Doe (#Wattys2016)

Chapter One

The Lab was no place to grow up. However, many children did or at least they grew slightly bigger, greyer and slimmer. Especially if they spent their evenings in the taverns, that were dotted throughout The Lab, which was highly likely. In fact the taverns were the only work The Lab could offer its inhabitants; which made up the majority of the country. Legend had it that The Labyrinth used to be a small village whose name had been lost just like its boundaries as buildings sprang up around, in and over it.

Lucia Bullire would sigh about this all through her shift at The First Lab, the tavern that claimed to be the first drinking spot ever built in The Lab. It was a small shack of a bar but the locals loved it all the same. Lucia sighed again dragging the tatted cloth once more over the sticky bar. She glanced across at her two daughters and tears filled her eyes to see them so contented there. Her eldest was in an arm wrestle with a regular.

"Yer bludy cheetin'. Looky 'ere at this cheat, Luce,' the man burbled.

"I'm not cheating, you're just drunk already." Francis threw her glossy curls back in a roar of laughter.

"I bludy well ain't," tears ran from the corners of his eyes, "Am I, Doe?"

Doe raised her eyes to his face timidly and then shook her small dark head.

"Doe! You're supposed to me on my side!" Francis mocked scolding her.

Lucia could have cried out but crying hadn't helped her yet. When she took Doe in she was sure they would all die from hunger and crying. Now here she was working all hours in the bar with drunks babysitting her girls. Worse those drunks had christened her poor daughter and this pained Lucia most. She hadn't thought her life would like this, her family growing up in a pub. The more she looked the faster they were growing; they wouldn't need babysitting at all and then what would happen to them?

"Don't be upset, mummy," Doe said, struggling to perch herself comfortably on the rickety barstool.

"Mummy's not upset darling," Lucia sighed, "What would you like?"

"I'm a little thirsty," Doe blushed.

"I'll get you something," Lucia tried brightening her voice.

"Thank you, mummy." Doe said in her usual whisper.

Lucia disappeared into the back to try in vain to find a suitable drink for a five year old. The five year old in question decided to get down from the barstool and go back to her older sister who was now telling Old Bill a story about the severed deer's head above them. Doe loved listening to Francis, she was always telling stories and the best part was that a lot of them sounded real. She also liked how her sister looked, Doe thought that Francis was the prettiest girl in The Lab. Francis had long luxurious curls that changed colour in different light, like a fire through its lifespan. Doe's hair never changed colour it was a straight blunt brown. Doe also liked Francis' dark blue eyes; her own eyes were huge and dark, dark brown, which is why she was named after the deer above them. Though her real name was Dorothea, Doe liked Doe much better. She wished she were like her sister even if it was just a little bit but Francis even had a different second name, Cecil. She was special; Doe knew that. Old Bill helped her back up onto the couch. Just as she settled back down noise erupted from outside and the tavern's door was flung open so hard that the whole building shook.

A tall man was half carrying his friend across the threshold. Francis had stood up in fright but then she gasped. The man slumped his friend into a seat and went back to the door, he then looked around found a musty bench and dragged it across the entrance.