Lady Macbeth Backstory, Part One:

This is a backstory in three parts for a shakespeare class. If you know the play, great! This is all made up so don't argue about how some of it makes no sense in context. If you don't know the play, read this like a fairy tale or short story.

Part 1: The Daughter

She was a small girl. Thin, and pale, in a black dress. She sat in the corner of the town square, in the shade of an elm, and played with her dolls. There were only two, and both were battered and dented from the resentful feet of passers by who thought it fun to stomp on the toys of the outcast girl who had just lost her father. But she seemed not to mind. She just picked them up, dusted them off, and picked up where she left off. She also seemed not to care when kinder passers by offered her some money to buy a new plaything, or said a kind word to her. She was the stone girl, lost in her own world. The obsidian girl, dressed all in black for the loss of her parents. Her mother had died nine years ago during childbirth. Her father was lost in a war with Norway. But, as always, the quietest of quiet girls seemed not to care. She just played with her dolls. But, when she was alone, in the dark of her room in her uncles house, she sometimes sobbed. Even she didn’t know wether it was for her parents of her life. She just knew she had to cry.

Her father had been a rich man, brother to a Thane. He was skilled with the sword, so much so that, when he was practicing, it seemed to become part of him. The girl was often captivated by the flashes of silver through the air as he slashed, parried, stabbed. During lessons on embroidery, she sometimes took her needle, and slashed it through the air like a sword of her very own. She would wind red thread around it, and smile and laugh as she stabbed it into a pin cushion. The servants were disapproving of such antics, but she kept on doing it.

She had never mixed with the grimy and wild children that romped around the village. They  were beneath her, she knew, as her father and the maids had drummed it into her so many times that it became part of her own belief. She also never liked the other wealthy children. The merchants girls were too shrewd, and thought that opulence was in the clothes you wore, and fine goods traded from throughout the world. The daughters of Knights and minor nobles were all so utterly snobbish towards her that she stopped associating with them almost instantly. None of them cared that her uncle was a Thane. They just cared that their father was some little heard of knight in the kings army. So, she became a loner. And after her father died, and she was thrust out of the world she knew, she became less than an outcast. She became the girl made of stone. Ice. The girl that never had a friend.

One day, as she walked through the village, her dolls left behind for the time being, she saw a woman walking into the forest. At least, it looked like a woman. Her hair was gray, and her eyes dark and sharper than the sharpest needles. But she wore a black cloak and hood that covered her face. Curious, the girl followed her into the forest, silently, as not to be noticed, but quickly, so as not to loose this strange woman. She followed the woman deep into the woods, confident she had remained unseen. No one was better at disappearing than she.

She rounded a corner, and stopped to duck behind a tree as she saw two other woman facing her. Had they seen her? No. None spoke, and none moved, for they made no sound. The girl slipped silently into the bushes, and crouched behind a peephole. This was exciting, dangerous, forbidden. And great fun.

“Good morrow, sister,” rasped the oldest of the three, with hair of white under her hood.. The girl shivered. Something about the voice felt odd.

“As to you,” replied the gray haired one.

“And,” said the youngest, with hair still black like the girl’s own, but gnarled and dirty, “Who’s wish shall we grant today?” Wish? Thought the girl.

“Perhaps a child.” said the eldest, “We have not granted the wish of a child in centuries.”

The other two nodded. he girl felt her breath quicken. A wish? Without realizing what she was doing, she stood up, and said, voice trembling, though she knew not wether it was with excitement or dread, “I-I have a wish.”

The women looked up. “Then speak,” one said, her mouth twitching with the ghost of a smile.

“I wish...” the girl began, but then stopped. What did she wish for? Love? Money? Beauty? Power? She knew she wished for all of these. But there was no wish that made all of these come true. She was frozen with the choice. “Um...” she managed. Then she decided. “I wish that I could get everything I want.” she said breathlessly.

All three crones nodded. “Very well.” they said. The girl felt a thrill of fear and fascination. Were these fairies, or demons sent to tempt her? She did not care. Whatever they were, they were giving her what she wanted. “But in exchange...” said the three in unison. The girl suddenly took a step back. “You must be willing to pay when we call on you to do so. You must be willing to pay any price.”

“I will,” the girl said breathlessly. “I will!” then she ran back to the village, and never went into the woods again.