Blood Sacrifice

Chapter Three

The boy’s presence didn’t bother me like I thought it would. He sat beside me, silently if he could help it. I wondered if he could tell that I was uncomfortable being around other people. I didn’t know why, but it was oddly comforting.

I stayed in the tree until the sound of the metallic doors clanged open once more. All attention was instantly focused that way. The game of kickball was abandoned as quickly as it started. We knew that sound was the signal that we were to come inside. I glanced at the boy on the branch below me. If he was right, it was an adoption day. It definitely wouldn’t be wise to be late to it. The Matron would take careful note of everyone that was.

I carefully hopped down to the branch that he was perched on. I looked at him as I prepared to climb the rest of the way out of the tree.

“Do you want me to help you get down?” I asked him.

I watched him through uncertain eyes as I hung on the bark, carefully anticipating his answer.

He looked at me for a long minute. “Nah, I think I wanna hang out here for a little while. I don’t think I’ll be missed anyways.”

“If you’re sure,” I said.

He nodded and rested his head against the tree.

I looked at him for another moment before I heard May calling for me from the field below. I hurried to the ground, brushed off the dirt that had gathered on my shirt, and rushed up to her. When she spotted me, she gave me a look of relief.

“Where were you?” she asked. Then her gaze clouded. “You weren’t climbing in the tree again, were you?”

I could see the sadness in her eyes as she looked my uniform over for any dirt or tears. I knew that she had seen me getting punished for breaking the orphanage’s rules before. She had witnessed me getting whipped and beaten. She hated it. I knew she did.

“I can’t help it,” I replied. “There’s just something about getting to look over the walls that makes me feel a hundred times better.

She looked down at the ground sadly.

I frowned. “I know it’s hard for you to understand because you’ve never been beyond the orphanage.”

“That’s not an excuse.”

I sighed before I pushed her chin up gently. “Don’t worry about me, alright? I know what I’m doing, I’ll be okay.”

“I worry about you sometimes,” she said. “I’m worried that the Matron-“

“Don’t,” I said cutting her off mid-sentence, “it’s my job to worry about you,” I said playfully though in my heart I knew it wasn’t a joke. No part of the orphanage was.

She smiled a bit at my comment.

“There we go,” I said. “You need to cheer up, May. Today’s an adoption day.”

Instantly, a light blazed in her blue eyes. “Really?” she asked excitedly.

I nodded. “I heard it’s a couple coming this time.”

She smiled, she was so happy she was nearly beaming. I took in the light in her eyes and the color in her cheeks. For the first time in a while, she looked genuinely happy. I smiled back at her, not wanting to discourage her. I knew that the odds of us being picked to get adopted were slim to none. Especially like the boy had noted, kids my age weren’t likely to get adopted. The fact that May and I were a package deal greatly hurt her chances of finding a family. I wanted to remind her of that so she wouldn’t get her hopes up, but I didn’t have it in me.

I found myself in this predicament every adoption day and it never got any easier.

I snapped out of my thoughts suddenly as I realized that everyone had filed inside leaving May, Agnus, the strange boy, and I as the only ones outside. It was oddly quiet with the rest of the kids inside. I knew it wouldn’t be long until they noticed our absence.

“Come on,” I said to May as I grasped her hand and ran towards the building.

She grabbed Agnus’ hand in the process. We made it inside in time to reach the end of the line. We sighed in relief as we took our places. I looked down the long line of hopeful kids, ranging in all ages. It hurt me to realize that all of us shared the same hopes and aspirations and that only one of us would be granted that.

During our time in the orphanage, we had taken part in exactly forty seven adoptions. I hated the process. I hated that we were lined up to be judged merely on our appearances. How could the foster parents really tell if they would bond with their child when they picked it based on appearance alone?

We watched as a hefty woman stepped up to the line. Her hands were clasped together behind her back, and she stood precariously straight. She had her face tilted slightly towards the ceiling so that she could literally look down her nose at us. If anyone didn’t know better, they would’ve thought she was in the military. I knew who she was; she was the Matron. She decided who got into the orphanage, and who got out.

She was the one in charge of our cruel punishments.

We only saw her during adoptions. Otherwise, she was nowhere to be found…except of course for occasionally overlooking the punishment sessions. For a long moment, she passed up and down the long row of kids, observing each of them. She wanted us to believe that she was looking us over for any uniforms out of place. I knew what she was really doing; she was searching for the ones that she thought were of worth.

