Sister Anna's attention snapped towards me the moment she heard my name, her eyes widening in disbelief. With a mix of disgust and horror etched on her face, she pointed an accusing finger directly at me, her voice trembling with conviction. "She's a witch! I always knew there was something wrong with her!" the words echoed through the room, hanging in the air like a dark cloud.
But what made this accusation sting even more was the fact that Sister Anna chose to expose me in front of everyone at the orphanage. The silence that followed was deafening as all eyes turned towards me, their gazes filled with judgment. It was as if time stood still, and in that moment the weight of her words felt heavier than ever before.
The looks of these children while staring at me, I can tell what they are thinking. They believe Sister Anna. I closed my eyes in frustration, feeling a surge of anger and helplessness wash over me. It was as if my words were hitting an invisible wall, unable to penetrate their minds. They would rather believe that the cause of Ellie's burn is me, and it stung. A mix of sadness and disbelief settled in my heart, knowing that the truth was overshadowed by their need to blame someone.
On the other hand, I could understand why Ellie pointed the finger at me for the bun. It all started when her greedy fingers tried to take the gem nestled within the pendant. Flames erupted, consuming her arm in a fiery dance. It's as if the pendant was rejecting her. But I, seemingly the owner of the pendant, get the blame for her burned arm.
My gaze fell upon Ellie, the catalyst for this catastrophe. If only she could've resisted her insatiable greed, her lust to claim what belonged to me. Had she heeded my warning and left well enough alone, none of this would have transpired. Her arm wouldn't be a blistered, agonizing reminder of her transgressions. And I, would not have been receiving such unforgiving, disdainful glares.
In a twisted way, their cold indifference was a mercy. For their piercing stares cut deeper than any blade, their contempt a venom that seeped into my very soul. Why must I endure this torment? I've walked a path paved in hardship, every waking moment a struggled to persist in this cruel world. What transgression did I commit to earn Ellie and Sister Anna's unrelenting harassment through the years? This existence of mere survival was grueling enough without their underserved malice dragging me into still darker depths.
I shot up from my seat, the sudden movement making the others flinch in startled unease. Their eyes widened with fear as if I were a cornered animal bout to lash out. My hands instinctively curled into white-knuckled fists, trembling with pent-up frustration. Why must they prejudge me so? Not one was willing to truly listen, to let the truth pour forth unimpeded from these lips they've forced shut for far too long.
Their accusatory glares became utterly suffocating, a thousand unseen hands tightening around my throat. I couldn't bear another moment trapped in this stuffy chamber of judgment. Without a second thought, I pivoted towards the door, ready to burst through and escape their damnation. But Sister Felice materialized by my side before I could take a single step, her vice-like grip snatching my arm. When had she even moved?
"Don't even think of leaving until this mess is untangled," Sister Felice hissed, her bony hand clamping viciously around my arm. A strangled wince escaped my lips as her grip tightened like a vise, cutting off circulation.
With each agonizing second, her fingers dug deeper into my flesh, the pain blossoming into a searing brand. Yet still, she squeezed tighter, determined to leave fresh bruises as badges of her self-appointed authority over me.
Sister Felice didn't even allow me to respond before wrenching my arm violently, dragging me towards the exit like a noncooperative criminal. The others shrank away, their eyes wide with revulsion—as if my presence might scald their pristine souls.
"You're coming with me," she snarled, hauling me along with callous disregard for my pain or dignity. I wanted to spit defiance, to wrench free of her iron grasp. But all I could do was stumble helplessly in her wake.
"Sister, please listen—" I begged, desperately trying to break through her stony resolve as she dragged me down the dim hallways. But my words fell on deaf ears, drowned out by the thunderous dread pounding in my chest.
As the familiar doors came into view, my heart plummeted into an abyss. Of all places for confinement, she chose that room—a lightless pit where even prayers went to die unanswered.
"Quiet, Ruby. Don't you think you've caused enough trouble for one day?" Sister Felice spat, her words dripping with disdain.
I hung my head, listening in pained silence as she laid bare the truth I'd long suspected. "I knew there was something…unnatural about you from the start. I warned those two to stay away, but they never listen." She shook her head in contempt. "Leaving you along was the wisest course. Who knows what unholy curses you might have inflicted?"
With each biting remark, I felt the sting of a thousand lashes. From the very beginning, she's seen me as a blight to be shunned, a pariah unworthy of even basic human compassion. Her fear and revulsion hung in the air like a miasma, choking me.
I was an invisible specter to her—safer ignored than acknowledged.
