I sat down on the pathetic couch in Felicity's house just as she had told me to. She paced back and forth and hands fidgeting. She was extremely worried, and frankly, so was I. I shifted uncomfortably. Felicity had been crying.
"I just…" She said holding back a sob. She had said this twice now, never really being able to spit the sentence out. I was still worried but I was also getting annoyed. Why couldn't she just tell me?
"Felicity-" I started.
"No, um, Hannah I will tell you, but I can't." She sucked in a deep breath. She crouched down so she was on my level. "Hannah, I can't keep looking after you." It felt like someone had thrown a bowling ball at my stomach. I stared at her trying to comprehend what she was saying. "I just can't afford it." She said more but I couldn't seem to pay attention. She cried and apologized but it all seemed to slide away. When I finally said something it came out as a squeak.
"You can't." I couldn't yell. I couldn't do anything. Felicity grabbed my hand. She seemed to stop crying for now. I wanted to yell at her. Punch her. Do something to her, but my mind wouldn't let me.
"I know." She said. "You're really not of age. That's why I'm just taking you to-"
"Another orphanage." I finished. She nodded. "I guess I had better go pack." I spoke in an amazing calm voice considering the thousands of anger little butterflies flying around my ear telling me to demolish her. The next few hours were just a big blur. I don't even remember saying bye to anyone. It was all just time passing by quickly and me sluggishly moving around. I rode in the back seat of Felicity's car and, believe it or not, slept the whole way.
"Hannah?" I woke up to the sound of a strange woman's voice. I saw a short lady with white hair braided around her head. She wore a long black dress and had a veil falling down her back. "Hi. I'm Miss Dulch." Her voice was cracked with age. I sat up and got out of the car trying not to hurt my side.
"Miss Dulch is in charge of the Arms of Love Orphanage, Hannah." Felicity explained. Extremely disappointed, I shook Miss Dulch's hand. After falling asleep I had hoped that it was all a crazy dream and I was back in Storybrooke.
"Normally we don't take in new children when the building is so crowded, but the next orphanage is about a ten hour drive from here. We wouldn't want you driving all night, Felicity," I stood there in silence while Felicity talked to Miss Dulch. My head was spinning and my mind was empty. I had heard about this before. You don't usually react until something happens that makes you unable to deny the reality. Felicity gave me a little push towards Miss Dulch.
"Hannah, Miss Dulch is waiting for you." She said, tears running down her face again. I walked slowly toward what would be my new home. Miss Dulch reached out to grab my hand, but I pulled it away. I didn't know why. Her hand looked worn and bony. Felicity waved goodbye and drove away.
As soon as we were inside I noticed the kids. They were everywhere. All the boys were snickering and the girls stared me up and down like they were deciding if I would be better with or without my arms. They were all caked in what I absolutely hoped was mud. Around the mass of children I was able to make out a circular room with archways branching off into different halls. The place was really clean and organized, contradicting the children. There was one lonely painting sitting on a very lonely wall. It looked like tiny cherub babies killing tiny gargoyle babies. A disturbing painting really.
"Children," Miss Dulch announced. "This is Hannah. I want you all to treat her like family." She said. The children looked at one another smirking.
"Yes, Miss Dulch." They all said in unison. She seemed satisfied with that and disappeared down one of the many halls.
"Hadley, why don't you go show Hannah where she'll be sleeping." She requested through a speaker hidden from view. A little girl with messy, blonde braids walked forward. She had had a weird glint in her eyes. Felicity, what did you get me into? I thought.
"Yes, Miss Dulch." She grabbed me by the arm in a death grip and pulled me into a surprisingly clean room. A boy who looked just a little older than me stood on a bed to get the other children's attention.
"Well, we all heard Miss Dulch. Treat the girl liked family!" The kids cheered showing there pearly white teeth that clashed with their mud streaked faces. I freaked out and tried to go find Miss Dulch. The little girl pushed me back to my spot and two boys guarded the door. I knew I wasn't going to get out of this. I scanned the room for windows. Of course, there were none. All I could see other than beds was a bookcase.
"Why are you trying to leave?" The boy on the bed asked me. I stared at him.
"Well maybe it has something to do with you trapping me in a room with those creepy looks on your faces!" I don't know where my voice came from. I thought I had left it back at Storybrooke. The boy laughed.
"Don't worry. George wanted to run too." He explained. Everyone turned their attention to a boy who looked down in shame. "So do you want a necklace or a bracelet?" He asked me. The question caught me a bit off guard. Here was this boy with his gang of munchkins offering me jewelry. "Come on! Which one?"
"Necklace?" I responded. All of the kids turned extremely wide eyed. I had no idea what was going on. The kid I assumed was George tapped the boy on the bed.
"Frank, we can't give her the necklace." He argued. "She's hurt already."
"Just like you, she got to decide." Frank said jumping off the bed.
"At least explain what the difference is." George pleaded. Frank looked at me then at all of the other kids.
"Fine, I'll put it this way." He said putting his hands in his pockets. "Would you rather be practically strangled to death or have a third degree burn on your arm?" I stood there shocked. He asked it as simply as he would ask me what color shirt I wanted to wear for the day.
"Neither!" I yelled. Just then there was a scratching noise coming from outside. All of the children ran to the bookcase in the corner of the room and pushed it over revealing a window. I saw my chance and ran for the door. The children didn't even respond. They were just talking to the window like someone was there. I had only made it to the front of the building when I heard them holler- in their creepy unison way- "She's running, Miss Dulch!" Yeah, I seem to do that a lot. I kept at it. I didn't think that she would be able to catch me since she was all the way down a hall.
I heard the door slam against the outside of the orphanage indicating that she was chasing me now. Instead of hearing her running behind me I heard a strange noise above me. It sounded like drums were scraping their nails against stone. (Assuming that these particular drums had nails) Something inside me told me to look up. There was a huge stone creature flying above me. It had over-grown teeth on what looked like a dragon head. It looked like a lion had sprouted a dragon head and wings then looked at Medusa. I screamed and impossibly ran faster. The adrenaline pumping through my veins would eventually wear off and it would be over. I kept running anyway. It dove toward me and knocked me to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me, but that seemed minor compared to the stone lion-dragon about to tear me to shreds. I closed my eyes and waited. After a while I opened my eyes and saw the creature sitting on me triumphantly.
"Let us make one thing clear!" It hissed. When I say hissed, I mean it literally hissed. It sounded like twenty possessed snakes attacking a lion. The roar of pain included. "No one runs from Miss Dulch. If you are caught running from Miss Dulch, I will kill you. If you do not obey Miss Dulch's rules I will kill you. Miss Dulch does not except misbehavior. Miss Dulch is waiting for you." It scooped me up with its massive claws and. Flying low, took me back to the orphanage. I didn't dare struggle assuming it would kill me if I did. It pushed me in the door then climbed in through a hatch on the roof. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed that before.
"That didn't work out now did it?" Frank smirked. The stone thing behind me glared at him. "You're no fun Aerolith." He said acting like it was normal to see a 3 ton part dragon, part lion made out of stone. He walked back to the room where I heard loud laughter.
"Miss Dulch is down the hall to the left of the painting. Proceed down the hall to see Miss Dulch." As I walked down the hall I realized I had never hated a name so much in my life.