“As some of you may have heard,” she began, her drawling voice snarling about the room as she observed us from one end of the line to the other, “today is adoption day.”

She paced past a few more of the kids, her high heels clanked on the hard tile to sharpen the intensity of each other steps. I glanced towards her as she slowly approached the end of the row where we waited.

“Today must go off without a hitch. I want the cuter children in front,” she said. By now she had reached where Agnus, May, and I were standing. She looked at me and scoffed as she began to speak again. “And I’d like the less desirable ones at the end.”

She stared right at me as she spoke, and I stared right back. Her cold words seemed to make me shiver as I glared into her careless brown eyes. She scoffed again as she looked back at me.

“You know which group you belong in,” she said addressing the line though her words carried the disgust that she felt for me. “Get organized!”

May looked at me sadly before giving me a hug. She didn’t speak a word as she drug Agnus towards the front of the group. I sighed and trudged to the back along with the twin sixteen year old girls, Anne and Sarah, that had been here as long as May and I had been.

I heard the door clang open, and I glanced up to see the boy from earlier make his way inside. The Matron noticed his presence and frowned deeply at him. Part of me worried that he had just earned himself another punishment after the couple left.

I guessed he was past the point of caring.

“You stay in the back,” she said coldly, pointing to the open spot beside me.

He spotted me and trudged over to me.

“What is this, the less desired group or something?” he asked in his best attempt at a joke.

I looked at him solemnly before my attention returned to the front of the room. “That’s exactly what it is.”

“Oh.” The tone vanished completely.

“Everyone better be on their best behavior,” the Matron warned as she paced towards the front door. I noticed her eyes hung on “the less desirables” for a minute as she spoke.

I wondered what she thought we were going to do.

I heard all the kids around me take in a deep breath. They were preparing themselves to put on the biggest fake act of their life. It was a play- all pretend. All of them so deeply desired to be picked that they were willing to throw on their temporary costumes. It made me sad to think, once again, that only one of us would be granted our wish.

She pulled open the door to greet the couple that had arrived. After a minute of introductions, she led them inside.

“These are the children we have available,” she said to them.

The couple instantly began to scan the group of children. They were no doubt looking for the cutest face they could find. I studied them. The woman was thin; she looked like she worked out on a daily basis. By the lack of stress on her face, I would say that she didn’t have a job of her own. The man looked the opposite. He had young eyes, but wrinkles on his face betrayed his age. He worked hard, was dedicated to supporting a family.

“They’re all so cute,” I heard the woman whisper as her eyes scanned the front row.

I frowned at her comment. If I hadn’t known better, I’d assume she was talking about puppies. Despite my agitation, my interest perked as I listened. I knew that May and Agnus were part of the first row. Could she really have taken an interest in my sister?

“I know,” he whispered back.

“This woman is acting like we’re dogs,” I growled under my breath.

“What else is new?” the boy beside me asked.

The woman looked back at the children again and bit her lip. It was obvious that she was trying her best to respond. She took a cautious step towards the children, and my heart fluttered as I noticed how close to May she was getting. I stood on my toes, struggling to see over the row of kids in front of me to see where she was looking. She bent down suddenly and began to whisper to one of the kids.

I struggled to stand to my fullest height to see which one she was talking to. Finally, she stood up, and I realized that she was clutching Agnus’ hand.

“Is that the child you’d like?” the Matron asked.

The woman nodded happily and Agnus looked like she was about to cry out of happiness. The couple was quick to escort her out of the room with the Matron in tow. As soon as the doors closed behind them, the sounds of disappointment from the rest of the kids began to sound.

“I knew I shouldn’t have bothered coming inside,” the boy next to me said as he trudged out of the room to go somewhere else.

The kids all broke formation as they began to round up their friends in their disappointment. I felt numb. I couldn’t believe that someone had actually picked Agnus after May had already started to make good friends with her. I wondered what my sister was feeling as I headed over to her. Even though everyone else had already moved, she was still in place.

I tapped her shoulder gently, and she looked up at me. “They took Agnus,” she said as if she couldn’t believe that what had happened was real.

“I know, Honey,” I said to her as I carefully helped her to her feet.

“I thought they were going to pick me,” she said softly.

“It was pretty close,” I tried to say comfortingly.

Tears began to overflow her large blue eyes. “I thought this was our chance. We’re never going to get adopted!”

She began to cry. I stared at her stupefied as she suddenly turned and ran from the room.