Miracle

Chapter 8: Dreams

“Miracle run,” a voice echoed in the darkness.

I wandered through in the dark abyss.

“Who’s there?” I asked searching for the source.

“My darling Miracle,” the voice echoed over and over until it faded away.

“Run away, run away from the darkness,”

“Mom?” I asked, running towards the sound.

“Mommy is that you?” I cried and my eyes fluttered open. A tear rolled down the inside of my mask and I dropped the hands that had been grasping towards the nonexistent.

I rolled out from under the bed and lay on floor with my arms sprayed out beside me. I looked up at the creamy white ceiling. I didn’t like the room. It was too normal, too lovely, too perfect. It was bigger than three of the orphanage rooms combined and the soft white walls were lined with blue borders. I hated blue.

In the center of the room was a large white bed, with plush pillows and a soft comforter. It was too cozy. A fighter should never let herself be swayed by the luxuries of a soft bed and full stomach. Still, there was a small part of me that longed to lie in the cloudlike bed and to succumb to a deep sleep. I never sleep deeply, too dangerous. Never know when someone might drive a knife into your heart while you’re in lala land and put you to eternal sleep. Last night I slept on the ground under the bed. The floor was hard and cold but it was safer than the bed. I stuck pillows under the sheets to look like I was in it. Just in case.

“Knock Knock. Mer its time to wakey wakey” a voice said from the door,

“Who is it?” I reply rising to my feet.

Lucille stands at the doorway dressed in another frilly pink dress, this time with a matching headband. My eyes were bombarded with extravagant amounts of pink. “You’re awake,” she states, surprised.

“Yeah,” I agree and she shakes her head.

“No one normal is awake at 6 am,” she mused, lugging something large through the doorway. My duffel. “But then again, if you wear all of this stuff then you probably aren’t normal.” She swung the bag onto the bed with a huff. “What can you possibly have in here to make it this heavy?”

I stepped forward and guided her to the door. I had to quickly hide the books in my duffel somewhere no one except for me would find them. From her comment it seemed that Lucille hadn’t looked deep enough into the duffel to find the books I had stashed at the bottom. “I’m going to change into a fresh set of clothes so wait outside okay?”

She frowned “We’re both girls,” I gave her a pleading look and she threw up her manicured hands. “Okay whatever,”

I needed to act quickly. As soon as I shut the door, I ran to the duffel and dug to the very bottom. When my fingers grazed a hard surface I gently tugged upwards and extracted the 4 books I had acquired over the years.

Where should I put them? I searched around the room and found a wardrobe filled with expensive clothes. Not stopping to admire them, I pushed them to the side and lined the books at the bottom of the wardrobe. I threw in some of my clothes on top of them for good measure. Once I had safely hidden them, I quickly changed into some of my old clothes, thankful that my kidnappers had at least given me my belongings.

“Are you done yet? I’m coming in,” Lucille barged in and was disappointed that I was fully dressed. “Drats, and I was hoping to see you with your mask off,” I gave her a tight smile.

“No one has seen me with my mask off,” which was slightly untrue since my mother, father and I had seen me without my mask. But until my mother’s death, I had always stayed inside. Never gone outside because she was too afraid that my “differences” might prevent me from making friends. They probably would have been afraid of me.