Wicked Little Creatures

2

Cherie gaped at her.

"What do you know about that?"

Lizzy hugged herself tighter, shrinking inward. "I've seen it, skulking around, creeping in the corners." She shrugged, as if her admission wasn't all that shocking. "I'm sure a few of the girls have seen it."

"Why haven't they said anything to the Sisters?" Cherie gestured at her. "Why haven't you said anything?"

Lizzy gave her another incredulous stare. "Did the adults listen to you when you told them what was really happening?"

Cherie drew a breath through her nostrils for patience. "Maybe they'd listen if several girls came forward with the same story. Even one more would give them something to think about."

The girl gave her an indulgent smile, an expression that would be insulting on someone any older, and briefly gripped Cherie's wrist. Her fingers were icy from being up in the chilly bell tower for too long. "I think you underestimate the capacity of adults to lie to themselves." She pulled back, twirling the end of her braid. "Adults don't like conflict. They don't want the bad things to interfere with their lives. They will keep writing off a growing problem until it explodes in their face."

"Speaking from experience?"

Lizzy chuckled, the sound oddly hollow in the bell tower. "Something like that." Her eyes darted to the stairs descending to the main dormitory. "Did another girl go missing?"

"Not just missing. It left her out in the open, right in the middle of the main hall." Cherie could feel the familiar tightening in her throat, Alice's sunken face bubbling up to the forefront of her memory. The sight would give her nightmares for sure. "It was awful."

Lizzy's light brown eyes shone with sympathy. "You saw her? I'm so sorry." Her hand rested on Cherie's shoulder, the girl's icy fingers chilling her skin through the thin material of the night gown. She was so very cold. Cherie gently shrugged the hand off, tugging hard on the frayed string until it broke free from her sleeve.

"It's not the first dead person I've seen," she said, watching Lizzy from the corner of her eye. There was the slightest flinch, nothing more, but it was enough.

"We should get back to the dormitory," said Lizzy, hugging her elbows as they walked side by side.

"Do you come up here often?" Cherie kept her tone nonchalant. She didn't want to scare Lizzy off.

"Often enough," she said.

"Well if I don't run into you around the dorms, maybe we shall see each other in the bell tower," said Cherie, winking at her. "Make sure the other one isn't alone." She'd been alone for so long.

There was a pause before Lizzy said in her delicate tones: "I'd like that."

The two girls maintained a companionable silence until they reached the vee between the dormitories and the main hall.

The main hall was now crawling with adults, including several uniformed officers, taking statements from the Sisters and a few of the unlucky girls who'd stumbled upon Alice earlier that morning. That included Cherie. Sister Mary spotted her at that moment, waving her over.

"I think I need to give my statement to the po po. Catch ya later, Lizzy," she said.

"Goodbye for now, Cherie," the girl whispered.

She could see from the corner of her eye Lizzy was already gone.

With Sister Mary present through her brief interview with the cops, Cherie knew any attempts she made to talk about the monster running rampant through the orphanage would be met with quick dismissal and probably a few mandatory sessions in counseling. The latter of which she didn't escape anyway since all the girls who saw the body were required to attend at least one session. Cherie departed feeling strangely optimistic despite the current circumstances. Lizzy was an odd one for sure but if her theory about the girl was right, well then, she couldn't help it. She was in such a good mood she collided with another body coming around the corner.

Both of them stumbled back. Cherie opened her mouth to apologize when she looked down into the bottomless black eyes of the monster.

She froze, too surprised to correct herself.

"Watch where you're going." It spoke in clipped words, as if each one was bitten off. The voice was the same, so much the same. The only difference was the tone, or lack of it. Cherie couldn't recover fast enough before those fathomless eyes sparked with recognition. "Oh, it's you."

The muscles between her shoulders cinched into a tight knot at the words. They were alone in this hall. It could do anything to her, drag her off right now, and no one would be the wiser. Her fingers reached up to clasp the object she wore around her neck, her personal insurance. It wouldn't kill the monster, but it would hurt it.

She wanted to hurt it so bad.

"I wouldn't," it said, cocking its head to look at her. "So messy. The Sisters already have enough of a mess to clean up today."

Cherie bit her tongue, determined not to rise to the bait. She knew the monster would seek her out eventually. Because just as she knew who it was, it knew her too.

"Poor Sister Joan. They were really close. I wonder if it would have been better for her to believe Alice just ran away like the others."

Her shoulders were knotted iron, so tense she thought her tendons might snap like overstretched rubber. She couldn't help be ask the question, even if it played the monster's game. "Why leave Alice out to be found? Where're the other girls?"

The monster tapped a finger against its lips. A pale facsimile of bemusement, but it was dangerous gesture for its normalcy. It didn't mock her wearing claws and fangs, but with a chewed on fingernail, a nervous habit of the body it wore. The perfect mask.

"Did I leave her to be found? Doesn't sound like me. That's just sloppy," it said.

Cherie frowned. What was the monster playing at?

The monster circled around her, sauntering off without a care in the world. Cherie didn't move at first, trying to work the knot from her shoulders as she wondered what game it was wanted to play now.

"You should run along now," it said, the sneer in its voice genuine, and cruel. "It's not safe to be out here alone."