The Forgotten Daughter of Black

Chapter 2. A Little Bit of Weird.

1987, London, Shaffer Orphanage East wall garden

Two black dots widen, lips part as they let out a long blow and break out into a sudden fit of giggles at the ladybug that now lays on its back with its tiny legs swinging wildly though there's a sudden gasp as a fuzzy blur jumps into view and onto the already terrified bug.

"Turine!" a girl's young voice whines at the feline who continues to bat at the helpless bug with his paws, completely getting ignored by the calico cat, Aventurine, the girl huffs "I wasn't done!".

A pale pair of green eyes look at her blankly as he munches on the victim of the child, past victim of the child who pouts with an annoyed glare. Rested on her stomach, she moves onto her elbows more to gain balance as she watches the cat openly enjoy his snack, whiskers moving with the continued action of his mouth and teeth creating a rather strange high rapidly repeated crunching sound that causes her nose to scrunch in astonishment and a mix of confusion, not to mention with mild disgust. A hand reaches out to pat along his back and tail instinctively only to receive a warning growl from the eating cat, creating a far greater distance between himself and the girl who swings her arms in the air and makes a face that basically says it all; Oh, come on!

"Fine! I get it, it's yours. God!".

He doesn't buy any of it nonetheless and continues on his growling. The girl, Vinniece, grumpily drops her head onto her hands whilst muttering insults at the cat, long dark black with strands of brown hair falling around her and resting on either side of her small face acting much like a curtain. Grey eyes squint at Turine and shift from him to the grey clouded sky that makes it look like it's just about to rain all of the time, she perks up on hearing her name being called from nearby and rolls her eyes dramatically but still complies and rises from her spot on the grass, small hands patting at her knees and pale green dress.

"Come on, Turine, let's get going".

Vinniece hurries off inside, shutting the door behind her. She liked the outdoors of the Orphanage, the inside was, well okay but she couldn't even bring herself to think of the house's appearance on the outside, she's been living here since she was two and have become used to all of it but still the decoration of the house still made her lips purse in judgement with her eyes painfully taking in everything. The house was mostly brick, almost all of it if you didn't count the wooden floors or the wooden staircase and its doors, furniture and such. Its walls weren't painted but decorated with wallpaper and down the many halls at times being matched with picture frames hanging from its walls, the only other picture frames in the house being the ones standing carefully rowed on top of one of the two only fireplaces of the whole orphanage and the numerous ones decorating Headmistresses office on the 2nd floor - Vinniece currently being on the 1st - otherwise there wasn't a photo frame insight as none of the other children and Vinniece owned any seeing as there being no reason to own one. Yes, some of the children had old photos of their old families or maybe a group picture of their friends and them, but the Orphanage wasn't about to just give up one of their frames to any of those children just to put up a photo of people who they won't and don't have any contact with. The orphanage wasn't exactly a homely looking place, never would have guessed there being a child living here nonetheless a few dozen if there wasn't a sign outside already of it being one, with its big dark wooden staircase and a large marble fireplace down in the living room and can't forget the haunting looking halls that seem to go on and on. Vinniece, in her lifetime here with the staff, Headmistress and other children, have heard many different stories the other children have made up of this house, from ghost stories and haunting's to a full on murder investigations of a child being pushed down the stairs by another child or knifed in the chest at least 7 times by one of the staff, and can't forget that one story about the boy that just one day snapped and went on a murderous rampage and killed everyone in the orphanage before finally killing himself - some of the kids say they can still hear him howling inside a closed room from the 2nd floor or his screaming in their ear while leaning over their shoulder - Vinniece gave out a shudder at the thought of it happening, not that she believed any of it of course. The floor didn't have any carpeting, just some different patterned rugs spread out all over the house in most of the rooms, there was this really big one by the marble fireplace that was a red and brown colour, though Vinniece didn't much appreciate the rectangular pattern on it. It wasn't the furniture she minded, there was plenty all through the house and its rooms, the beds weren't too bad depending on how much you move, and they weren't too soft but a bit hard much like the floor though bearable enough. No, it was the hygiene and the state of the house that has continued to irk her all her years here, the cob webs on the windows, the legs of tables and chairs, even a particularly big one hanging above her bedside table that an ugly big brown spider called its home and property, she didn't want to get too close for fear of getting bitten and besides the spider hasn't moved an closer to her bed or has tried anything, yet. There was a rat! a big, fat grey one living in the dining room right next to the door and boy did she hate it, Vinniece found the little pest absolutely disgusting and was just itching to sick Aventurine on him but that rat could really run or did it simply glide everywhere? there was a few outside in the shed but those ones where small field mice and didn't cause a single problem, complete angels compared to this monster. The front doors had a small stand on either side of them, a coat rack next to one of the two and a dead potted plant next to the other, Vinniece swear she tried to take care of it but it wasn't her fault it up and died! it earned her about three hard swats to the rear because of it. All the doors of the Orphanage were made of the same wood, an auburn colour with silver handles though the only actually cleaned one was Headmistress Almond's one to the door of her office, that and the kitchen's if you ignored the countless flour. There weren't many windows, but the more opened rooms and spacey rooms had some pretty big ones that lit up the entire room down to its corners of the floors and ceilings.