Chapter 1: The Orphanage

The king had a dream: That a golden snake with one golden eye and one blue eye attacked his son while he was just an infant. To protect his son, the king lifted his sword at the snake but the snake got bigger and turned into a dragon. He tried to kill the dragon but it grabbed the child into its mouth and clenched its jaws together. He heard the infant's soft bones break and saw the blood run out of the scars made by the sharp teeth of the dragon. Angry king found himself transforming into his son and having an army behind following him. In front of him, the dragon grew black horns and opened its big mouth to breathe out fire. The king lifted his sword and attacked the dragon thrusting the sword into its heart. But it turned to a human instead. The human was his young son who was dying in his arms. He woke up wet with sweats, shouting.

***

Right when the clock struck twelve times, Miss Perkins was standing in the corner of the lunchroom, her arms crossed in front of her chest looking down at the children of her orphanage queueing in front of the chef and his big pot waiting to be served. She was thin and tall, trying to make herself look healthier by wearing puff sleeve blouses all the time, which were old but properly taken care of. Being surrounded by short little kids, she had to always look down from behind her glasses through her cold eyes to the children. From that angle, where children would look up at her, her long nose seemed even longer like an eagle's beak.

The children would get their piece of bread and a bowl of watery food and were supposed to sit quietly and eat. One by one, they sat at the long tables and started eating eagerly. The air inside the cafeteria got heavy with the smell of food. When they were done with their own small portions, the children started fighting to get more from the weaker ones. In a few seconds, everyone was shouting. This was every day's settings for lunchtime.

Ashe was not allowed in the lunchroom until after everyone was finished. She had to stand at the tall wooden door all the while the others were eating. It was the rule; no mongrel or demons shall eat with humans. Everyone knew it.

From the small round window on the door, Ashe peeped inside. One by one the other kids were leaving the room from the other door, their plates licked clean. She looked around the room desperately looking for whatever she could find. The leftover food was hers.

Then she saw Luke, the short seven-year-old boy with his curly brown hair who looked at her for a moment and smiled warmly. After checking around and making sure Miss Perkins is not looking, he put down the bread he was eating on the plate and left the room following the others. When the room was empty, she went in and grabbed the bread eating it vigorously. It was her first meal in two days. Even though Luke left half of his bread every day, sometimes others would take it before she could. A couple of times, Miss Perkins caught Luke soon enough and signed to one other person to take the bread away. She wasn't even trying to pretend she wanted Ashe alive. But for each child dead, human or not, she had to explain to the higher-ups and she did not want the trouble. Too much paperwork. As long as she was alive, that was enough.

Miss Perkins looked at her wincing, seeing how she was putting the bread into her mouth with the only good right arm she had. She was born with a cripple left arm and her left yellow eye was the banner of being a mongrel; as if having a crippled hand was not enough of a humiliation target. It was a shame, Miss Perkins thought, that she had such beautiful curly red hair and innocent face, yet was a mongrel. She could never bring herself to care for such a creature.

There was a rumour going around but nothing was official yet. They said that the king had decided to kill all the mongrels. She preferred the rumour to be true so someone could end the miserable life of mongrels legally. It was best for everyone. Mongrels, a crippled one on top of that, were bad omens.

On beautiful summer days when everyone would be glad to have a walk outside, even in the slums where the orphanage was placed, Miss Perkins would allow kids to enjoy the great weather in the small front yard of the old building and would unregretfully close her eyes on their actions. After the classes where she taught them about everything they needed to know, and washing the dishes of lunch and doing the laundry, there was nothing else to be done by the kids but to play under the orange sky of the sunset.

At a time like this, it was time for Miss Perkins to relax as well. She could not possibly care less what would happen. If something went out of hand, Like a fight took too long, she would stop the fight. But that was all she would do; nothing more.

That day was especially exciting for the kids since brother Kaith was coming back with souvenirs for everyone. He was a great older brother who left the orphanage a few months ago to work on a farm. The farm owner was kind enough to allow him to come back with some fruits for the kids, not knowing he was unleashing a monster for Ashe.

The kids, from the age of four to fifteen, were all in the yard, mostly playing. The sun was still up,and the sky was turning purple getting ready for the night. The nice breeze of the last days of summer was pleasant and the grass in the yard was still green.

Ashe, but, was sitting on the windowsill embracing her knees looking at them with a wondering look in her eyes. From the small distance between the frame and the glass, she could feel some breath of air coming in caressing her legs. She had not once in the thirteen years of her life had felt to be the same as everyone else. They kept reminding her that she was different all the time. How could they all smile, she wondered, while she was suffering alone? She thought she was invisible for some time, but brother Kaith made sure that being invisible could turn out to be a dream.

"Hey sis," a little boy placed his hand on hers. She looked at the small head with curly brown hair and the happiest smile, "you are not playing?" Ashe used her good hand to caress his head kindly. He was oblivious to what happened to her every time she stepped out; all the younger kids were. In all their innocence they could not see the horrible actions in front of their eyes.

"Not today Luke," she smiled. He smiled back. He would be a monster when he grows old, she thought, just like the others. But while he was like this, she would enjoy every second of it. Luke heard someone calling him from the yard and grinned once more at her, "next time, play with us," he suggested. Ashe nodded silently and followed him with her eyes as he left running.

The room's only furniture were tacky beds. She was grateful for the wide window sills that she could sit on them and hide behind the dirty cream curtains and look outside at a world she did not belong to. Once more she looked out and sighed. Why she was different, she asked herself.

