The Stone of Edith; Tenshi

Chapter 4; To Be An Orphan

Tenshi slowly pushed herself away from the mattress, her blanket falling away from her. She put one foot on the rough wooden floor. She winced as it let out a long groan from the sudden weight. Another foot joined the other on the floor. One more excruciatingly long creak. Looking around further, she noticed that she was alone. A shiver ran up and down her back. She assumed the draft to be the cause of it, but couldn’t be sure. Standing up, she took a step forward. A moan erupted from the floor. Another step. Then another. After each step, a groan emanated from the floor, adding to the ghostly shadows flickering here, then there. She could’ve sworn she heard a whisper of some sort. A trick of silence, perhaps? Maybe her mind was playing tricks. She hurried towards the lone door, and grabbed the knob, trying to turn it. It wouldn’t budge. She looked at it, and then realized that it was locked. But that couldn’t be—there wasn’t a lock on it. The shadows creeped again, unnaturally. She shivered. There was something unnerving about them, dangerous. Then she remembered her other form, how she could transform into it. Her only worry with that was that the floorboards couldn’t sustain the weight of a dragon.

Well, she thought, amused, the floorboards are technically holding a dragon right now.

She jiggled the knob again. This time, it turned. The door groaned on its hinges as it opened. Looking over her shoulders, she stepped out into the dark hallway. The floorboards kept creaking as she made her way to the end of the hallway. Creek… Creeeek… Along the way, she tried some of the other doorknobs from the many doors that lined the hallway. All of them were locked. There was a door at one end of the hallway that she was walking towards. On the other end of the hallway was a staircase leading downwards and upwards. This door had a different knob from all the others; instead of being circular, it was a fancy golden handle that you could turn. Before she knew it, she was at that door. She nervously grabbed the cold metal, and then realized that she was sweating. Why would I be sweating? She wondered. I’m a dragon!! Get a hold of yourself, Tenshi!

She slowly turned the handle—this one wasn’t locked. The door creaked open a crack. She looked through the crack, expecting something to jump out at her. Instead, she saw a cold, shadowy, empty room with the bed sheets sprawled across it and the window open, letting in an icy breeze. Tenshi shivered for the second time that night. The room was definitely larger than hers. The dragon in her was ready to come out, ready to defend or attack. Nobody was in the room, so she opened the door with a crrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaakkkkk! and stepped inside. She quietly and swiftly walked across the room to the small dresser beside the bed. Another door was in the corner of the room. She wondered what was behind that door, but pushed that thought to the back of her mind. She picked up a picture from the dresser and saw an old, nice looking lady standing beside tons of girls, all different ages. Putting the picture back, she got the feeling that somebody was watching her and crossed over to the door. This door was obviously old-- older than all the other doors, that is—with a super fancy fake-diamond doorknob. She tried it, but it was locked. She heard footsteps in the hallway. In a rush, she exited the room, and found herself back in the hallway where the footsteps were coming from. She prepared herself to explain to whoever—or whatever—was making the footsteps.

There was no one there. Officially creeped out, Tenshi walked to the stairs at the other end of the hallway, continuing her search for a door that was unlocked. Not surprisingly, all of them were locked. She sighed, defeated, and looked up the metal staircase. The floor of it was like a grate, so she could see through it. It ascended to the next floor and stopped. She looked down the staircase. It descended two floors before it stopped at ground floor. Glancing up again, she saw something that froze her in place—the shadows. They were advancing towards her at an alarming rate. Wide-eyed, Tenshi leaped down the staircase, two stairs at a time, making the metal staircase rattle after a BANG! She reached the second floor and looked up. The shadows were still coming after her. BANG! BANG! She continued leaping down the stairs in a frenzy. She was on the last step of the stairs, and looked up again. The shadows were right behind her.

Ready to scream for help, she bounded off of the stair onto the ground floor, ready to break into a run. The nanosecond that her foot touched the ground, sunlight dazzled her eyes. She tripped in the shock, hoping the shadows didn’t get her. When her eyes adjusted to the bright intensity of the sunlight, she looked behind her. The shadows were gone. Picking herself up, Tenshi brushed herself off and warily looked around. There were huge windows, six of them, in the shape of arcs embellishing the wall to her right, and vases of fake flowers placed very precisely on small tables positioned immaculately between every window. There was a grand door, which she assumed was the front door, dividing the six windows in half. The floor under her wasn’t too fancy, just a rug, but there were amazing designs on it that stunned her.

Looking to her left, she saw a white wall that was covered with cheap paintings. There was only one door on that wall. Everything there was cheap, but when you put the whole room in the picture, it looked very expensive. There were voices on the other side of that door, happy voices, which were cheerful and loud, accompanied with tableware items scraping together. It must be breakfast, Tenshi decided. She walked through the door. Everyone around the table quieted. All the noises stopped. (But, she could hear a mouse diving through its nest in the wall, due to her dragon-self.)

The lady that she saw in the photo stood up. “Everyone, this is Tenshi. Tenshi, this is… Everyone. You can get to know them today. Everyone, please make Tenshi feel at home!”

Tenshi half-smiled to everyone. There were girls of all ages, from age three to seventeen. An eight-year-old stood up immediately. “Hi Tenshi! I’m Roxanna, but everyone here calls me Rox!”

Tenshi dipped her head in greeting. “Hi Rox…” She felt a sharp pain on her knee and realized that she had rug burn from the fall.

“Oh, dear! What happened to your knee, Tenshi?” The lady asked. “By the way, you can call me Angelica. Everyone does. Come here, let’s wash it off.”

Tenshi nodded to Angelica. She followed her to the washing room. Soon, cool water was washing her rug burn off. It stung at first, but felt mostly good. Her stomach rumbled; she hadn’t had breakfast yet. Tenshi frowned at it, but Angelica was the first to talk. “Are you hungry?”

Tenshi looked at Angelica, betraying no emotion. “Yes.”

Angelica smiled. “Then let’s go eat!”