Blood and Silver: First Bite

The year she turned seven was when things started to change for the better for Abigail Moore. There was nothing particularly special about Abigail. She had long, straight brown hair and deep brown eyes. She was a pretty girl, but pretty in a way that adults could see she would grow into herself, but children didn’t see anything special about her. She was skinny and pale, as her mother could never afford enough food for a growing child. She really had friends, as the children at school looked down on her. The children who lived nearby were barely ever out to play, as they were looked after by friends and neighbors while their mothers worked long shifts. When they did see each other, they would all get along as their situations were all so similar. To an outsider, Abbie had suffered years of neglect. To her, it was the only life she’d ever known, and there were plenty of things that she enjoyed about her life. She had never known her father, and her mother never spoke of him or even told Abigail his name, which led her to assume that he had done something awful and she was better off without him in her life. Her mother, Laura, was 17 when Abbie was born. Her parents had kicked her out and told her that if she thought she was old enough to have a child, then she should be old enough to fend for herself, citing the numerous reasons why she was no longer welcome in their home or worthy of their love. Laura was a pretty young woman, with blonde hair and green eyes and a smile that could light up a room. Her parents were strict and religious, to the point that they abhorred anything that they deemed ‘abnormal’ or ‘evil’. Laura remembered being prohibited from joining in the Halloween festivities as a child, with her parents telling her that Halloween was inviting the devil into their home.The only family with whom she felt safe and free to be herself was her aunt Hazel.Although Hazel was her father’s sister, her parents did not like her and feared that she had a bad influence on Laura. This was because Aunt Hazel was ‘different’. She was well-read and full of knowledge about things that not many people were. She had home-made cures for any ailment you could think of, and she always had people coming and going from her house, where she would take them to her sitting room and send Laura to her room. She told Laura she ran a consulting business, but Laura always suspected there was more to it than that. Aunt Hazel would often take Laura for the summer holidays. Her parents were far from happy about this, but they had no option as the summer would be the time that they went on their ‘missions’ to far-off countries, spreading the religion they had joined shortly after getting married. One summer at Aunt Hazel’s, Laura met a charming young man and fell in love. She went home, terrified, after realizing that her summer love affair had resulted in a pregnancy. Her parents' reaction was hardly a surprise, but it still hurt that they left her to fend for herself with nothing to her name but the clothes on her back. She dropped out of school and found a job as a waitress at a local diner. It didn’t pay well, but it was something. She moved into a tiny apartment in a run-down apartment complex and did everything on her own. She had been cut off from the mainstream world her whole life and had no friends to fall back on. Even her aunt Hazel lived over four hours away, and Laura had no way to make contact with her or the father of her child. She had made friends at the diner, and many of the other waitresses also lived at the apartment complex. The owner of the diner reveled in being hailed as a ‘local hero’, providing jobs and accommodation for young women who were down on their luck and ‘helping’ them get back on their feet. He was featured in the local newspaper and received donations from the local community. In actual fact, he was exploiting these women, paying them the bare minimum while holding over their heads the fact that he had put a roof over their heads. He would later be found out to have been receiving kickbacks for every woman he had placed in the seedy, cockroach-infested apartment block, essentially receiving a large portion of what he paid them straight back to his own pocket and creating a modern-day slave labor force. Whenever questions arose about his intentions, like when he bought a new car or built onto his house, he would publicly gift one of his staff members. Laura had gotten her car, an old beat-up station wagon, on one such occasion—another thing held over her head and buying her loyalty at the diner. Laura had worked her shift at the diner throughout her pregnancy and ignored her labor pains until she gave birth in the bathroom of the diner. This was more publicity, and it was made out that she was so dedicated to her job that she refused maternity leave, when in actual fact it was a matter of work or losing her home. Nothing about Abbie’s birth or life was typical. Her mother continued to work at the diner, taking a second job as a bartender when Abbie was a toddler. She was left with an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Smirnova, while her mother worked. Mrs Smirnova was a temperamental Russian lady. She had never had children of her own and didn’t know the first thing about taking care of a child.Abigail learned very quickly that she was to stay in one place, not touch anything, and not speak unless spoken to. A wooden spoon against her thighs taught her that lesson early on. It wasn’t all bad being watched by Mrs. Smirnova. Her house smelled of cigarettes and potpourri, and she always had a sour look on her face and usually communicated in grunts and sounds of annoyance, but Abbie had things at Mrs. Smirnova’s house that she didn’t have at home, and for that she was grateful. Every day when she arrived, she was placed in front of the television and told, "Don’t bother me, and don’t touch my channels!" Television was a luxury; her mother couldn’t afford a TV, so she didn’t mind that the only channel she was allowed to watch showed nothing but game shows and infomercials. In fact, by the time she was 7, she had gained a vast amount of general knowledge from the television she watched. Mrs. Smirnova also provided her with food, and it was often the first meal she had eaten for the day. It was always the same: two slices of dry bread, either an apple or a banana, a carrot, and a single toffee. She always saved the toffee for last, and it was the highlight of her day. She was also given a jug of orange squash and a cup (and told ‘do not spill!’) each day. Mrs. Smirnova seemed to cook a lot in a large pot on the stove, but Abigail never saw her eat anything she cooked. Another child might have turned their nose up at this food, but for a hungry child like Abigail, it was mana from heaven. Mrs. Smirnova would sit in her chair and read the paper while chain smoking and letting out an occasional cough. It was not an ideal situation for a child, but for Abigail, she was safe, warm, and fed, and that was all that mattered. As much as they struggled, Laura always did the best she could for Abigail. She worked so hard so that she could pay her rent and buy food for herself. It was never quite enough food, but she did the best she could.Every year, on Abigail’s birthday, she would bring her a single cupcake, and she would search in the storeroom of the diner for old leftover toys from the stock that they gave out with children’s meals. Her birthday was always the best day of the year for her, but her 7th birthday came with a surprise that would change the course of her life.