pink. Bright, beautiful pink! And she made sure to wear it every day.

She avoided religion, the occult, and all holidays like Halloween, Easter, and Christmas, and just lived a happy, normal life with maximum freedom and no rules.

She went to college in the sunniest place she could and majored in the farthest major from blood, gore, and the occult that she could - childhood education.

And her dream job?

To be a preschool teacher surrounded by brightly colored toys, rainbow-colored decorations, and cute children who toddled around while she taught them the basics that would set them up for life.

No weirdness here! Everything would be 100% normal, thank you!

And finally, it seemed that all of her hard work paid off.

Immediately after graduating with her master's, she got a job at a privately owned preschool called Sunshine Academy Preschool.

Even though she had only been working there for two months, Lilli loved her job because it was everything she had ever dreamed of.

They paid well; she decorated her classroom in bright rainbow colors; the kids in her class were cute; their parents were nice; her teaching assistant was handsome and helpful; and although all the other teachers were much older and more experienced, nobody really looked down on her!

Even the usually strict principal, Mr. Simon, always had a kind word for her and always smiled when he came by her classroom.

It was perfect!

Absolutely perfect!

She couldn’t wait to do this for the rest of her life!

“Today is going to be a good day lalala~! It’s Friday after all lalala~! Friday can never be bad! Lalala~” Lilli sang to herself as she put her blonde hair into the two half-up, half-down pig tails that she was known for before smoothing down her clothing.

Since it was casual Friday at the preschool (a rule she pushed for so her students wouldn’t have to wear uniforms every day), she wore a loose white dress with a bright pink ruffled apron with a cute yellow teddy bear on the large front pocket.

On her right hand was a pink friendship bracelet she had exchanged with a friend and a purple star bracelet that had her employee badge in a purple covering and on her left was her large pink tote bag that had all her daily necessities and miscellaneous items including the journal she had used since she was young, hand sanitizer, rainbow gel pens, lip gloss, and of course, snacks!

You could never have enough snacks, especially when surrounded by cute little kids who were always hungry.

“Ah! I’m going to be late! I have to leave now!”

Humming happily to herself as the sun was out, the birds were chirping, and the flowers were blooming, Lilli walked to Sunshine Academy, greeting other parents and students as she passed them.

When she entered her classroom, her teaching assistant, Mallory, was signing children in from their parents and helping them hang up their coats and backpacks.

“Ms. Lilli. Look, I got a flower. For you!” Flora, one of the shy, sweet girls in her classroom, greeted her with a hug before shoving a handful of grass and yellow dandelions still encrusted with dirt at her.

“Wow! Thank you so much, Flora! I’ll cherish it.” Squatting down so she was at eye level with the child, Lilli carefully received the gift and tucked it into her pink apron.

“Good!”

Flora ran off to go play with her friends while Lilli stood up and quickly put her things away before washing her hands.

As she dried them, she turned to Mallory, who was writing the day's schedule according to the lesson plan Lilli had created.

“Mal, I'm going to go see Mr. Simon real quick. He said he wanted to talk to me about something important, but I'm not sure what.”

“Maybe you’re getting a raise? You knocked your evaluation period out of the park; the kids love you, and the parents love you, too! You’re pretty loved, you know? By more than just them." Mallory waggled his thick eyebrows at Lilli, causing her to burst out laughing at his silliness.

He always made silly comments like that when she knew he didn't mean them.

“Sure, sure. Take care of our sunshine squad members until I come back. By kids.”

“Bye, teacher Lilli~!”

Waving cheerfully to the kids, Lilli stepped out of the classroom and walked to the principal's office, humming.

As she stopped outside the door, she checked herself over once more, making sure everything was neat and in place before raising her hand and knocking gently on the wooden door.

Knock knock knock.

After several seconds, the calm and gentle voice of Mr. Simon sounded through it.

“Come in.”

Before she could touch the handle of the door, the door creaked open all by itself.