It was the shadow of the person who followed the two girls as they were lying on the roof of the orphanage lost in their thoughts of the constellations.
A shadow projected by a body covered with a black cape, under which only the ends of a dress could be seen and under the hood of which a large, snub nose, full of warts stuck out.
The person hiding under that cape so that no one could discover who she was started to move down that narrow corridor. Two people next to each other could hardly be able to go through.
That person stopped softly at every door, listening to check if there was any noise from the rooms where the children slept.
She lingered some more time by the door of the bedroom where Elizabeth and Dorothy slept. As she did not hear anything, she opened the door very slowly, as it used to make strange noises when opened and stuck her odious and monstrous nose into the room, as if she sniffed around.
The truth is that eyes couldn't help anyway, considering how deep the darkness was in that room. Anyway, that person's eyes followed the direction of the nose ... targeting the two girls' bed, Elizabeth and Dorothy, as if she could see them in the dark.
Brrr ... chill would creep into anyone's spine just thinking they are in bed and someone is at the door or is creeping into the room.
Even adults could get scared, needless to speak about children. Besides, that person knew very well where the girls slept ... she looked straight at them and what is more, she snuffled that area.
Luckily all the kids slept and they didn't see that there was anyone in the room. Fortunately, after a few moments the odd person left the room, closed the door and left further.
Without caring for the other doors on the corridor, the walking cape with stub nose got to the end of the corridor, after which she climbed down the stairs very softly, as if floating on the steps.
…
Inside the orphanage "Angel's hand". on the corridors, there was a lot of fuss and noise, as it was in a beehive.
Although it was a small orphanage, with hardly any room for 25 children, there were actually over 50 little angels living here.
Plus Miss Blackwood and a janitor who should provide the security of the area. As you can see he was not quite effective, considering that anyone could walk in the middle of the night in this orphanage, as it happened the night before.
There was also a very nice cook, whom the children especially liked when she offered them a little dessert, for example the popular Sunday donuts, not too sweet, but they were a delicacy for these children. One could say the cook was the only person that some of the children liked.
And of course there was also Aaron Harp, the director of this orphanage.
The orphanage building had dark corridors and sloping walls, with ragged cloths stuffed in the broken windows to prevent the cold, with little effect, with old blankets mended too many times. Perhaps they were mended by the children who slept under them, because it was done in a clumsy way.
But even so ... it was a place called home by all those children abandoned by parents forever, left to chance.
If one looked into these children's eyes in the morning, eyes which showed no sign of joy, one could realize that days in this orphanage were not quite pleasant.
Howbeit ... it was much better than outside, where you could lose your life in a moment or worse, to struggle to survive all alone.
And they all knew it ... especially the two little girls who were different from the other tired, sad children.
One of them was ten now, with blond hair, frail and dressed in some old clothes, she outgrew.
The other was dressed in the same way, but in dark-coloured clothes, still slightly plump, but extremely nice.
The little blonde was Elizabeth. The other girl had got darker eyes and hair almost the same as Elizabeth's. Even her skin was quite similar to Elizabeth's. She was Dorothy, almost a head taller than Elizabeth. If you didn't know they came from different places and from different families, you could swear they were sisters.
Both girls swept the stairs to the bedrooms.
"Beth, do you want to climb the roof again tonight? To look at the stars. They're so beautiful ..."
"Sure, Dorothy. I just hope it won't rain as it happened last week," the girl said squeezing out a smile.
The two girls looked at each other and started laughing. Even though they had problems with the rain the week before, ending up soaked like two cats fallen in a wash basin, the two girls laughed out loud when they remembered that day.
"Do you remember Miss Blackwood yelling at us when she found us so wet ... how she ran after us with that rod in her hand?"
"She managed to hit my leg. Look, I still have the blue mark," Dorothy showed Beth.
"She didn't hit me. Though, she could do it ..."
Dorothy looked at her friend. She smiled at her dearly, but also sighed.
"Miss Blackwood beat me quite often. Still, she never beat you ... Maybe because I'm older than you," Dorothy smiled without much conviction, standing on tiptoe to look taller.
Withal, she quickly stepped normally again and began to sweep the floor, but only for a moment. She paused and leaned into the sweep like a Templar leaning on his sword, displaying a lofty posture as if she won an important battle.
"I could understand that. However, I will never understand how Miss Blackwood manages to find you all the time… She looks like spying you. As if she had an invisible string tied to you and her hand, and all she has to do is look for the other end to find you.
Elizabeth shrugged. She didn't know what to say. Though, in the end, she said, whispering to Dorothy:
"Maybe she's an evil witch ... and she looks at her crystal globe all the time after me. I heard her bite is poisonous like that of the most venomous snake in the world. And that thin rod she uses to beat children, is actually her fingernail from the little finger that she let grow ... she never cut it and her touch is just as venomous as her bite," Elizabeth concluded laughing.
"Clark told you this nonsense. You know there is no such thing. We are old enough not to believe that."
Dorothy thought a little, then continued quite frightened by the girl's words…