Ella

Chapter 1

"Ella! Wait for me." She squealed. I turn my head around looking at her sweet smile.

The sun was warm on my skin. The smell of pine trees strong as it clings to me. I look up at the bright sun and saw a hawk flying above me in a circle. I was still looking up, the hawk flying down closer.

Closer

Closer

Its beady eyes looking straight at me, its beak pointing straight gaining speed as it gave a piercing cry.

She felt her body jerk awake. Her T-shirt drenched in sweat as it always did when she woke up in her dingy room. The same room she happen to share with five other children, that so happen to have the habit of screaming the house down at the exact same time every. single. day.

"Where is my socks! James!"

She closed her eyes just like what she does every morning and took ten deep cleansing breaths. When she opens them again she look at the clock with its cracked glass noting that it was already 7:45 in the morning.

"I don't know where it is! Why do you keep asking me every morning!" James screamed back, the seven year old tying his shoe laces in record time.

"Reuben probably took it as his snack." Sam said walking across the room with his nose in a book. Today he is reading Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom. Odd for an eight year old to read, but he was always an odd child, just like the rest of them.

"Victor!" Pearl screamed, with her high pitched voice almost blowing her eardrums. The five year old menace looked ready to bring murder on anyone who dares to stop her.

"There they go again." Grace, the only person in this room who is the same age as her, sighed pausing at the door. She turned to her with her proud nose and bright blue eyes. With her dainty face and graceful demeanour, everyone in school refer to her as the angel. I would believe them, if I did not know how cunning she is. She look at her, her bed and back at her and raised one perfectly plucked brow. "Are you going to school looking like a trash?"

"Why do you care?" I said, daring her with my signature glare. Bright blue eyes against cold amethyst.

"Don't misunderstand. I don't care if a trash looks like a trash, but the people at school think we're... friends." She said the word with so much disgust if it was a person she would stab it with a fork, fry it and throw it in the nearest river.

"And?"

"I don't want to be a connected with someone like you."

"And?"

"I have an image to protect." Her hands slowly turned to fist, shaking. A sign of her temper slowly slipping from her control.

"And?"

"Listen here Ella," Grace said her name with so much contempt, "I don't care what you do in school. I don't care which c*ck your sucking every day. I don't care which dirty corner your opening your legs to earn that stack of money under your bed. I don't care, as long as you keep your dirty laundry away from my name. Got it?"

"Look here Grace," I stood up and mimic her voice, "you don't know me, you don't know what I do and what I can do. So, before you open that pretty little mouth of yours I suggest you get away from me and my business. Before I show you exactly what I can do."

"And what can you do? Tell on me?" She scoffs and crosses her arms in front of her, She took a step closer to her. "Who do you think will they believe? A smelly prostitute? Or a smart angel like me?"

I took a step closer to Grace. She was five feet and six inches tall, just as tall as I am making it easy for me to look directly into her eyes without looking up. Something I was silently grateful for.

"Tell on you? We're not kids anymore Grace. What I can do," I took another step closer invading her personal space she treasures so much. Taking a piece of her cherry blond hair, a complete contrast to my own black hair, between my fingers I whispered in her ear, "what I can do to you won't be as simple as tattling you. Unlike what you think, I can be very creative."

I let go of her hair and stared into her eyes. With just a little effort I showed her exactly what will happen to her if she dare do anything. Her eyes widened in shock disbelief and fear showing in her eyes.

"What was that? What did I just saw?" Her voice was shaking, frantically looking to her side and back taking a step back almost stumbling on her feet when she stepped on an empty water bottle. "What are you?"

I smiled at her trembling state. "Nothing like you."

I turned my back smiling at myself when I heard her running off. I was not like this before, not that I remember. As years pass, I struggled to remember how I used to be. But thankfully I never forgot what I was. Each passing year, controlling herself and her abilities was becoming harder and harder. No matter how much she hides herself, evidence of what she is spills uncontrollable, sometimes she fear she might hurt someone one day.

She looked down on her unmade bed and took the book peaking under her pillow. Her only reminder of her past and what she used to have. Opening the book, she took the only photo she has of her family. A family she lost, a family she will never have. Not in this crumbling orphanage. Not in this filthy city. Maybe not ever.

"Hey beautiful." Startled, she quickly shut her book and hid it under the pillow before turning around.

"Alex!" She said giving her friend a smile.

He cocked his head to the side looking at her pillow curiously.

"What are you doing here?" I asked hoping to distract him. He looks back at her returning her smile. Extending his arm in front of him, she looks at the square box he had in his hand.

"What is that?"

"Don't you remember? It's your birthday."

She smiled at him taking her gift from his hand. This place may be a hell hole, but if there was one thing, one person who made things bearable for her to stay, it was Alex. Her best friend and maybe the only closest thing she has to a family in this dump.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome. Now open it." He looks so excited for some reason it was contagious.

"Why do you look so excited?"

"Nothing, just open it." He said urging her.

Tearing the brown paper covering the box, she opened it and looks at the frame in surprise.

"You always told me about her. What she looked like, what she was like. I drew that thinking of how she might look right now."

She took the frame out from the box, looking at a drawing of a person who looks like her. Her heart constricted both in pain and happiness. He drew her based on years of hearing her stories from her.

"She's beautiful." She said her voice barely audible.

"Ofcourse she is. She's your twin after all."

"That's right. I wonder where she is now."