The loud screams of the children attracted her attention and she looked up at a tall young man, just turned sixteen, with a pleasant smile and a bag full of fresh fruit, entering the yard. The kids ran to him for hugs and if they were lucky he would choose them to grab and lift and play fly high with them. They were screaming with happiness while her heart started beating fast. She pressed her knees into her chest and watched him in terror. The hair on her body stood straight and she felt cold on her skin.

Ashe felt a clench in her stomach. She could feel blood was leaving her cheeks and her skin was getting whiter than it usually was, by the sight of him. She managed to jump down the windowsill and run to her bed, the only place she knew and slid under it praying to the god of Surface and the god of Beneath that he would not find her. She felt all her body, except the crippled hand, was shivering madly. Taking a few deep breaths, her lungs hurt.

Not long after, the door opened and she saw his worn-out boots by the door. "Ashe?" he called in his friendly voice that could not fool her, "Come on, I brought you something." he took a step in and closed the door behind him gently. Ashe pressed her hand to her mouth while Kaith was getting closer to where she was. Her eyes were already filled with tears and she let out a scream when he grabbed her ankles and pulled her out. She knew no matter how much she struggled, no one was coming to her rescue. She could never scream either. Remembering Luke's innocent face, she did not want him to see these horrible acts.

Kaith had always been the boss. Ever since he had left, the others had left her alone, more or less. WIth not Kaith being around, the others were satisfied with mocking her or simply pushing her in the corridors. None of these was ever enough to make Kaith happy.

"I heard something," he said as he grabbed her face tightly pushing his fingers into her jaw, "they are looking for mongrels." Ashe's tears slid on her face burning the cheeks as they went down. Kaith's smile was hideous with his brown teeth. "I just need to shout," he declared, grabbing her hair into his fist and pulling her out of the room.

As he was pulling her, he made sure not to cross paths with the children. Not that he cared, but Miss Perkins would scold him for showing them such a bad thing. Ashe was using her feet to make the movement a bit more painless while grabbing her hair with her good hand trying her best not to scream; her eyes burning with tears.

The building had two yards and the one in the back was surrounded by collapsing walls. No one cared to rebuild them and recently, a part of it had completely fallen down. It was a safe place for Kaith. Kids were busy with their fruits in the front yard.

From the collapsed wall, the back alley was visible. It was dark, especially in that hour, and even if someone passed they wouldn't care about what they saw. The area around the orphanage belonged to the poor. The slums filled with slaves, brothels and exiled demons. Someone getting hit or stabbed was a daily show for the people there.

Kaith pushed Ashe to the ground and smiled at her. "You are a fucking mongrel," he reminded her sitting on her torso, "you are disgusting." He finished his sentence with a punch in her face. "I will first enjoy it a little bit," he continued and punched her again. He then got up to take a breather. Seeing that Ashe could move, he used his strong legs to smack her stomach. He grabbed her dress around the neckline and pulled her up a little while sitting on his knees, "I came back when I heard the news," he said and punched her in the face all the while she was crying soundlessly. He let go of her and stood up. She hardly could feel her face now and she could feel a lot of pain in her abdomen.

Ashe didn't have the energy to fight back and was hopeless knowing how strong he was. As she was dropped he was kicking her. She heard something break inside her and felt a killing pain in her lungs. Breathing was even harder now. "I will call the soldiers," he said enjoying himself, "and then, they will finish you off." The pain in her torso was unbearable. As she tasted blood in her throat and mouth, she closed her eyes and wished, not for the first time, for this life to end.

In the middle of her getting merciless kicks from Kaith, Miss Perkins opened the door. Kaith stopped and stared at her while his foot was on Ashe to stop her weak body from moving. "See, Luke," Miss Perkins said to the little boy who was behind the wall, "Ashe is not here." She looked right into her eyes when she said the next words, "I told you, she had left."

Once again her eyes filled up with tears. She wanted to shout out to let Luke, that little sweet boy, know that she was there and had not left him. But she did not want him to see her like that. That little angel always looked out for her and she did not want him to smudge his eyes with the filth she was covered with being bit by Kaith. Miss Perkins closed the door giving her and Kaith one last look.

Ashe closed her eyes slowly, wishing for it to end; not caring how.

But then, there was silence. A momentum when not even wind was blowing. She could not hear or feel anything. Kaith wasn't hitting her or laughing anymore. She heard a thumping sound and opened her eyes to see Kaith knocked out next to her. Shocked and confused, she looked around, trying to get up and saw some blood coming out of the back of his head but was breathing weakly. She jerked back from the scene.

Getting up she tried to cover herself up with the torn dress. Her dress was ripped up and her body was exposed. She tried to stand up feeling her feet were weak and shivering. Ignoring the pain in every part of her body, she stood on her quivering legs and spitted out the blood in her mouth.

"You better run," a voice said from behind him, sounding to belong to a teenage boy. She looked at the source of the voice.

"You OK?" From the destroyed wall of the backyard, someone finally had looked inside. She was feeling dizzy and her vision was blurry. All she could see was a boy shorter than herself. Tears slid down. "Hey," the voice said and the creature got closer cautiously, "you are bleeding." Ashe lifted her arm to her upper lip where she felt ticklish. Touching the blood coming out of her nose, she looked at her finger feeling cold. Her weakened knees gave up and she fell. The last thing she saw was two bare feet with black nails approaching her. She wished that life to end, for one more time.