Chapter 2
I awaken with a jolt, looking frantically around me. The sun has long past risen and the town is quiet as it recuperates from last nights festivities. Cursing, I quickly get as much sand off me as possible before running back to my home and pray silently my Madam didn't notice my absence.
"Where have you been?" a voice commands immediatly when I walk through the door.
"I fell asleep," I reply meekly, refusing to meet Madam's angy glare.
"Well it's about time you came back. I've been worried sick about you."
The lie catches me off guard as I look up at her, pure shock reflecting in my eyes, and as the words repeat themselves in my head I finally snap.
"Worried about the money, you mean," I retort harshly.
She stares back at me as if contemplating my sanity and for the first time in my life, I stand up for myself, straightening my posture and lifting my chin in defiance.
"Ever since I was brought here all you'v ever been worried about is how much someone would pay for me! Never once have you cared about me and especially never about my feelings. It's always been about the money. A shilling here, a gold piece there. You want money? Go whore yourself out, because I'm done being your lap dog."
A resound slap sends pain shooting up my face and I automatically bring my hand up to clutch the injured area.
"You ungreatful little witch," Madam replies through clenched teeth. "You're about to lose everything."
"Wrong! I've already lost the one thing that's ever truly mattered to me. Getting rid of you will just be an additional benefit," I spit at her, venom dripping from every word.
I turn to walk out when her hand snakes out and grabs a hold of my arm, pulling me hard enough to make me lose my balance. Without warning, the bamboo stick she uses to discipline her girls is being used on me with little mercy and leaving large welts and bruises across my body. The pain makes me cry out and I desperately try to escape the beating, which only infuriates her more.
Scrambling to lift my skirts, I reach for the dagger I had begun strapping to my thigh once I became a thief. Once the cool of the handle can be felt by my hand I swing the weapon upwards, hoping to merely slice her hand so she will drop the stick. My dagger hits flesh, but when I open my eyes I find it embedded in her stomach.
A gasp escapes my lips when I see the blood spilling onto her beautiful dress and down my arm. Her eyes express her shock and pain, but no words are spoken as she falls with a thud onto the wooden floors. Tears blur my vision as I will myself to look away from the horrors before me, with no avail.
Moments pass at a dawdling pace until finally I can't take it anymore and I rush out into the daylight. I don't get far from the house before I fall to the ground in fits of heaving and sobbing. The pain my body is in, however, compares nothing to the anguish my mind is putting me through.
Murderer.