Prologue
Heavy rain was pouring down the road as the girl was trying hard to run away from the angry man. She took a quick turn to the right and tried to block him with garbage on the side. She tried to wipe some of the rain drops on her eyes with the sleeves of her tattered brown dress. She pulled her gray cloak's hood higher to hide her face.
The other villagers were disturbed by the ruckus outside during the middle of the night. Some yelled out for them to keep quiet. All of their screams were blocked by the sound of the thunder. Lightning continued to flash on the sky as the rain grew harder.
The girl was slowly losing energy for she was already running for at least ten minutes. She was slowing down as she turned to a corner as another attempt to lose the man. She suddenly stopped when she saw that a brick wall was preventing her to go to the other side. She looked at her back and saw that the man was not far from behind her. The girl saw a hole at the side of the wall that would lead to the other side. It would definitely fit her because of her petite figure. And fortunately, the man wouldn't be able to go through it because of his size.
She quickly held the object on her arms close to her chest and crawled through the hole. She made it to the other side just as the man reached the brick wall. He screamed profanities at the girl as she ran towards her 'home.'
A few minutes later, she reached a small house and entered inside. She closed the door and locked using the woods. She lighted up her lantern as to bring heat to her cold body. She put the two loaves of bread she stole from the man, or more precisely, from the baker. She removed her boots and cloak and hanged it to let it dry overnight. She took a towel to wipe herself and took out some fresh clothes to change into.
After she settled down, she took a small bite from the bread. She would need to save the breads for at least a month. Since the girl was an orphan, there is no one to take care for her. And because she was only 17, no one wants to hire her. The girl and her parents used to live happily in this small house until both of them died years ago because of an accident. Ever since then, she lived alone.
She sighed and fixed her bed. It was composed of a thin mattress and one pillow. She turned off the lantern, lay down and fixed the blanket on herself. She got comfortable on her bed and slept through the storm./span/p
