The Beast

1.

"Why on earth is it taking you so much time to clean?" A voice growled from behind me. I immediately stiffen at the voice.

"It's.. Al.. almost.. d.. done, " I said out with great difficulty without turning towards Miss Margaret. I scrubbed at the floor harder and faster as I heard her footsteps coming towards my direction.

In a moment she was infront of me, I stayed kneeled down on my place on the floor, the wet rag clutched in my hands as I paused when she put her shoe clad foot on my hand. I try not to scream, in fear of what she would do to me. My back is a perfect representation of what she would do and what she is capable of doing.

"You are such a useless piece of shit which your parents left in this world. You are nothing but an abomination. " her harsh words hit me hard. In retrospect, I should be used to these words as I have heard them since I was 10 . Now, after eight years, they still felt the same piercing through my heart.

"Finish cleaning here, then you have to do the dishes in the kitchen, understood?" She asked as she put pressure on my hand. I whimpered as tears fell down my face.

"Understood.." I stuttered. After a moment or two, when she was satisfied that my hand was bruised, did she remove her foot. I pressed my lips hard, not wanting any sound to escape and be on the other end of her beating. She beats with a whip, which hurts a lot, and only yesterday did I get my beating, I am not ready for more right now.

When I heard her footsteps going away, I looked at my hand, which was turning ugly blue. I let out a whimper as I moved it in front of me to see the damage.

"You shouldn't feel pain, ... you shouldn't!" I reminded myself and held the rag in my other hand. I wet the cloth from the bucket and start scrubbing the last part of the barn.

After I was finished, I stood up with the bucket in my hand. My already dirty dress gets dirty if that is even possible. This pale dress that I am wearing was once white and is one of two pieces of clothing I own. With a shake of my head, I started walking towards the exit but stopped when I saw the cow dumping again. I started crying as I saw the filth that I had to clean.

My back is already protesting, and on top of that, my hand is numb. Wiping down my tears, I grabbed the shovel and empty bucket. I cried throughout the time I cleaned. Then I walked outside and walked towards the kitchen, where I had to do the dishes.

I looked down on the ground as I walked towards the kitchen, which was on the far right side of the barn. I passed through the small houses that belong to the families. Orphans like me, we are not given the houses. We live in the quarters on the backside of the kitchen. That small quarter is divided into two portions, one for girls and the other for boys.

As I entered inside the kitchen, I saw many people sitting in the dining room. They were almost done with eating. A few of the other orphans were picking up the empty plates. I, too, followed their lead and picked up a few dirty plates, and went inside the kitchen. Miss Margaret glared at me, at which I looked down. I placed the plates in the sink.

"Get to work, orphan," she barked at me, and I started washing the dishes, which kept coming endlessly. One of the other orphan Lillian was helping me. She was drying the plates.

We kept working until we were done. I was so exhausted that I sat down on the floor nestling my hand in my chest as it was hurting so bad.

A plate was placed in front of me with few leftovers. I thanked Sophia, the head chef, the only kind lady in this whole village. She smiled at me and patted my head but frowned when she looked at my hand.

"What happened?" She asked me. I only pointed towards Margaret, whose back was to me. She was scolding Milly for something she did. She gave me a sad face, and no one can do anything here. Miss Margaret is the in charge of us orphans. We are the servants because we don't have any parents, our biggest mistake.

This is a small village which consists of about 40 houses, out of which one is the biggest one where our leader, Mr Jonathan, lives with his wife and two kids, a son and a daughter. We have a common kitchen where everyone eats.

I stood up from my place on the floor and washed my plate. Then I walked towards Miss Margaret.

"Are you done with the dishes?" She asked me.

"Yes," I answered meekly, still looking down.

"You are dismissed," she said, and I sighed in relief as I walked out towards the back where I sleep. I walked inside the small room, which had 15 mattresses on the ground for us 15 girls, or should I say orphans. There are 12 boys in the next room, the orphans. They are usually given stable duties or in farms.

I sat on my bed, which was on the corner, as I was about to lay down a voice called my name.

"Faith..." shouted my friend.

"Henry.. what are you doing here?" I got panicked seeing him here in the girls quarter, if miss Margaret sees him here, she will beat both of us.

"Come with me, now," he whispered and then walked out. I stood with great difficulty and walked behind him. He walked towards the trees. I looked behind me to see if anyone followed, the sun was setting, and the night was about to fall.

I saw him sitting behind a huge tree when he saw me he called me towards him. I sat beside him with a whimper as my back rubbed with the tree bark.

"Give me your hand!" He said, and I did as told. He took my hand in his, and I felt something cold been rubbed on my hand. It soothes the pain, and I looked at him.

"How did you know I was hurt?" I asked him once he was done.

"Lillian told me," he said.

"How's your back?" He asked me.

"Better!" I lied at which he shook his head. His brown hairs fell in his eyes.

"One day, we will run away from here!" He promised.

"And where will we go?"I asked him the same question like every other time we talk about this. But unlike other times, he didn't get silent. This time, he spoke.

"There is a city towards south called Mosvil. We will go there. I will find some work to do and then we will buy a house." He said.

"Mosvil.. will we be able to reach there?" I asked him.

"Of course, Faith, we will run away from here. I have heard you can easily find jobs there. The people there are very welcoming. You won't have to work, we will get married and one day we will have a family of our own. No one would hurt us there. " he showed me a beautiful dream, and as stupid as I was, I believed him. Henry and I are of the same age and both of us have been together since we came here.

"Promise?" I asked him.

"Promise!" He smiled widely at me.