Sunday, 20th March 1453
Well, that was 10 years ago and I am now a 16-year-old teen and had somehow left the comfort zone of the Orphanage just before Christmas the year before. This was what actually happened –
After years of suffering in silence, the residents of the Orphanage finally took hold of the situation and turned it around against the favour of the Matron and her aides. Those who were being forcefully made crippled or handicapped even though they were being brought in healthy to the Orphanage before, they took up arms right after they had concocted some herbs and let me drip the concocted potion into the food that was meant for Matron and her aides.
The guys that made up of some of the residents had been planning this for some months and were carefully planning on how they would execute their deed. I was one of them and I volunteered as I was the only female in the conspiracy…!
I somehow managed to be in the good books for one of the aides which of course, had to sacrifice something to get the things done. It was disgusting and I felt dirty all over as I was literally manhandled by one of the aides to gain access to the kitchen area before I could add an additional ingredient into their food.
The additional ingredient was not poison at all, but it is more to a hallucinogen plant that the guys had found in the woods and brought it back to them. After making the so-called potion, and tested it on a poor guinea pig that we paid with our spare food rations for his sacrifice as a test subject. We discovered that it was a success and on one evening, I had to sacrifice myself for one of the aides and made up a story that I was hungry and would like to have a bowl of the meal before being served to the Matron and her aides.
Once I had gained access to the kitchen that only the Matron and her aides could enter, I took out the vial glass that was hung around my waist and then I dropped the whole content inside the whole cauldron of thick gruel that was filled with vegetables and meat.
"DAMN…!!! These pigs really eat better than us…! No wonder the money that we had collected had gone to their bellies…! Hmph…! This group of dickheads are really gonna get it tonight…! I can't wait to get out of here once I am done and the rest of the guys would then strike once the time is right." I thought to myself as I dumped the whole contents in the vial into the cauldron and stirred the thick gruel a bit. It was sad to see good food go to waste but time was of the essence and I have to hurry out and pretend that I had taken a bowl and washed it down after eating. At least, none of the aides would notice that I had done something peculiar inside the kitchen.
My life within that 10 years was not a bed of roses. It was practically HELL as I escaped from a lion's jaws and ended up in an alligator's jaws instead…! I was sculpted and groomed from being a flower selling and alms collecting girl, to become a first-class thief with skills like snatching, pickpocketing as well as lockpicking. This skills I did not learn from the alleyways or some backstreets of the little town of Arkandale but within the recesses of the Orphanage itself.
Those residents who had reached a certain age or somehow able to regain the use of their limbs somehow, unless those that had been amputated due to gangrene, were able to 'upgrade' themselves and to learn a new trade while still be in the confines of the Orphanage that overlooks our so-called welfare. There were classes, tutorials and even ways on how to perfect the art of thievery…!
There were no dress codes as it might easily give us away as we normally went out for our daily 'outings' in any clothes we deem fit for the day. We usually hung out in the marketplaces where there would always be a crowd and we would be carrying some grocery bags or even some hemp sacks that usually contained some useless kinds of stuff that we rummaged from the back of the marketplace. This would add to the realism of being part of the crowd walking about in the general public places. These poor victims would not notice that they had been relieved of the coin pouches that hung snugly around their waist belt as the poor victims were bumped 'accidentally' by us.
We do not work alone and normally in pairs or threes. Once we had found a victim and had made him a few coins poorer, we would hand the coin pouch to the partner behind us and he or she would be heading to another one behind them before the loot was handed over to one of the aides and a tally would be made in some dark and smelly alleyways, away from any prying eyes.
We were taught all kinds of diversion in this type of trade and even could be one of the 'Good Samaritan' in helping the victim hound down the thief that had just snatched their coin pouch. This normally would result in more loss of coins and pouches as the rowdy crowd would be too fixated in hunting the thief that had already gone away but got misled by us instead. With the art of blending with the shadows, we could simply 'disappear' from the sights of the rowdy crowd before they discovered that they had been duped by us all.
All of us had been caught up with the crowd or by the law but there was nothing they could find on us except for some shillings that we had on us after we had gotten rid of the pieces of evidence. With the bags of groceries to mask our professions, we would be released. Of course, we would not hit the same place twice in a day since it would arouse suspicions.
*C C C R R R A A A S S S H H H*
The bowls of thick gruel that were served and were being consumed crashed to the floor as the Matron and all the aides were looking at each other in a stupefied manner and were pointing at their faces and the faces of the aides and the Matron as some of them began to giggle.
"Yuh…Yuh… You ah…all look fun-nie to me eehh. S…Ss…So many be…beautiful li…lights floating ah…around. Eehh… I ca..can feel th…the earth mo…move under mah feet…! Hahahaha…!" the Matron started to slur in her speech as she began to hold on to the edge of the table as she tries to regain her balance and stand up. However, the effects of the hallucinogen were too strong for anyone to handle. If given to a horse, I guess the poor animal would also react the same way as the Matron.
*K K K R R R A A A S S S H H H*
The Matron lost her balance and as she fell sideways, she pulled the corners of the table cloth along with her. This brought a chain reaction of the bowls to crash to the floor. The Matron and the aides saw the whole incident and thought it was funny and were laughing uncontrollably as they were soon affected by the psychotic effects of the hallucinogen.
As soon as the conspirators heard what was happening behind the closed door, they signalled to each other and stormed into the dining room where the Matron and the aides were sprawled on the floor and were swimming in their own urine and the gruel.
*T H U M P*
*W H A C K*
*T H W U N K*
*S M A S H*
The group of conspirators, armed themselves with homemade cudgels and billy sticks they had snitched from the patrolmen, began to rain blows on the Matron's as well as the aides' heads. After numerous blows, each, came the sickening sound of bones breaking and brains being mashed up as the bodies of the Matron and her aides were convulsing for some moments before it became still and lifeless. Some eyeballs were rolling on the ground as the nerve optics came loose from the sockets. They were either stepped and flattened during that frenzy…! The Matron's and her aides' heads caved in during the numerous blows that the conspirators had delivered.
I was shuddering at the corner of the dining room and was huddling my knees together as I stole glances at what was happening from beginning till end. The haunting memories of skulls breaking and squishing sounds of eyeballs underfoot would remain with me for a very long time. I would never eat another fishball manufactured by Gracehaven City anymore…!!!
"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeeeeaaaakkkk��"
"Tell them to stop already, Kristobel…! The deed has been done and Evil has perished. Leave the bodies here alone and we will inform the Rat clan to take over and clean up the whole place. They will make sure they would leave only the white bones on the cold stone floor."