Blood Sacrifice

Chapter Six

That night, sleep was hard to come by. May was cuddled beside me, snoring peacefully as she slept through the night. My back was flayed; the pain made it impossible to get comfortable, let alone fall asleep. My mind seemed to race with thoughts as I stayed up through the morning, thinking about our future and the orphanage.

I never found out which of the two options it had been that had upset May as much as it had. When she saw the state that the Matron had left me in, her grief had abruptly vanished, and she pretended that nothing had been wrong. I looked at her and stroked her blonde hair gently again. I was going to assume it was the loneliness that had begun to tug at her.

Sure, all the kids in the orphanage liked her, but she never tried to reach out to make friends. She only joined in games if they were started in the courtyard. I was the only person that she reached out to. I guess she was afraid that she would lose anyone else that she did.

And she was right.

That worried me more than anything. We only had a short time before I turned eighteen. Each second that ticked by was a second closer to us getting separated. What if no one took an interest in us before then? There would be no telling if I would even get to see her again.

I bet the Matron would make sure I didn’t.

I frowned as I looked at May’s peaceful face. I knew that she was only worry free when she was asleep. Without me to protect her, I knew the Matron would find any excuse she could to punish her. A tear bubbled in my eye at the thought of my innocent sister being whipped like I was.

I couldn’t imagine anyone being cruel enough to subject my May to those kinds of horrors. But this was a dark place. May knew that as well as I did. I closed my eyes, trying to keep my thoughts from going much darker. They seemed to stick on the idea of the Matron whipping her. I had a feeling that her punishment would be far worse than anything that I had endured simply because I had spent years making sure she was safe.

In less than five weeks, I wouldn’t be able to protect her anymore.

That thought weighed heavily on my mind throughout the entirety of the night. When the morning sunlight finally filtered in through the window, I sat up and stretched.

“It’s time for breakfast, May,” I said softly as I roused her from her peaceful slumber.

She blinked her eyes open slowly, her mind adjusting her to her setting. She was clearly surprised that I had woken up before she did. It didn’t happen very often.

“Good morning, Clara,” she mumbled sleepily as she sat up to rub her eyes. She yawned and looked at me. “It’s pretty early, Sissy. Have you been up all night?”

I nodded as I watched her climb off of the bed.

Remembrance of yesterday’s events seemed to flash through her mind, and she turned to look at me with sorrow in her wide, blue eyes. “How’s your back?”

“Painful,” I admitted, contorting myself towards the edge of the bed as I prepared to stand up.

May watched me warily. “Be careful, that boy’s not here to catch you.”

As if her words had summoned him, Nick appeared in the doorframe. The eye that had been sealed shut yesterday was open today though it was still heavily blackened. He seemed to be in a good mood despite the pain that I knew his back must be in.

“Good morning, girls,” he said as he peered into the room.

“Morning,” I said cautiously as I finished standing carefully to my feet.

May turned to look at him before she nodded briskly in response. It was hard to tell what she thought of him as she turned back to watch my slow progress.

“How are you feeling today, Clara?” he asked me.

“Decent,” I replied, glad that I was able to stand on my own, “and you?”

“Doing better. Need help to the breakfast hall?” he asked, taking a step into the room.

“No, I’ll be alright,” I replied giving him a hesitant smile. “It doesn’t hurt as bad today.”

May turned to give me a suspicious look.

“What?” I asked her dumbfounded.

“What are you doing, Clara?” she asked seeing through my act. “You know you’ll need the help, why pretend you don’t?”

I frowned; May was always right.

“All right,” I said giving in.

“Thank you,” May said to Nick.

He nodded as he walked over to me and glanced at the back of my uniform. The blood that had stained it yesterday had dried leaving a heavy brown patch that clung like an unpleasant bandage to the source. In the back of my mind, I imagined the agony of pulling it off.

“Are you going to change before you go get breakfast?” he asked. “The Matron will probably whip you again for wearing a dirty uniform.”

“The Matron can burn in hell,” I muttered darkly.

“No one’s gonna argue with you on that one,” Nick said.

“You’re still changing out of that though,” May said decisively.

“All right, well, I’ll be waiting outside for you,” Nick said. “Don’t take too long.”

When the sound of the door closing was heard, May turned to look at me.

