The Orphanage

Chapter 1- The Mistress

A door got slammed, small kids giggling could be heard. I woke up. My clock told me I only had four minutes left until the Mistress would check every cabin and hit the ones, who were still in there, and there couldn't be anything worse. She is a monster with a whip. 

I jumped out of my bed, tried to make it look at least a little bit more neat, grabbed my clothes and ran to the group's bathing room for girls. Three minutes left. I brushed my hair, jumped into my clothes and ran down the stairs in the Great Hall. 

Nearly every other orphan was already here, but, looking through the rows, I couldn't make out my best friend Ella. I guess she was looking for the younger girls who always take too long in the bathroom. Gosh, sometimes they could be so unbelievably annoying!! 

30 seconds left and Ella's ginger head was rushing down the stairs, a bunch of little girls following her. She arrived completely out of breath. "These little cuties took longer than usual", she whispered. I wanted to answer, but the main door slammed louder than the other kids giggled. The Mistress arrived. The temperature of the room fell and you could hear yourself breathing. 

"Count." 

It was only one word but it felt like a shower cold as ice and her look took the movement out of every single orphan. The eldest boy began to count, there were 42 kids in the orphanage and usually everyone made it to the morning roll call. 

"There is one missing, Miss", the boy answered. I already knew who it was before he rushed down the stairs from the boys tract. Sona, my crush since I got here. He was the first one, who tried to make friends with me when I arrived here as a seven year old kid, eight years ago. He already spent all his life here, because his mother couldn't supply him. 

"What took you so long little brat?" the Mistress shouted angrily. He overslept, it was obvious. Pure anger overcame the woman and she took him by his ears, threw him onto the middle of the Great Hall. She grabbed her feared whip and hit him five times, for every minute he took to long. Already after the third hit Sona's shirt burst and blood streamed out of it. The older kids kept the younger kids' eyes shut, they shouldn't see the brutality yet. 

He already overslept two days ago, so his wounds weren't fully healed yet. The blood flowed onto his white shirt. Nevertheless, he could still stand. He was a well built 16 year old boy, with shoulder long blond curly hair and the most beautiful smile I've seen in all my life. But in that moment he didn't smile, neither did I. 

After all hits were given, he fell on the hard stone floor. A whimper left my dry throat. The Mistress turned around and looked each of us in the eyes. "You two." she pointed at Ella and me. "Go and take this brat to the nursery. Come back and clean up the floor afterwards. I don't want the mayor to see this mock stable. To the others, you got your timetables. And don't forget to clean up and dress well, the mayor doesn't want to see any dirt on you nor the floor." She went, leaving shocked faces and crying children behind. Luckily, we would first meet her again when the dinner would be served. Until then all of us had at least a mathematics and a Czech lesson, Lunch and two or three hours of working in a little factory for cream on the other side of the street.

Ella and I waited until the other orphans were gone to their activity, then helped Sona up. His beautiful face was totally pale, but at least the blood stopped flowing. Together we carried him to the nursery down the hall behind the last door. The nurse already readied the old bed on the window side so we could easily put Sona on it. He slightly smiled as I looked him in the eyes, his amazingly deep brown eyes. 

Tereza was a nice mid-fifty year old woman, who has been here from the opening of the home. She herself is an orphan and sadly never got adopted, but as she turned 18 she didn't leave. I would call her the nicest adult in the whole orphanage, because she could never hurt a fly. That was also the reason why I made my teaching in the nursery with Ella. Both of us adored her for her kindness.

Leaving Sona with Tereza, Ella and I went back to the Great Hall, took a bucket of hot water and a mop to clean up the mess of blood and dirt on the floor. Today the mayor would come and all of us had to wear our best clothes, for the girls a long dress in white and blue and for the boys white shirts and dark blue trousers. Scrubbing away the nearly dry blood and everything else, that was laying there on the floor, Ella and I changed a view. I knew she was thinking the same as me. Someone had to stop the beast.