Raven Feathers

Chapter One

I know it says 'Chapter One'; however, this is a prolouge. This chapter occurs several years before the main story line, and it sets everything up for the next chapter. I actually wrote this chapter about a year ago. I will update as inspiration comes, but I will attempt an update at least once every three months (I'm a slow writer). My writing style is a tad bland; please, try to see over this small fact. This has not been editted. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter One

The steady clicking of the nurse's shoes was echoing throughout the room as she moved from cot to cot in the large rectangular room. Nearly every small white cot held a young girl under the age of sixteen. A thin white sheet was used to cover the girl sleeping on a cot, and it was this sheet the nurse pulled back when she did her nightly cot checks. It was her job to make sure none of the children were faking sleep. She also had the job of insuring the girl's health. If the sleeping girl had any signs of sickness, she was taken away to the sick room on the third floor to stop the spread of germs throughout the orphanage.

With each of the nurse's heavy steps, my heart skipped a beat in my chest. The old, wrinkled woman was closer to my cot than I liked, and within moments, I felt her cold yet sweaty palm over the top of my forehead. Through the brief contact, I could feel her skin moving around her brittle bones, causing a disturbed shiver to run down my spine. It took all I had to keep calm because the way her hand lingered told me she sensed something was off with me. The hand was then placed on the side of my neck to check for an average pulse as usual. The fingers tightened for a second, sending my heart rate sky rocketing, before leaving me for the next cot.

Even though my cot check was finished, I couldn't completely relax. The nurse was still in the room, and even though she neared the large double doors at the end of the room, she was still alert for anything wrong. It would be another half hour before the loud clunk of the doors locking echoed through the room. With a light sigh, I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the high ceilings. All around me were the soft noises of girls around me breathing, and somewhere towards the opposite end, a girl was talking nonsense in her sleep. Adding into the noise was the light tapping of rain on the windows.

The room was large in a sense that it was barren save for the cots, and it was narrow with only one cot being able to be pressed against either side of the wall at a time. The walls were cement bricks with diamond shaped holes for windows. Each of the windows was a different colored glass, and on normal clear nights, the moonlight turned the room into an overgrown rainbow. The floors were an old black tile that stuck up in a few places. Over all the room felt cold and lonely much like the rest of the building.

Slowly, I sat up, my sheet falling off my shoulders. It was impossible to tell if anyone else was awake like I was in the darkness. Not many in the orphanage had anything beyond what the nurse's provided. Those who did have contraband stole it on one of our monthly outings into the city around us. Some of those who managed to nab something had forgotten where they hid the item, and others were caught by the nurses and promptly kicked out of the orphanage. Very few were able to not only hide from the nurses and remember their hidden spots, and those few were the 'rulers' of the orphanage. Over my four years I had never gathered the courage to take anything because of the huge risk.

“Adele, are you asleep?” a low voice asked.

I jumped and pulled my sheet up before realization set in totally. The voice was one familiar to me as it belong to my elder of two years. At twelve, Rachael was one of the oldest girls in the orphanage, and she was one of the few 'rulers'. Most of the girls looked to her as either a big sister or tormentor. Sadly, she was my personal tormentor as she went out of her way to make fun of me for my many scares and 'odd habits'. As a big sister, she wasn't too good. She often taught the younger girls to steal for her and to swear at the nurses.