The River

Chapter 1

Angel~

We were gathered around the table for breakfast. We weren't well-fed. We got fed once a week and it was frowned apron to beg for more so no one ever did. I made sure that my brothers and I always sat next to each other. And although Adrian was the oldest at the age of sixteen, I was the one that made sure that we all stayed in line.  We would get abused regardless but the punishments were more harsh if we did something bad. We also made a promise with each other that if we were to ever get adopted, we would get adopted together. As a family.

We were waiting for our table to get called up when Axel finally came over and took his seat. I wasn't surprised that he was late for breakfast again. Somehow he never managed to get caught while sneaking in. We can only imagine what would happen if one of the soldiers found out.

Yes- soldiers is what they called the people who "kept everyone in line". I wasn't fond of making friend but my brothers Axel and Adrian on the other hand were always ready to have a conversation with someone, whether it was what they had planned to do when they get adopted or what they wanna do when they get older. And Asher always stayed with me.  He said he didn't wanna be anywhere if I wasn't there with him. He's only eight and the thing's he's seen isn't something that should be seen at his age. 

I used to always tell him that one day when we make it out, we'll do all the things he wanted to do. We'd see all the plces he wanted to see. But pur future didn't seem so promising. Everyday a child would come in and one would go. But we've never been adopted. "They look disgusting." And, "Who would want any of 'em?" And for every insult we were given, we were beat for it too. Including Asher, who eve at the age of only eight knew too much. He's seen too much-

I'm going to tell you a quick story about how this all happened and how we ended up here at the orphanage.

Adrian was only ten, I was eight, Axel was seven and asher was only about three. I can't quite remember. We heard our parents fighting over which of us was kept while we were supposed to be sleeping but instead telling each other ghost stories. We stopped when we heard father yell ate mamma. "Well only one of them can stay!" We jolted out of our beds and tip-toesd to our doors to see what the big fuss was.  Then we heard a smack. I don't know who was hit though. "I don't want to choose!" Then we heard another smack, which Im pretty sure was our father hitting our mother. "Then we don't keep any of them."

Before I knew it, the four of us were rushing to our beds trying to be as quiet as we could possibly be.  Then we heard it. Stomping headed straight to our room. We all covered our heads with our blankets when we saw the light flicker on through the thin cloth we CALLED blankets. My blanket was jerked off first. "Get up dumb asses!" We all got up acting as if we were asleep. "You're all leaving tomorrow morning so best get packing." 

We all shuffled out of our beds and to the closet and dresser. To be honest, we didn't have much to pack. We weren't poor. But we weren't treated well either. So we hurried and grabbed a suit case. Yes, one suitcase of which we had to share. Whether you are to believe it or not, we got all of our belongings in there without room to spare.  And as usual Adrian had to open his mouth and cause a big fuss. "Why the hell do we have to go pops?" 

And of course he got hit in the mouth. We were all frozen. To be honest, although our father didn't treat us right, he had never put a hand on any of us. Not even Adrian so we were all surprised. "Just go back to bed. I'll wake ya'll in the morning when it's time to leave." then he left. 

We were all exhausted but none of us wanted to go back to bed. "The orphanage can;t be that bad right?," I asked trying to calm the unhealthy aura. There was no reply then I saw Adrian holding his nose to stop bleeding. I quickly ran over to him with tissue to help stop the bleeding. "Don't tell me this was because of him!"  He got a bit of an attitude but ti be honest my dumbass deserved it. "Nah just ran into the wall between then and now and you heard nothing" I threw the tissue at him and told everyone to sit in the circle.

And that's when it happened.