Things I Almost Remember: A Selection Story

An Orphan (Bonus Prequel One-Shot)

*I almost wrote this as a separate one shot, but I thought it made more sense to put it as a little  one-shot. I wanted to give you guys a glimpse into what Kate went through between the attack on the palace and meeting Johnny. Please note this contains an incident of violence against a child.*

"NO! No, stop! Stop, please!" Kate shrieked from her bunk, her small body writhing beneath her tattered quilt. 

"Not again," someone grumbled in the distance.

"She is going to get us all in trouble again," another voice hissed.

The girl on the bunk above her, Eva, jumped down and began to shake her.

"Kate, Kate, please wake up, you're just dreaming, Kate," she pleaded until Kate's navy eyes began to open.

"Eva?," she whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I had the dream again, the fire, the shots, the screams. They were pointing their guns at me. I was so terrified..."

"Kate it was just a dream..." Eva began when the door was suddenly violently swung open.

"What is going on in here?" a haggish and cruel voice yelled. It was Ms. Schvensky, the proprietress of the Belcourt Province Youth Home for Girls. 

"It was Kate again!" one of the girls, Dakota, said, pointing to Kate's bunk.

"You again, girl!" Ms. Schvensky hissed, stomping back to Kate's bunk like a large parading elephant. Once Ms. Schvensky had her back turned to Francine, she sneered at Kate as her bunkmate, Francine, snickered. 

"Ms. Schvensky, please, Kate was having a nightmare. She didn't mean to wake anyone up," Eva began stammering as Ms. Schvensky stalked to her and Kate's bunk beds. 

"Get out of the way, or you will join her!" Ms. Schvensky hissed, pushing Eva off to the side. "Kate, do you know who you are?" 

"I don't, I can't remember, Ms. Schvensky," Kate whispered. 

"Well, I know who you are. You are a selfish, whiny, wicked little girl who works to make life more difficult for those around her," Ms. Schvensky said, pulling Kate up from the bunk by the hair.

Kate was only 12-years-old and had been in the youth home for two years. She was extremely thin, small, and pale due to malnourishment. Her dark brown hair was unkempt and matted. She wore a threadbare dirty sheath as a nightgown, the same one she had been given the day she arrived and the only one she had.

"Ms. Schvensky, I'm sorry I didn't mean to..." Kate began as she was thrown by her hair to the ground.

"Evil, wicked child," Ms. Schvensky said, circling the small girl like a predator. "I have been far too easy on you. I am a fair and merciful woman, but a girl like you can only be shown so much mercy. You have been a burden upon all of us. I hope this time you might finally get some sense into that small brain of yours. You probably won't since you can't remember the most basic things like your real name or where you came from, but maybe this will help whip it back into you."

Kate's eyes grew wide and her pale face went a ghostly white as Ms. Schvensky sneered down at her.

"Dakota, bring me your belt," Ms. Schvensky said in an eerily calm voice. Many of the girls wore skirts and pants that were too big for their underfed frames, and they were only given old donated leather belts to hold up their clothing.

Dakota brought a faded brown leather belt to Ms. Schvensky, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. Kate's eyes grew wide. 

"No, no please," Kate squeaked as she was yanked up by the arm by Ms. Schvensky.

"Wicked, selfish little girls deserve to be punished," Ms. Schvensky said as she turned Kate around so that her back was now facing her. "Let this be a lesson for ALL of you!"

The belt made a whooshing sound in the air before it snapped as it came in contact with Kate's back. The most horrible cries of pain and agony. It came down again and again as the rest of the girls in the room watched in horror. Even Dakota's eyes became wide before she had to turn away.

After a final hit, Ms. Schvensky dropped the belt to the floor and walked to the door of the room.

"Breakfast is in an hour. Anyone who is not present for any reason will not eat," she barked as she slammed the door behind her.

At the center of the room, Kate lay whimpering in shock, her sheath covered in dark red.

"We need to go get the nurse!" Eva said, collapsing on her knees next to Kate.

"No! We can't, it will only make it worse," the girl in the bunk across from Eva and Kate, a 13-year-old named Holly, said as she came over to join Eva. "Eva, you go to the bathroom and get my towel and cover it with water, and someone bring me my spare buttondown shirt."

Eva ran across the hall, and someone else ran to the trunk under Holly's bed. When Eva came back with the towel, Holly lifted up Kate's bloody sheet and began to gently wipe away the blood.

"It is going to be okay, Kate. We won't leave you," Eva whispered as she ripped off a piece of her own nightgown and began to compress it on the deep cuts on Kate's back to stop the bleeding.

"Eva, there was a face this time," Kate whimpered, the pain in her back evident.

"What do you mean, Kate?" Eva asked.

"There was a boy in my dream, right at the end before I woke. He was calling something to me that I couldn't make out, but it sounded like a name. He had brown eyes and..." she cut off as she hissed right when Holly pressed down on one of her cuts.

"I'm sorry, Kate. Please try to lie still," Holly whispered gently.

"He looked worried for me, like he was looking for me," Kate whispered as the girls worked around her back. "I feel like I know him. He seemed so familiar, like someone I should remember..."