Forced to live on the streets of Victorian London with her mother and two siblings, Ethel wished for a better life. But, things don't always turn out well for the poor. Trying to get some food for her children, her mother went missing, and a kind no...
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12:04p.m., October 31st, 1904, Bedlem Asylum
Ethel jumped out of her seat only to be pushed back into it by the burly orderly. She rubbed her hands together and tears burned her red eyes. "I'm not lying! Monsters are real!"
Dr Samuel Wallace—the man who never believed her—knotted his hands on his desk and sighed. "We have been over this, Miss Church. Monsters are merely a part of your overactive imagination."
She shook her head from side to side. "You'll never understand. You'll never believe me!"
"Then walk me through it. I am only trying to help," he assured her.
Looking down at her quivering hands, Ethel nibbled on her cracked lower lip. She didn't want to remember the horrors of that night, but they never stopped. They haunted her, followed her into her dreamland. What if the monsters got to her here? They must have noticed her escape. He certainly noticed her getting away that night...
*****
October 1st, 1904, London
Crisp evening air climbed in through the gaps in Ethel's tattered coat and skirt. She huddled closer to her brother and sister for warmth, wrinkling her nose. No matter where in London they moved to, an overpowering stench of the Thames could be identified anywhere. That alone was not what put her off the city's revolting aroma. Rich men polluted the streets with their automobiles. They never cared for the poor, always looking down on them—on her kind. It was as if they weren't people at all.
Droplets of rain started to fall from the sky, and Ethel closed her eyes. She brought her siblings closer with her arms. Their mother hadn't returned since she left two days ago to find them some food. The emptiness in Ethel's stomach had become a constant, as did the chill from the cobblestone they sat on. She didn't complain. She couldn't because she was the eldest.
"When is Mum coming back?" Joshua asked, peeking up at her.
Ethel pursed her lips. What could she tell her seven-year-old brother? It wasn't like her to be gone this long. Their mother always returned on the same day. But, the tightness in Ethel's heart did not go away. If something happened to her, she was to take charge and take care of the others.
"I don't know," Ethel finally replied.
Her sister, Mary, studied her with gem-like green eyes. Her freckled cheeks were coated with dirt and her dark curls glistened with the water droplets that landed on her head. "You think somethin' happened to her?"
"No!" Ethel said, rubbing their shoulders. "Of course not."
"You're lying," Mary snapped, shuffling away. "You think something did happen!"
Joshua sighed. "Of course, somethin' happened. She's never left us this long, not since we were tossed out onto the streets."
"I know where your mother is." The low voice that came from a shadowed stranger stilled Ethel's heart.
