On the Inside

Chapter 2 - Survivors

     The next morning I woke up to the sound of Ed banging on my door. It made me jump out the bed and open the door to stop the intimidating noise. My brown hair was all messed up and I had circles under my eyes. I cried myself to sleep last night so my eyes were still blurry. I rubbed them before I looked up at Ed.

"What do you want?", I mumbled.

"Do you know what time it is Alex!? You've been snoring like a pig all morning and I hope you remember you still gotta make up for yesterday. I don't keep you in this house for free. Now get your fat tail up... and get to work", he complained and then threw a small box at me while sipping on his coke.

I groaned. "What's this? ", I studied the box playing with it in my hands.

"Open it. You'll find out. Now stop wastin' my precious time and leave. "

"Ha! Yeah, sure is precious alright. All ya do is hang around; do nothing", I mumbled to myself as I shut the door behind me.

"What was that again?", I heard him yell from the living room. He'd probably heard me. Oh well, too bad. It was the truth. I went into my room again closing the door to block out the loud music playing on T.V.

     I looked at the box. Confused, I threw it on my bed and went to wash up. My stomach was grumbling. I hadn't had dinner last night or breakfast. After I got ready and put on the new wig (which is what was inside the box) I glanced at the clock.

10:25 AM

     I'd have time to get breakfast on the way. I didn't have the slightest idea how to make money today. I used to plan it out every night but it's gotten so repetitive and tiring that I just go with what comes to my mind in the last minutes. I know it sounds wrong when I say make money but that's what we've called it since we left that orphanage.

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     When I was only 3 my parents died. I never knew how. No one did. They just left for a trip once and never came back. Our family was always deserted and I never knew anyone else except my parents and my uncle. My mom only had one sibling, Uncle Rick. When I lost my parents I was sent to live with Uncle in Germany. At that age I was too young to know I would never see my parents again. It was very hard living with Uncle for four years. He'd come home late every night and I'd barely ever get to see him. I was home alone most of the time and very afraid. His house was so huge I'd sometimes lose my way around.. I survived that way until age 7 when Uncle caught a disease. He was in a very bad condition and had someone take care of him. There was no one to take care of this 7 year old orphan girl. I wasn't allowed to live with him after that and was forcefully sent all alone to Daylight Orphanage in Boston.

     For years I stayed there. I remember the first few days I would try to escape and couldn't. It's not that I learned to get used to it. No. I just learned to have patience and the day would come when I'd leave that horrid place. And it did. I met Edmond Chile who had the same goal as me: Escape the orphanage.

     We lived through all those rough years. Disgusting food, hard and strict lessons, worries of getting adopted, wooden beds, tight, long, ugly dresses we (the girls) were forced to wear, and so much more. Edmond had been there since he was 2 and was always being bullied and left out. No one wanted to hang out with him. He was always in trouble and got into fight with other boys. After some time, he was known as the 'bad boy' of the whole place. I think the only person that knew the little good side of him was me. I was always there to listen to him and he was there for me. We would often make plans for escape but never made it.

     One day Ed (Edmond Chile) decided to leave. He made it all the way through until he got to the thorny protection fences. I was watching him from my small bedroom window. When he tried crawling past the fences, his back got all torn up. The guards caught him and he was grounded for 5 months into a separate dark room. The scars are still there.

     Finally, it was one of those boring days where the people who wanted children came to visit the orphanage to adopt a child. It took a while for this young couple to decide who they'd adopt. Finally they chose... me.

     I was terrified. I didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't want to become an unknown couple's child. I didn't belong there. They forced me to get my things and go along so I went to my room and sobbed until someone knocked at my door. It was Ed. Without a single word he bunched all my stuff into a bag and carried it along with another smaller one he was bringing along. I had no idea what he was doing, but whatever it was, it had to be better than being adopted by a foreign family. He pushed up my bedroom window, took my hand, and we ran away. It wasn't as easy as it sounds but this time we made it.

     I'd call it a journey. Two weeks later we reached an old cottage-like house. An old man lived alone in there and he accepted us in his house. I was 11 by then and Ed was 15. The old man took care of us for about 4 months. Then one night he slept and didn't wake up in the morning. Ed and I had to take his body and throw it in the river. I remember how much i cried that night. I hated seeing death. It was like everyone around me died when I was young. After all that, I toughened up. But not as much as Ed. He changed too much; so much that I felt like I didn't know him anymore. He started taking control of me. We did everything to make money but the most we'd make was 20 dollars a week. We used to do it all the right way. Ed built wooden tools and sold them and I'd help out on nearby farms.

     It was like that until Ed decided we couldn't live like that anymore. That's when I started to "make money" by robbing and stealing. Then, instead of 20 dollars a week, I've been making about 300 dollars a day while Ed does nothing and only hangs out with some of his dirty friends that live near us. He makes me do this because he says it's all pay back for what he did for me when I was young. It's true, he did a lot. But that's enough. We're getting no where with this. Him and his greedy self doesn't want to spend a penny to "upgrade" our house or anything of that nature. I want to have my own ways and get time for myself. When someone forces you to do something, it's like you don't want to do it anymore.

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     By the time I reached the old McDonald's on the next block, it was 10:40 AM. I ordered a pancake with coffee and ate it on the way. From the money we have saved over these years, we used half of it to get this used, but clean car two years ago. It still works fine. It can get us around and that's all that really matters about a car to me.

     I took a drive around town and stopped by the library. I had put on the new curly red wig Ed had gotten so no one notices me from yesterday. With my blue contacts and casual clothing, I was disguised pretty well. I walked up the marble stairs and into the library.

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