Two teenage children, a boy and a girl, were standing outside a pair of doors as they anxiously waited for the arrival of their new little sibling.
"How long have we been waiting now?" The girl with asked as she watched her brother pace the floor.
"I don't know, sister." The boy replied, shrugging his shoulders at her. "A few hours, maybe?"
"Do you think Mother is alright in there?"
"Of course. This has happened before. And besides, Father is in there with her. She'll be just fine… I hope."
"…What do you think the baby is going to be? I think it'll be a girl and we'll name her Dorothy. She'll be the most beautiful, adorable little baby girl in the village."
"A girl? Pfft. I bet the baby will be a boy and he'll be called William. He'll be very popular around town, I know it."
"You don't know that."
"Well, you don't know that either."
"Fine. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
The doors opened and the head of a young man popped out.
"Gabriella, Sebastian? Come in and meet your new little sister." He said in a whisper.
The children looked at each other, then back at their father, and quietly entered the room. They saw their mother sitting up in bed with a little bundle nestled in her arms. Sebastian and Gabriella looked and saw their new little sister; she had very fair skin and big, dark eyes, but the odd thing was that she had tufts of black hair and the rest of the family was blonde.
"A sister? My little sister, Dorothy." Gabriella whispered excitedly; she looked at Sebastian with a smug expression. "So much for William."
The couple looked at each other.
"Um, Gabriella?" Her mother, Johanna, said.
"Yes?" The girl asked.
"That's not her name."
"It isn't?"
"No. Your father and I have decided on a different name."
"Oh… Well, what name did you choose for her?"
"Josephine? Anne? Madeline? Patricia? Charlotte? Emily?"
"No, none of those."
"Then what is her name?" Sebastian asked.
Johanna looked at her husband, Anthony; they nodded at each other before looking upon the baby.
"Her name… is Lucy." They said.
"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy… LUCY!"
0-0-0-0-0-0
Eight years later…
Lucy Hope's eyes snapped open wide, startled with fear. She remained still on her bed, breathing heavily. She slowly looked around the room, but saw no movement. Lucy sat up on her canopied bed, and lit a candlestick that was sitting on her nightstand next to her lamp. She climbed out of bed, and walked across the room, carrying the candlestick, to a painting on the wall.
It was a portrait of Lucy and her whole family: her mother and father, Anthony and Johanna, and her older brother and sister, Gabriella and Sebastian. And standing right in the middle was her; a little pale girl with dark eyes and short hair as black as ink. This portrait was taken rather recently, a few months ago as a matter of fact.
The rest of her family was smiling happily while she had a very uncomfortable look on her face; she looked out of place. She sighed.
"Why am I so different…?" She sadly whispered.
"Lucy?" A voice asked.
The little girl turned around to see her older sister peeking into her bedroom.
"You should be in bed. What are you doing up so late?" Gabriella asked.
"I… had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep." Lucy lied.
"Well, you should go back to bed soon." The older girl said with a frown. "You'll disturb Mother and Father. Goodnight."
The door closed before Lucy could respond.
"Goodnight…" She muttered as she walked back to her bed. "Why does she always have to tell me what to do?"
She put out the candle and looked at the clock sitting on her nightstand; it was 1:00 in the morning.
'You are young
Life has been kind to you
You will learn…' An unfamiliar voice whispered in her ear.
Lucy gasped and turned around in surprise, but saw no one. The strange voice continued to sing.
'There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
And the vermin of the world inhabit it
And its morals aren't worth what a pig can spit
And it goes by the name of London'
"London?" Lucy asked herself.
'At the top of the hole sit a privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo
Turning beauty to filth and greed…
I too have known of the world and all its wonders,
For the cruelty of men seems as wondrous as Peru
But there's no place like London!'
"London, London, London…" Lucy repeated as she got up and walked over to the family portrait again.
"You're TOO DIFFERENT. You don't belong here, you don't belong with them. They don't understand you… but I do." The same voice hummed into the girl's ear.
Lucy looked at the portrait as her eyes began to shine with fresh tears; she realized the disembodied voice was right. She was different from the rest of her family; her siblings chastised and made fun of her and her parents usually ignored her. None of the children of the village would play with her because they all thought of her as very strange and they didn't even bother to talk to her.
She turned on her lamp, took out a pen and paper, and wrote a letter to her family. Then she went to her closet, changed out of her nightdress, and filled a large bag with anything she thought she might need… including all of the money she had saved. She quietly went downstairs, grabbed a dark cloak and a scarf, and headed out the door into the darkness of the night.
"Goodbye, Liverpool…" Lucy muttered before she ran down the road towards the dock. "…Hello, London."