JINXED! Edward Nashton

[ORPHANDED]

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[2000]

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"Mama, please don't leave me here! I'm begging you! I'll be good I promise, I didn't mean to, it was an accident!"

A mother dragged her child across the dirt ground, grip tight around their wrist as to prevent them from slipping away and running back 'home'.

"You killed that dog Jerome, you're a destructive stupid girl! I can't have the risk of you hurting your brother!"

The child, Jerome, dug her heels into the ground in a feeble attempt to try and slow her mother's pace.

A large glooming building became visible as the mother and daughter drew closer to the iron-clad gates of one of Gotham's many run-down orphanages.

The building itself looked to have been originally red brick but over the years of neglect had become a distasteful slug brown, overgrown with mould and vegetation; thriving through the cracks and weak spots in the brick exterior, graffiti-covered nearly every lower surface of the outer walls with vulgar language and imagery.

The steel gates were a sickly mirage of rust orange and metallic silver from the constant rain of Gotham, coated in sharp jagged edges and mostly broke from the elements outside, the front overgrown with weeds, thorned brambles and nettles from never being kept or maintained.

Jerome began to breathe heavily in panic at the sight of the building before her, trying more desperately to escape her mother's vice-like grip, only for Lila to grip even tighter, not a care in the world for the marks she would be leaving on her eldest child before her other hand gripped the back of her daughter's fiery locks for good measure.

Jerome cried in fear and pain, the feeling of her mother's cold boney fingers gripping her hair caused her to begin to hyperventilate from anxiety, finally dawning on her that her mother's long time threat of leaving her here, was becoming a reality.

Her reality.

She hadn't meant for this to happen. She just wanted to play with the puppy, loving the warmth she felt in her chest playing with it and couldn't help but hug the furry creature, squeezing far too tight; squeezing the life out of it.

She is only eight and had never held an animal like that before, she didn't know any better she just wanted to give it love, like the love she never received herself.

Screaming at the top of her lungs as she was handed to two men when the doors opened, kicking and scratching, trying to bite and claw the men's grimy hand off of her, begging and pleading to her mother's retreating figure.

Lila never even hesitated walking away, not flinching at her child's sobs for her, cries of promises of good behaviour and how she loved her, all falling on deaf ears as she kept her steady pace far away from the rundown death trap that was the children's home. Sighing in relief as if she had just completed a tiring task, not that she had just abandoned her young child in an unfamiliar environment to fend for herself.

The eight-year-olds tantrum didn't subside though, even after fifteen minutes of screaming for her mother to return and take her home. Her battle like war cries and threats seemed to have caught the attention of the children inside, all of whom were brave enough decided to gather near the stair.

Close enough to observe but hidden away enough to not be seen and more than likely punished.

This charade went on for another fifteen minutes before Jerome had the opportunity to sink her teeth into the greasy middle-aged man that had been restraining her.