Two Steps Ahead

Morning of disaster

As the sun shone beautifully through the old trite curtains of my window, I woke up and again not feeling all too well. I hardly slept because of the hard floor I was laying down upon. Holding my head, I stood up to let the sun shine fully into my 3ft room when someone threw the wooden door open.

'Great, you're up. And ew, you're such a mess! Here, you got loads of work to do, the warden is visiting today. Make sure you clean yourself too.' the old lady demanded while handing me a dirty sponge and two buckets of soap and cold water.

Since I don't have a choice, I picked up the stuff and made my way to the basement to get the rest of the cleaning material.
A girl passed by and we exchanged looks. She looked all hurt and frightened, as she had just escaped a nightmare. The curiosity hit me, I wanted to know if she was alright but then again, I didn't want to risk anything. We weren't supposed to talk, not even allowed to utter a word.

'Listen! I'll be away for a few minutes. When I come back, everything is cleaned up; including yourselves.' the old lady yelled as she slammed the door. Freedom, I thought. Not for long though.

Together with three other girls, we located ourselves in the library. I was dusting off the books, Caitlin was mopping the floor, Bayo was vacuuming the carpet and Wen was placing the books on their places.

'Pst. Caitlin.' I whispered.

The three girls got terrified looks in their eyes when I spoke. I understand, I'm taking a risk but we can't stay like this forever. We need to stand up for our rights, defending ourselves.

'Don't be scared. The old lady is not here, nothing will happen. Can you please tell me what happened this morning? Are you okay? I got worried when I saw you in the basement.' I wanted to persuade her but she picked up her stuff and disappeared.
This hideous orphanage makes our nightmares come true, even worse; this isn't temporary. This is forever.

One hour later.
If you'd pour soup on the ground, you would lick it with your tongue; that's how neat the rooms and floors are. After we cleaned everything up, we took a shower of whatever water that was left in the buckets. It was forbidden to use new water because according to the old lady, that's a waste of money. No wonder we are a mess, I thought.
The front door opened and as usual all the girls went to stand in one straight line.

The old lady came in with the warden. She looked around and this little expression of satisfaction appeared on her face but it dissipated right away. She never showed any gratitude.
The warden cleared his throat, 'How lovely!' he goes. I raised up my eyebrows. What does he mean? He started to walk and glanced at every girl he passed by.

'Too short. Too light. Oh, too tall.' he said with a thinking face while he was examining every girl.

'Ah! Perfect!' he said when he stood in front of me. What?! Perfect for what?

'Yes, this is her. I'll take her.'

The old lady clapped in her hands, 'Excellent choice, she'll be the perfect wife for Mr. Garcia.' she said enthusiastically.

Perfect wife?! I'm getting married?

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Assalaam Alaykum / Hey guys, thank you for taking the time to read my new story. I decided to write in English since many people told me to, so I thought why not. Please don't mind the grammatical mistakes sometimes. 😁
All the support is needed!

Have a blessed day. X