Before
By: Jewelz
Anna Marie Saint had been typing for almost fifteen hours straight, having started at 6:35 a.m. The chipped coo-coo clock on the wall now read 9:20, but the numbing pain in Anna's fingers told her much longer. Sitting neatly beside her 1880 typewriter was an enormous stack of type-written police reports, Anna's single triumph of the never ending day.
She picked up a sheet of yellowing paper that lay in an equally large stack opposite the first. Squinting into the fading candlelight, Anna strained to make out the first sentence.
Jonas Parkson, rapist, murderer, and owner of stolen goods.
Or did it say,
Thomas Rakesom, rapist , murderer, and owner of taken foods ?
Constable Peter Arabb was the reason she struggled to make out the writing on the page. The day before, Anna had asked him to please not use cursive when writing the police reports as it was harder to read than if he just printed. It was the last time she ever asked him for anything……slowly, as though forcing herself to look, she glance down her arm at the fresh red scar that ran straight from her wrist to her right elbow.
Trying hard to blink back the tears, Anna slowly began to pack up her things for the night in a leather suitcase her sister had given to Anna before she had left home for the Moulin Rouge. She could still hear her sister, begging Anna to come too….
*
"Please Annie, there is nothing you can do! Mother is dying and not even your vigilant nursing will save her. Now it is our turn to seek how to survive! "
"but the Moulin Rouge Katherine! It is not fit for a lady, it is disgracing ! we were raised as aristocrats; I am ashamed that you would even think to put such dishonor on our whole family!"
"disgrace keeps me alive Anna Marie, especially in times like this. If our father can keep his honor and still walk out on the Saint family, than so can I by going on living"
"Well then Katherine, I suggest you start right now. You have my answer. I will stay here and be with mother until- until the end."
"and then?"…………………………
*
Anna had not been able to answer her sister's last question. It had ended with Katherine Saint fixing a brand-new suitcase as well as twenty dollars into Anna's hand, and then, avoiding her sister's stunned gaze, fleeing out the door and into the pouring rain, for a life of dishonesty at the famed Paris night club, The Moulin Rouge.
Anna headed for the door, taking the tiny stub of a candle with her.
Angry footsteps sounded from down the hall, growing louder and louder all too quickly.
Before Anna's hand had reached the brass doorknob, the pounded open, causing the candle to go out, and Anna to be thrown on the ground. An enormous, terrifying figure loomed in the hallway. Constable Arabb wheezed loudly over her, filling the deadly silence
Anna let out a sound much like a whimper. The constable took a heavy step forward
"girl!" he growled "where are those reports"
Anna stammered, "right o-over th-there sir, not all finished sir but I can-"
"WHAT!!!!" he bellowed, flecks of spit coming flying from gruesome teeth "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I-"
"I'm sorry sir!!!" Anna pleaded with an unknown courage inside her. "Tommorrow, tomorrow!! "
"I DON'T WANT ANY MORE EXCUSES!!" he yelled " last you got a mighty cut from a whiskey bottle. Now I want you too stay right here and finish ALL the reports tonight. And you know what the next punishment will be??????"
Anna shook her head between loud sobs
"You, Anna Marie Saint, will have a little visit to my bed!!"
The door slammed again, Angry footsteps were heard again growing fainter, and he was gone.
Anna Marie sat at her small desk and wept and wept in the dark, knowing that the time had come to escape to the Moulin Rouge.
By: Jewelz
Anna Marie Saint had been typing for almost fifteen hours straight, having started at 6:35 a.m. The chipped coo-coo clock on the wall now read 9:20, but the numbing pain in Anna's fingers told her much longer. Sitting neatly beside her 1880 typewriter was an enormous stack of type-written police reports, Anna's single triumph of the never ending day.
She picked up a sheet of yellowing paper that lay in an equally large stack opposite the first. Squinting into the fading candlelight, Anna strained to make out the first sentence.
Jonas Parkson, rapist, murderer, and owner of stolen goods.
Or did it say,
Thomas Rakesom, rapist , murderer, and owner of taken foods ?
Constable Peter Arabb was the reason she struggled to make out the writing on the page. The day before, Anna had asked him to please not use cursive when writing the police reports as it was harder to read than if he just printed. It was the last time she ever asked him for anything……slowly, as though forcing herself to look, she glance down her arm at the fresh red scar that ran straight from her wrist to her right elbow.
Trying hard to blink back the tears, Anna slowly began to pack up her things for the night in a leather suitcase her sister had given to Anna before she had left home for the Moulin Rouge. She could still hear her sister, begging Anna to come too….
*
"Please Annie, there is nothing you can do! Mother is dying and not even your vigilant nursing will save her. Now it is our turn to seek how to survive! "
"but the Moulin Rouge Katherine! It is not fit for a lady, it is disgracing ! we were raised as aristocrats; I am ashamed that you would even think to put such dishonor on our whole family!"
"disgrace keeps me alive Anna Marie, especially in times like this. If our father can keep his honor and still walk out on the Saint family, than so can I by going on living"
"Well then Katherine, I suggest you start right now. You have my answer. I will stay here and be with mother until- until the end."
"and then?"…………………………
*
Anna had not been able to answer her sister's last question. It had ended with Katherine Saint fixing a brand-new suitcase as well as twenty dollars into Anna's hand, and then, avoiding her sister's stunned gaze, fleeing out the door and into the pouring rain, for a life of dishonesty at the famed Paris night club, The Moulin Rouge.
Anna headed for the door, taking the tiny stub of a candle with her.
Angry footsteps sounded from down the hall, growing louder and louder all too quickly.
Before Anna's hand had reached the brass doorknob, the pounded open, causing the candle to go out, and Anna to be thrown on the ground. An enormous, terrifying figure loomed in the hallway. Constable Arabb wheezed loudly over her, filling the deadly silence
Anna let out a sound much like a whimper. The constable took a heavy step forward
"girl!" he growled "where are those reports"
Anna stammered, "right o-over th-there sir, not all finished sir but I can-"
"WHAT!!!!" he bellowed, flecks of spit coming flying from gruesome teeth "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I-"
"I'm sorry sir!!!" Anna pleaded with an unknown courage inside her. "Tommorrow, tomorrow!! "
"I DON'T WANT ANY MORE EXCUSES!!" he yelled " last you got a mighty cut from a whiskey bottle. Now I want you too stay right here and finish ALL the reports tonight. And you know what the next punishment will be??????"
Anna shook her head between loud sobs
"You, Anna Marie Saint, will have a little visit to my bed!!"
The door slammed again, Angry footsteps were heard again growing fainter, and he was gone.
Anna Marie sat at her small desk and wept and wept in the dark, knowing that the time had come to escape to the Moulin Rouge.