Abandon Loneliness

Chapter 1 - Part 1

I'm hungry, was Percy's first thought.
Where am I? Was his second thought.
He opened his eyes to a small room with a little cupboard across from the small bed he was in, a window to the left of the bed and a door next to the cupboard.
He looked down at himself and saw that he was wearing little sea turtle pajamas.
Then he looked closer, realizing that something didn't seem right.
It took him a few seconds but eventually he realised that he was smaller than he remembered himself to be.
He was confused at this, but then his inner child's emotions took over and he no longer cared about anything except food.
Sitting up and jumping a little to get off the bed, he made his way to the door next to the cupboard, figuring that going through it would eventually lead to food.
Just before Percy reached the door, it opened up to an old woman with thin graying hair, no make-up, pink nails, a long purple dress and a sparkle in her eyes.
She seemed shocked that he was up, but then quickly put a smile on her face.
"Good morning, young man." She said happily.
"Good morning, ma'am." Percy's small voice said respectfully.
"Would you like to come have something to eat and meet a few people?" The old woman asked kindly.
"Um, okay," Percy answered unsurely, "what kind of food is there?"
"Well," the woman said, "since it's actually lunch time we have some sandwiches and juice."
"Will there be blue juice?" Percy asked seriously.
The woman looked at him strangely while Percy just stared right back, waiting for an answer to his very serious question.
"I'm sure we could make some juice blue." She said to the delight of little Percy.
"Yay!" Percy squealed, heading towards the door to get some blue juice.
"Hold on a moment," the woman said, "do you know what your name is?"
"I'm Percy." Percy said impatiently.
"Do you know your last name?" She asked.
Percy thought about this but quickly discarded the idea of giving this strange lady his last name.
"No," Percy said decisively, "what's your name?"
"My name is Jolene Stevens," the lady said, kneeling down to Percy's height and looking him in the eyes, "Do you know where your parents are?"
At this question Percy thought about the images of his dead mother and stepfather and his eyes started to tear up.
"They're dead," he managed to choke out, "I saw them. There was blood everywhere."
"I'm so sorry," Jolene said, softly hugging him, "I just needed to be sure if you belong here."
"Where am I?" Percy asked tearfully with his head against her shoulder.
"You're at The Hope Orphanage in New York." She told him softly.
"Oh." Was Percy's response.
"Come on," Jolene said, "let's get you some food and blue juice."
"Okay." Percy said sniffling.
Percy took Jolene's hand while she lead him downstairs and Jolene looked down at him, smiling softly at his small downcast face.
They passed by many doors and heard the sounds of children talking and an occasional laugh breaking through the chatter.
They came to the end of the hallway and Jolene opened the door that stood in front of them.
The room went quiet the moment the door was fully opened. Everyone in the room was looking at Percy and Jolene.
Percy- not liking the attention- moved a little behind Jolene. But Jolene wasn't going to have any of that.
"Everyone," she said, yanking Percy from behind her, "this is Percy, he'll be staying with us for a while."
Percy looked up and gave the other children a small wave.
A few of the kids smiled at him and waved back, but others barely gave him a glance before going back to their conversations.
"Let's get you something to eat." Jolene said to Percy.
Percy nodded and walked to one of the empty chairs at a large wooden table situated half in the kitchen and half out of the kitchen into another room.
He sat between an older teenage girl -with freckles, brown hair and brown eyes- and a boy maybe two years older than his current physical form with blond hair and brown eyes.
Percy looked around and realised that he was the youngest in the room- physically at least.
Everyone except him and the blond next to him seemed to be in their teens.
"Hello." Percy said to the boy, figuring he might as well try to make a friend.
The boy looked at him for a moment before standing up and walking away from a bewildered Percy.
"Don't worry about him," the girl next to Percy said, "he thinks he's better than us because he has a family."
"Then what is he doing here?" Percy enquired curiously.
"His father is the orphanage's bookkeeper," she said softly, "he always brings Timothy with him if he can't find someone to babysit. Which happens quite often."
"What about his mother?" Percy asked.
"She's some kind of travelling agent," the girl replied, "always going overseas to sell something or other."
"Huh." Percy said thoughtfully.
"Yeah," the girl replied, "my names Amanda by the way."
"I'm Percy." Percy said, bouncing a little in his seat.
"Well, Percy," the girl now identified as Amanda said, "welcome to the orphanage. I think you'll fit in just great."
"Really?" Percy asked with his eyes wide, never thinking that he'd ever fit in anywhere again.
"Of course," Amanda said with a smile, "a little cutie like you could fit in anywhere."
Percy blushed at her compliment, but before he could say anything else Jolene placed a sandwich cut in triangles along with some kind of blue juice in front of him.
"There you go, Percy," she said lightly, "a sandwich and blue orange juice. I hope you like it."
"Thank you Mrs. Stevens." Percy said happily and started to eat the sandwich.
"It's my pleasure, Percy," Jolene said softly, "after lunch we're going to go for a swim in the pool out back. Would you like to come with?"
"Yes!" Percy shouted without swallowing his bite of food, resulting in crumbs spewing out of his mouth.
"Alright, Percy," Jolene said, laughing, "Amanda here will help you get ready and she'll take care of you, won't you dear?"
"Of course I'll take care of Percy." Amanda said smiling at Percy who was once again scarfing down his sandwich.

