More of Her Mother's Footsteps. Same warning as before..though nothing too bad yet..enjoy.
thanks to both Silver Petra and Missa32189. Sorry about the delay..us theatre majors tend to do that...dissapear without warning for a month..
Warning: Violence, Abuse, Rape, Prostitution, Alcoholism, Drugs, Incest, and Language
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Her Mother's Footsteps
"Here you go, sweety" the man winked at her as he set the girl's soup before her with a little extra piece of hard candy hidden in the saucer next to a piece of bread. Aiella smiled up at him and silently handed him a coin for her food. Let him think that she was just an innocent little girl, was her philosophy, her sweet face and deceptively bright eyes could weasel out something from even the hardest man. In this case it was always a sweet. That's why she had chosen this showhouse today, the man who owned it for some reason or another liked her and would always leave a treat for her on her plate. Something to give her good thoughts and help to wash away the noises she didn't want to hear and the things that she didn't want to know. She knew too much for a girl her age and rather liked to have something to forget that fact, something to distract her mind and linger on her tastebuds. A sweet.
She took what she could get. That was how to survive and the only way she knew how to live. Take what can be before there's nothing left to take.
As it was most of the money the child collected from her mother's stash went into her own for later use, because she knew that she would eventually need it. She had no misconceptions about her mother's love or lack there of for her, so it sat in a pouch she had hidden behind a loose brick in the wall for the day that her mother would chose to get rid of her. The rest went to keeping herself alive, with food and shoes. No matter how things went Aiella always made sure that she had a good pair of shoes to protect her small feet from the unrelenting cobblestone and the bitter weather that the winter winds and the spring rains always brought. She had seen people die because they didn't have shoes to cover their feet and didn't want to be a part of that group.
But at the moment her worries were few, there was hot soup infront of her and a piece of candy waiting in her pocket. She was warm, she was dry, so for the moment she was content. A contentment that she held on to, it would only last until the instant that she had to go back home.
*
"Take care young miss, the weather's turning" the old gentleman at the door of the showhouse warned her as she quietly left the warm interior of the slightly broken old building that she suspected was even older than the gentleman that saw her off each time she left. Aiella sighed as she picked her way back home through the debris ridden side streets and people ridden main. Yes, she was going back to that disgusting little hovel that she called home and her mother called office, though many could wonder why. She, however, knew why. She was too young to get a decent job, the factories might hire her if she lied and told them that she was 7 or 8, but the streets weren't kind to children. The girl had seen what could happen to people outside the confines of a building and she didn't want to end up as some ne'er-do-well's prized mistress, her mother had already shown her that that business wasn't at all as desired as it might have been made out to be.
'Maybe tomorrow' she thought as she neared her street and slowed her walk to a near crawl trying to delay the inevitable of walking up those stairs and though a battered door into the apartment that she lived, 'maybe tomorrow I can go see grammy 'Ian...' Or rather her father's mother, her grandmother Reiliana. The woman was the only one that actually seemed to care for the girl and the only one that tried to treat her right so naturally the child adored her. The one she could turn to when her days got bad, though Aiella had to be careful, she had to always be careful when in her father's house. The man could never know that she came, because surely he would not allow it.
... "Gammy Ian, who's that?" a small child with vivid red-brown hair and wide, enchanting gray eyes asked her grandmother as the girl pointed out to a slightly smaller portrait in the corner of the room that she had never noticed before.
The old woman smiled fondly and lifted the child up for a better look, "that was my husband, You're Papa Joel."
"Oh" the girl's mouth hung open in reminiscence of the sound that had been produced by it as she moved her short fingers lightly across the faded paint.
"Did Papa Joel make the Rose Garden like in the stories?"
Reiliana smiled at her grandaughter's question, knowing just what the little girl was asking about. "Yes he did" The woman smiled again...
Joel hadn't actually made the rose garden that now resided a little distance from their back steps, the rose garden that her little Aiella was asking about was and intricate mural that had been painted upon the inside of the stables. Her husband had wanted to give her a gift for her birthday, a garden of her favourite flower. The only problem was that a garden could not have been planted at the time since it was winter and the ground was frozen through. So Joel had done the next best thing he could think of, he had painted the garden instead. The man had banished her from the place at the time and snuck off there every day to work on it, then brought her blindfolded into the stable on her birthday to present it to her.
Aiella loved it in there because of that painting and wanted to go out and play in the dusty old horse place whenever she visited her Gammy Ian, not that Reiliana complained, she loved it in there too, it kept her close to Joel and she got to spend time with her grandchild, who's visits weren't too often and far between.
Aiella literally shook off her memories that seemed to come from long ago by a quick shake of her head as she reached the ominous gray steps that lead up to the interhall of her building. The girl was home, though she didn't really want to be. She didn't ever want to be there. She hoped that she could at least get some sleep tonight and that her mother was not still working as she used all of her weight to tug open the massive wooden door that led inside to the place where no little girl should have to be.
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