Sister Felice continued, her words slicing deeper with every utterance. "But you were just a child back then. As much as the thought of expelling you crossed my mind, I could not bring myself to cast out a mere babe."
She shook her head slowly, mouth twisting in distaste. "So I allowed you to remain, paying your dues through endless chores and toil. Treated as one of the unseen—safer that way for us all."
Her steely gaze bore into me, eyes glinting with something akin to pity…or perhaps simple resignation to fate's cruelty. "It was better you lived your life as a nameless shade, unacknowledged, rather than risk exposing the others to…whatever darkness slumbers within you."
From the moment I arrived at the orphanage, a mere babe in swaddling clothes, Sister Felice regarded me with thinly veiled trepidation. Her eyes would narrow whenever she caught sight of me as if I were some insidious threat slithering amongst the other orphans.
Yet despite her evident unease, she permitted me to stay, granting me the bare minimum of shelter and provisions. I existed in the shadows of this place, a wraith flitting through the halls, ignored save for when menial tasks required acknowledgment of my presence. On those rare occasions, Sister Felice would regard me with a cautious disdain, as one might a venomous serpent—necessary perhaps, but to be avoided at all costs lest its fangs find purchase.
The realization that Sister Felice's irrational fear was the driving force behind her callous disregard for me throughout my childhood years pierced my heart like a rusted blade. I was but an innocent child, yet condemned to a life of isolation and cruelty based solely on her baseless prejudices against me.
Hot tears traced scorching paths down my cheeks as the anguish of those wasted years welled up unbidden. If only she had opened her mind and reached out with compassion instead of revulsion, perhaps my very existence at the orphanage would not have been a daily gauntlet of derision and scorn. A kind word, a simple embrace—such small mercies could have altered the entire trajectory of my formative years.
But I was afforded no such kindness, punished for perceived sins before I ever drew breath. As the tears flowed, decades of repressed hurt and confusion poured forth. I did nothing to deserve such treatment, such utter dehumanization. A child craves love, guidance, and acceptance—instead, I was shunned into the shadows, my worth as a human being stripped away by the very person entrusted with my care.
"Wipe away your tears, Ruby." Sister Felice's voice was as cold and devoid of compassion as the stone walls surrounding us. We had arrived at the end of the shadowed hallways, and with a callous shove, she propelled me into a room I knew all too well—a forgotten, cobwebbed cell where darkness reigned supreme.
This forsaken chamber had haunted my nightmares since childhood, the very scene where Ellie and Sister Anna would cast me, locking the heavy door and leaving me to the mercy of the encroaching shadows. Even the musty air carried the stale scene of part agonies endured between these walls.
"You will be confined here until further notice," Sister Felice decreed, her words reverberating through the gloom like the death knell of hope itself. As the rusted hinges groaned shut, entombing me once more in solitary torment, I cried my heart out.
In that breathless void, every anguished memory, every moment of neglect and abuse I had endured within this unhallowed space, came crashing down upon me with the weight of an avalanche. Trapped, forsaken, denied even the cold mercy of indifference—this was to be my purgatory once more.
At that moment, I flung myself against the unyielding barrier, pounding my fist raw as I begged and pleaded for mercy.
"Sister Felice, please!" I cried out, voice cracking with desperation. "I beg you, do not leave me locked in this torturous place! Have pity, I cannot bear the anguish of being confined here again!"
But my plea fell on ears deafened by callous indifference. The only response was the echo of her retreating footsteps, each one driving the dagger of her cruelty deeper into my heart. I was alone once more, abandoned to the smothering darkness and the phantoms of past traumas that lurked in every shadowed corner.
As her footfalls faded into ominous silence, I slid down the rough surface of the door, legs giving way as hopelessness swallowed me whole. Huddled on the filthy floor, body wracked with convulsive sobs, I could feel the insidious tendrils of this cursed room's foul history slithering forth to ensnare me once again in its haunting embrace.
"Everything that had happened was not because of me," I murmured through trembling lips, the words a fragile mantra against the creeping despair.
I curled into the frigid stone floor, I clung to those small shreds of truth like a lifeline, fighting against the insidious voices that sought to convince me I deserved this fresh torment. The shadows seemed to taunt and leer, whispering of past punishments and future suffering to come.
As the chill seeped into my bones, I repeated those words letting them bolster my resolve. I was not to blame for the injustice wielded against me. Ellie, Sister Anna, Sister Felice—they were the architects of this suffering, not I. That realization was a meager comfort, but I clutched it tightly all the same, a fragile talisman to guard against utter despair consuming me wholly within this waking nightmare.