So, I dont know how good this is,but I thought I might as well post it. This is the first chapter, mainly emilys past, most of which I thought up randomly. I hope you enjoy it, or at least ont think its horrible.
I own nothing, of course.
I am sitting in a half lit, slightly dusty room, watching the world go by. Sometimes I feel like this two story brick building i live in is the universe's center, and the slightly dingy sidestreets around it are belts of stars orbiting it. The children who live here are just stars that don't know their way back to the belt, who never sto phoping wanting to return to it, but inevitably stop hoping to.
A knock on my door brings me back to the present. I look up to see Miss Minerva, the owner of this orphanage, standing in the doorway. A man and women are just behind her; even I, with no social ties and as much of a place in society as the average beetle, am able to recognize them as Pearsons, a pair of young, almost newlywed aristocrats.
Miss Minerva steps backs, letting the Pearsons in. I expect them to look dissatisfied, to draw back, say im not what they expected. Everyone else does.
But they just look at me, with welcoming smiles.
A week or so later, I am living in a large house in the middle of town, with the Pearsons- I'm sorry, with my new parents-near a few other prominent families, including the VanDorts, a clan of neaveau riche fish merchants. They have a child my age, Victor, but I never talk to him. I'm too busy being groomed into a lady, that if not for the fact that the window to his rrom is close enough to mine for me to watch him sometimes, I wouldn't know of his existence.
He's a bit of an odd boy, all angles and slightly hunched posture with short black hair and the hugest eyes ive ever seen. He has a little dog called Scraps (by the look of him that's all the food he gets), and likes to draw, butterflies in particular. He seems sweet, even though the books I see him reading when his parents think he's asleep are penny dreadfuls. Not that I care about what he reads, especially since penny dreadfuls were what taught me how to read before Miss Minerva ever tried to.
After about a year though, the VanDorts get a lot money from their fish business, enough for Mr. VanDort to hire some man called Mayhew and buy a new house in another part of town.
I never really forget about Victor, even when Mr. Barkis Bittern moves in next door. His parents are recently dead, so he's a lord now, even at my age. He's tall, not as skinny as Victor was, with deep gray eyes.
He also starts to like me. A lot.
And I end up liking him, too.
I'm standing by the old oak tree, wearing my mother's wedding dress (she'd hate to see how dirty I've gotten it), holding a bag containing enough gold to get an entire family through the next decade in comfort, and some family jewlry, waiting.
He should be here by now, Barkis. We agreed to leave at three, but he's nearly an hour late.
"Emily." His voice startles me.
He smiles. "I'm sorry for making you wait, my dear."
"I. . . It's okay." He always makes me stutter. "Are you. . . ready to go?"
"Of course. But first. . ." He envelops me.
I am so comfortable in his arms that I don't even feel the knife coming.