The alleyway was bustling with people going back and forth trying to make ends meet for their daily food.
Whilst other people were free to walk across the cobbled pavement, here she was stuck in a dusty shop overlooked by everyone who passed through her every single day.
She longed to be able to move freely as any other people in this world. But she was restricted from doing so. If she was to take a stroll on the street, the humans would be running toward the opposite while screaming at the top of their lungs!
She let out a huge sigh. It's been a long time since she was able to walk. Her body was so stiff right now, she was not sure if she could walk right.
Her days were usually as dull as the shop itself. But lately, a certain someone had unexpectedly caught her attention.
While most of the people who passed through her would not bat an eyelashes to take some time to appreciate her existence on the mirror display, this particular guy did actually stopped for a while and boldly admired her from the pave walkway.
Roux had never been appreciated by anyone before. Most of the time, she would hear the humans saying that she was scary to looked at.
But this man was different. He stopped and gazed at her lovingly. The next day, he did the same thing! After a week, he came to watch her in the morning, during the lunch and before he went back to his house at night.
Roux felt so flattered!
She enjoyed his 'company' even though they had never interact with each other. She was worried that she would freak him out if he knew that she was a living mannequin.
But today was a little bit different. The wretched mademoiselle was loitering around the shop thus risking their little 'date' to be exposed by the mademoiselle.
Roux hated the woman so much! Even though she was currently her master, Roux had never been able to get along with this woman nor did Roux was willing to . Especially when she was the one who responsible to turned her into a mannequin in the first place!
Roux still remembered her past life when she was just like any other human. She lived in a small cottage not far from outside of London with her parents and little siblings. The were just a family of peasant with nothing much to their name except for being hardworking to earn a living by working at a farm.
As the oldest in the family, she was assigned by her parents to look after her four younger sisters when they were out working at the farm. Looking after her sisters had been her daily routine until the day where a tragedy occurred and ultimately changed their family's life forever!
On a fateful day, one of her younger sister had passed away in her sleep while Roux had been taking care of her.
Their parents came back to find Roux and the other sisters were crying on the bedside after finding her younger sister lifeless body.
Burying a daughter's body was difficult for parents who worked hard to ensure that their children had enough to eat. But loosing another child in a span of one week was utterly unbearable for her parents.
One week after the death of her first younger sister, the youngest baby in the family was found drowning at the river not far from their house. The tragic incident happen while she was under Roux's care.
With a heavy heart, her family - one again- had to bury the baby in the family just beside her older sister's grave who had passed away just one week before.
Life continued as usual for Roux's family until another unfortunate incident struck one more time. This time, a stranger broke into her house and stabbed one of her remaining two sisters with their kitchen knife!
Roux had to ran toward to their neighbour's house to get help but when they arrived back at her house, her sister was already dead.
Mourning her dead sisters was painful to the family. However, since then, their parents became hughly protective toward Roux and her remaining sister.
Her mother stopped going to the farm and decided to stay at their house to look after her daughters herself. Fortunately, nothing bad happen to them while their mother was at home with them.
However, not long after that, she had to go back to the farm with her husband as the land owner refused to pay the husband to work for two people. Therefore, with a heavy heart her mother had to leave both Roux and her surviving sister alone at their home.
As if being cued by some supernatural power, the last tragedy struck their family household for the last time. An intruder had snuck into their little cottage and tried to strangle her sister to death while Roux went to their neighbour's house looking to borrow some salt.
She and the neighbour who accompanied her back to her house, rushed to untie the rope that was used to bound her sister's limbs. Luckily, her sister was still breathing and was successfully resurrected by her neighbour after being given first aid.
Realizing that there was unknown footsteps leaving her house from the back door, Roux decided to follow the trail as she convinced that it was the clue left by the murderer. She asked the permission of their adult neighbour to go for a walk after ensuring that her sister was well and alive.
The footsteps brought her to the village's river. At the very end of the river, a strange looking a red haired woman was standing while holding a tobacco pipe in her hand. She was looking at her intently as if daring Roux to come and question her involvement in their family's predicament.
Roux immediately prowled at the direction of the woman.
"Are you the one who had been killing my sisters?" she asked.
"No" the woman gave a short nonchalant replied.
"You are lying! What do you want from me? What do you want from my family?"
"I want nothing from a teenager like you! Now, get off"
"I won't!" Roux was adamant.
"Alright. Now kid, let me help you. Do you want to know how to stop the bad incidents from happening in the future?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to know?"
"Yes!"
"But there is a price that I don't think you can afford"
"I will. I will pay with my life if I could put an end to this prolonged misery !"
The woman than flashed a smug smirk at her. She bent down and began to whisper things at her ear.
Little did she knew, she was trading her entire life for her family. After the strange meeting, Roux could not remember anything other than waking up at the shop and realizing that her body had changed.
It was difficult for her to adapt with this new body of her. It was stiff and restricting. However, years went by and Roux no longer bother by it.
Roux kept on looking between her master who was sipping tea at her usual spot and the people walking outside of the shop.
She didn't want the mademoiselle to know that she had an admirer who kept on looking at her. She should do something to hide his existence from her!
The Mademoiselle seemed to felt her anxiety as she looked up from her tea cup.
"What's the matter Roux? You seemed different today?���
"Nothing mademoiselle"
"Hmmmm" the woman seemed sceptical with her answers. She lifted one of her eyebrow skeptically. However, she decided to drop the topic as she was lazy to probe further.
Roux was relief when the mademoiselle decided to forgo the whole conversation and continued to sip her tea.
However, her relief did not last when she saw her admirer was walking happily toward the shop.
'oh no! What should I do?!'
As usual, he stopped for a while to gaze lovingly at Roux. However, he was distracted when he realized the mademoiselle was glaring at him through the mirror!