After lunch Amanda took Percy back to the room he had woken up in.
She told him to sit down on the bed while she started digging around in the cupboard for a pair of swim trunks he could wear.
When she finally found some they were a pair of blue swimming trunks with little green stars on them.
"Come on, Percy," Amanda said, "let's get you into the trunks."
"Okay." Percy said shyly, sticking his hand in his pocket and experiencing the familiar comfort of having Riptide with him everywhere he went.
Amanda came over to Percy and lifted up his shirt to help him get dressed.
The moment she caught sight of Percy's unobscured body she let out a horrified gasp.
Scars littered his whole body - or at least the upper part of his body. Amanda couldn't tell if the scars went any further and she didn't think she wanted to know.
Whip marks, brand marks, claw marks, cuts.
You name it, Percy had it.
There was barely any part of his upper body that was not scarred.
Some of them even seemed quite new. As if they were still healing.
"Percy," Amanda said with tears in her eyes, "who did this to you?"
Deciding to be honest, Percy gave her a reply that she probably wouldn't take seriously- at least not in the way that he meant it.
"Monsters." Percy said, gripping Riptide tighter in his small hand.
Amanda didn't say anything to that. In fact, it seemed like she couldn't say anything at all.
Percy took his shirt back from her and put it on without any help.
He took the swimming trunks from her and quickly put that on too while Amanda seemed to be pondering the implications of his words.
"Let's go." Percy said, grabbing Amanda's hand and leading het out of his room.
Only to stop when he realised that he didn't know where to go.
"Where's the pool?" Percy asked Amanda with his sea-green eyes wide.
"Come on." Amanda led him through the big house until they came to a big glass sliding door with old and new stickers on it.
Beyond the door Percy could see the pool and he felt excited to be in the water again , even if it wasn't sea water.
Some of the other children were swimming in the pool and the rest were lounging around it.
Amanda opened the door and the moment Percy was through the door he ripped his hand out of Amanda's and ran to the pool, ignoring her shouts to wait or slow down.
When Percy reached the pool he jumped in without a second thought.
He stayed under for a few seconds, enjoying the peace and quiet of the underwater world.
Then he came back up to the surface and saw the worried faces of everyone in the vicinity.
Percy swam to the edge of the pool and gripped the ledge.
"What?" He asked when everyone kept staring at him as if he was supposed to be dead.

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1586 words

I would like to thank all of my friends for reading my book and for their support.
I appreciate it very much guys😗

I wanted to make the chapters longer, but I decided against that. So now, instead of super long chapters, I'll cut my chapters into two or three different parts.
Enjoy!