“Sit down,” she ordered as she crossed the room to our dresser.

I looked at her curiously as I stood my ground. “I can dress myself. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I know, sissy,” she said pulling out my spare uniform, “but I think it’s my turn to take care of you for once.”

She thrust the uniform at me and left the room as she went to the bathroom. I sighed and looked up to catch a glimpse of Nick as he peered at me through the crack the open door had presented. I noticed that his face contained no sign of pain, and once again, I wondered how he was able to carry himself so well.

I dropped my gaze, waiting until May returned to the room before I carefully worked on peeling the fabric off of the open wound on my back. I realized she was clutching a wad of gauze and a bottle of peroxide. I gritted my teeth at the pain, (knowing full well that the peroxide would make it feel ten times worse) and tears bubbled in my eyes.

May watched me through wide eyes. “Do you need help?”

I was quick to turn down her offer and within a few minutes, the dress was off. I stared at where it landed on the floor. I couldn’t see myself ever wearing that one again. May was prepping the gauze before I had a chance to look for the clean uniform she had taken out for me.

“You’re lucky it didn’t get infected,” she said as she gazed at the mess of lacerations.

“Yeah, I know,” I replied though I wasn’t sure “lucky” was the right word to describe it. “I think I’m even luckier that I didn’t bleed to death.”

May had no response to that.

“This will hurt,” she warned as she gingerly turned my back towards her.

“I know.”

My hands gripped into the blanket as I prepared myself for the new wave of pain. I heard her unscrew the cap from the peroxide, and I closed my eyes at the anticipation before she dumped the cold liquid down my back, not caring about what dripped to the floor. Instantly, the liquid fizzed on the wounds creating a fiery sensation that made my eyes burn with tears like I was cutting onions.

May carefully went to work wrapping the gauze around my body. I sighed in relief as the cotton absorbed the layer of peroxide that clung to the top layer of my wounds. May handed me the clean uniform, and I took it from her appreciatively.

“Thank you.”

She nodded as I pulled it on over my head. May handed me my brush, and I ran it through my hair a few times before I handed it back to her. I wasn’t worried about my appearance, but I knew that it made May feel better if I looked okay. She ran back to the bathroom before she ran back and looked at me through bright eyes as she peered into the room.

“Ready to get breakfast, Clara?” she asked.

I nodded. I wasn’t going to admit that the pain made my stomach sick at the thought of any kind of food. Whether she wanted it or not, she was going to get seconds on breakfast.

She didn’t notice the look on my face as she pushed open the door. Nick came inside to help me. We were silent as we made our way to the cafeteria. I wondered what he was thinking about. Did breakfast sound good to him, or was his stomach in the same despicable state as mine? We huddled close together as we stood in line. It was drafty in the cafeteria, but nowhere near as cold as the Matron. Even though none of us said a word, I knew we were all keeping a careful eye out for her.

When we got to the front, we were once again served bowls of slop that we knew from experience was oatmeal. I noticed that Nick was careful to keep a hold of his bowl as we made our way over to our usual table. Our breakfast was almost solemn as we continued our vow of silence. It offered us an odd comfort that I knew talking couldn’t do.

I took a careful glance around the room as I searched for the Matron’s watching eyes once again. I noticed right away that nobody even glanced in our direction, and I knew that word of our punishment had already gone around. The unwritten rules of the orphanage stated that we were to be left alone for a while which was fine by me.

When I noticed the coast was clear, I pushed my bowl quickly towards May. She glared at me, and the look on her face was enough for me to know that she wasn’t going to eat it. I left her no room to argue when I scooped my portion out into her bowl. She sighed, defeated, and continued to eat.

On the other side of me, Nick stared down into his own breakfast, his spoon was clutched loosely in his hand. In that moment, I knew that his punishment was having as bad of a toll on him as it was on me. I could tell that he was trying to muster up the desire to eat, but it wouldn’t come easy.

I couldn’t help but risk a glance at the table that used to be Agnus’. It was strange to see that it was empty, even stranger to think that Agnus now had a house and family to call her own.

May must’ve been thinking the same. “How do you think Agnus is doing?” she asked suddenly through her bite of oatmeal. Her voice was oddly guarded of emotions.

I blinked and turned to look at her. “Honestly, a lot better than any of us are.”