Blood Sacrifice

Chapter 4 (Revised)

I followed her out of the room, but she seemed determined to avoid me like the plague. I had never seen her that distressed. It broke my heart. I knew that she was in pain; she had never been good at handling her grief. It made my heart hurt to hear her crying.

I couldn’t decide what had bothered her more; the fact that the only friend she had made in months was gone, or the fact it wasn’t us that got adopted. I felt guilty that I didn’t know how to console her, but she hadn’t given me a clue to follow either.

 She ran down the hall to our room, her long blonde hair billowed behind her in a blurry cloud as she turned the corner and disappeared. I was gasping for air as I tried to keep up when suddenly I felt someone grasp my hair, stopping me mid-step. Hot needlelike pain instantly shot into my scalp, and I was forced to pause in my tracks to keep the strands from tearing out. Tears bubbled in the corner of my eyes as I tried to turn to catch a glimpse of who was holding me back. My hair was so short that it would require my neck to turn at too awkward of angle.

“Let go of me!” I gasped.

“Where do you think you’re off to, Miss Moore?” the Matron’s strict voice asked coldly. “We have some business to attend to.”

“I didn’t realize that,” I said rolling my eyes.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said tightening her grip on my hair.

I grunted in pain. “To my sister. She’s really upset,” I said. “Can you let go of me now?”

I felt the Matron’s long bony fingers slide out of my hair. I was surprised that she had listened to me. I was quick to turn to look at her, wary of her grabbing my hair again. My scalp continued to burn with the pain that slowly began to ebb away.

“Is that so? Well, you’ll have to put your plans on hold for a bit,” she said with a bitter smile twisted on her face.

I raised an eyebrow. “Why? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“It’s quite the opposite,” she said. “I’ve been told you’ve been sharing food again.”

I stared at her for a long moment. I noticed that she was clenching her hands into fists at her sides. I knew she didn’t like me. She hadn’t from the very first day she had laid her eyes on me. It was something about the way that I didn’t cower to her. She lived on the fear she caused, but that wasn’t the response she got from me. I knew it was because I always spoke my mind, and unlike the other kids, I wasn’t afraid of her.

 I did what I had to do, punishment or not.

In this situation, I didn’t know how to reply to her. I wasn’t afraid to admit I had broken another of the orphanage’s ridiculous rules, especially for sharing food with my starving sister, but I didn’t want her to punish May for accepting my portion. She knew perfectly well that May was the only weak spot that I had.

 Finally, I decided to hold my tongue.

“Not admitting to what you’ve done, huh?” she asked and clicked her tongue.