The next morning

The sun ran up the spines of the hill, and the earth laid its quiet mercy over the gray land. The wind screeched against the louvers of window shutters, and trees rattled to the harshness of nature's breath.
There Ivar was, once again, alone.
She stood out in the cold and waited for the police to arrive. Ivar stood on the porch that belonged to Douglas Roger.
Tears were shed, one after another.
Douglas's mother had found her sleeping in the closet. She screamed with
fury. The parents of the saddened boy kicked her out and called the police. Ivar wanted to stay with Douglas forever; she knew, though, in the back of her mind, that would only exist in the second world where the sun goes after it sets in this one.
Her mother told her to hide, and Ivar followed her commands. Through her hushed voice and soundless footsteps, Ivar saw things nobody in that town could ever believe to be true.
Police questioned the young girl who stood distraught on the porch of a wealthy home. Ivar gave little answers, and with that, she was whisked away to an orphanage.
Ivar appeared on the front page of a newspaper; "The Lost Orphan Girl" was its headline. They said the enigmatic girl was spying on residents of Starling, stealing bread from the bakery, and keeping secrets she stole from strangers.
Townspeople were shocked; it was the dinner conversation at every residents' home.
The lost orphan girl
People laughed at the fact that she had no family. People would laugh at
the fact that her eyes were different.
People were cruel to someone who was different.
When word came out about the murder of her family, people scoffed in disbelief. The home of the Darcy family stood quiet on a hill, miles away from Starling's town; investigators were poisoned still when they saw the disaster that happened that one awful January night.
Douglas, who had once found a friend—a very good friend—was now saddened by the shadow she left in his room.
A friendship as pure as snow became the shadow of winter.
Douglas felt a sadness he never thought he could feel. Somehow, the most extraordinary feeling the young boy felt was when he saw a glow come across Ivar's face when they first met by the lake.
They say a soul settles in the place of a heart, but Douglas noticed Ivar wearing it on her face whenever she was with him; it was as if she came to life when she was near Douglas.
Ivar looked at raindrops racing down the window of a cop car, and somehow each passing car whispered the sentence, "When we are older, we can run away, Ivar."
Staring was a small town full of people and their skeptics. There were many spirits and stories in that town, too. Though the story of a young boy who was an outcast and a young girl who was alone was the most striking. Two swindlers in a religious town—these children never stood a chance.
Ivar held her breath when she walked into the orphanage; everybody knew her as "Starlings Pagan."