I stand before a large wooden door, the door seems to have some designs etched into wood making it seem more like a work of art than a door, the woman to my left knocks twice and we wait outside.
It's been 4 hours since. The policewoman handed me over to a sharply dressed lady that said she was a social worker for child protective services. She in turn talked to me in for a awhile going over what will happen to me now. I'm to be placed in a home for children without parents she called in an orphanage , she told me there are others like me who stay there, that I'll make plenty of friends .
Friends , a strange word one of the many words I don’t know the meaning to. I wasn’t exactly taught anything from my parents, my knowledge of language is what I picked up, stray words here and there, whispers in the night from people coming and going in the various houses I've lived in. I had to ask what it meant. Her face told me it was something anyone my age should have known. Seems I'm lacking quite a bit of common knowledge. She asks me if I can read, to which I naturally replied no. The only thing my parents taught me is how to stay quiet, that and dodge the occasional glass bottle thrown my way whenever they wanted a target to hit. Her forehead creased over when she heard my inability to read.
The talk went on uneventful till she brought me out of the room we were in and took me to see my new home. Which brings us here. There were symbols over door that read out "st Agatha's orphanage" , me being unable to read , I had to rely on the social worker to tell me.
The door creaked open and a woman dressed in a simple black dress opens the door, her head is covered in a type of headgear I've never seen before [he's referring to the coif, look it up]. The lady looks to be in her late 50's and has a soft smile on her face when she answers to door and sees the worker.
"Samantha my dear , it is good to see you", her tone is gentle and her eyes narrow. She looks to me again and her I see her eyes shrink in focus…something about her isn't quite right and I grip the workers arm reflexively.
The worker named Samantha looks to me in surprise and then understanding dawns on her. Maybe she sees the same thing I do ?
She smiles at me and says, "It's alright Agatha will take good care of you". Or maybe not
.
"Agatha?", I say out loud. I stare at the woman again. She looks back at me with a smile that sends a shiver down my spine…I don’t understand at, face value she just looks like she's just smiling playfully. But the observation doesn’t do much to calm my nerves.
" A coincidence, I'm not that old child" she says with an amused smile. Of course not. It's plain to see the building is pretty old, there no way a human could live that long. Plus I doubt anyone would name an orphanage after themselves and attaching saint to the title. I can feel my face light up in embarrassment for being seen through so plainly and for thinking such a stupid thing.
It seems both Agatha and the worker Samantha seem to find this to be rather funny, much to dismay this only
further increases my embarrassment. Thus adding more fuel to their laughter.
"Well then we both of you should come inside, it is rather cold inside". Agatha says as she ushers us inside, the doorway lead to the foyer , the orphanage from the outside seems to be made of dull red brick, but on the inside it feels much more different , the white wallpaper and the rather ornate ceiling fixtures make it seem like a different world altogether. The red carpet stretches outward to the main living space. I take of my dirty ragged shoes as to not track mud into this pristine place. This place makes my previous "home" look more like a hole in the ground that it was before. Whilst I'm in awe of this new scenery the two adults have moved on a head of me and I hasten my foot steps to keep up. After I removed my shoes of course.
This whole place makes me feel strange, I feel like I shouldn’t be here, someone like me who has only know rooting woodwork and the sound of creaking walls straining to keep the weight of the roof above us. It's all too different .
I'm taken into a small office , Agatha instructs us both to sit in the chairs provided, the chairs are a deep shade of red leather, the scent of leather is new to me. So much of this room and house is. The windows are frosted, though I can still make out the slow fall of snow still…it's December so it's natural for it snow but I don’t think I've ever seen it snow this much before. Will I be snowed in at this rate? I hope not.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
As pull myself away from my thoughts again I take a better look at the room. There is a fire place to the left of me near where Samantha is seated, bringing in a gentle warmth into the room, the flames dance illuminating the room, I hear the crackle of the log as it burns. The sounds of fire all I hear lost in the flames, pulled into it. From the corner of my eye I see the two adults conversing about some legal issues. I can’t understand much of it. It seems I don’t quite know as much of the law that I thought I did. I manage to hear a few words understand, "custody rights" being one of them. They seem to be talking about any other members of kin. I remember the conversation I had with Samantha at the office in which she asked me a multitude of questions about my family. Nearly all the answers were "I don’t know". It reminded me of how little I do know about the world, my family and myself. Then I've just recently been given a name so I guess I'm not doing too bad. But it's not enough I've barely lived on the knowledge I've come by and I'm through surviving by the skin of my teeth. I've been give what seems to be a second chance and I'm not going to squander this opportunity.
The shuffle of papers and bodies moving on leather divert my attention from my inner monologue. I seem to be losing myself in thought a lot more now. I guess since I'm not expected to dodge stray bottles and constantly and actively staying out of line of sight, I'm now given more time to think and not just react. I just hope it won't become a habit [Flag raised?]
"Well then that should be everything", Samantha says as she gathers her papers and stands up. She looks to me and says "this will be your new home now, you'll find it to be much more fun and their children your age , you'll make tons of friends okay?" she says with a wide smile on her face. Unlike the one I saw the other lady make this one did not send shivers down my spine. I look at the window again, still snowing, the suns gone down it must be getting pretty late. Really late. I've caused this woman to be dragged out of her home in order to set me in mine. I feel slightly guilty. This person has done so much for me. More than anyone really has. I feel happy and a little saddened I've caused her to be burdened by me. For the first time in my life someone has been genuinely nice to me, I feel a loss for words emotions I didn’t know I had or could even feel well up inside me. I don’t know what to say or do so I just stare at her with tears in my eyes. Just looking up to her. Then I stare down at my feet. I look back up and the tears fall freely. Before I can say anything else I'm pulled into an soft warm embrace.
"It's all right ",she whispers softly into my ear. I'm frozen stiff, tears stopping and my eyes are widened in shock. "It's all going to be okay, nothing bad is going to happen to you now." The words sent a warm feeling in my chest, it grows further engulfing my body. A kind, soft glow. One promising warmth and security things I've never had. I start to think this is just a dream, that I'll wake up on the cold wooden floor again and have to face all that I've left behind. I bury my head in her soft brown hair trying to purge the thoughts but in reality I'm just trying to grasp what's in front of me, to convince myself what I'm feeling is real and weep loudly, like I was crying out the anguish I felt all these long years. The dam was broken I and I couldn’t stop. I felt a hand on my head patting me whilst I cried my heart out. "It's all alright now, you're safe", she says softly in a tone that I could only be motherly, a tone I've never heard before. It makes me feel relived like all the pain I've felt until now was just a passing nightmare.
I am aren't I? Safe now? I'm going to be living in this amazing place, with children my age , people who care about me? Isn't this what I've always wanted? What I've always wished for but have been too afraid to ask?
I'm not alone anymore.
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A/N: Guess he isn't a complete sociopath after all. Next we see Samantha's point of view. I feel like Grimms POV is generally a bit robotic and i think that's due to his character being a bit cold. Then again i maybe an inept author and it just sounds like crap but you know i can only hope I'm conveying it properly. I'm trying to ease it into a more child like manner eventually but for now youll have to suffer my poor storytelling.
also leave a comment if you want....its not like im lonely or anything....pls talk to me -:me no cry:-