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SISI

AGE EIGHT

Iswallow hard. My throat is sore, my breathing too harsh, but I can't stop now. I run to the best of my ability, knowing exactly what awaits me if I'm caught.

The buildings of the convent close in on me, and I wildly look around, searching for an exit. When I see none, I do the only thing I can think of… I enter the church.

Heavy steps resound behind me, a sign that they're not far behind.

I zone in on the confessional booth, and I swiftly open the door, cramming myself inside. One hand goes to my mouth and I try to regulate my breathing, so thatno onecan hear me.

My pulse is through the roof as fear overwhelms me, especially as I hear the screechy noise of the church door being opened.

They're here!

I hear their footsteps as they search the aisles, their voices loud, the echo reverberating in the building.

"I saw her enter here. She must be hiding somewhere," one of them mutters, annoyance dripping from her tone.

"Assisi! Come out! The more time we waste searching for you, the angrier I will get, and you won't like me angry," Cressida, my personal nightmare, yells.

A few years older than me, Cressida has always had something against me. It's rare that I get a day without someone saying or doing something to me. And usually Cressida is the mastermind behind all of my misfortune. I don't know what I've done to her to hate me so badly.

Although I've been at Sacre Coeur since birth, Cressida only came here a couple of years ago. She'd been abandoned by her mother on the convent's doorstep.

I know very well what it's like to be abandoned, since my own family left me in the care of nuns when I was mere days old, a fact which has been drilled into my head by the older nuns from the beginning.

God forbid I forgot just how unwanted I'd been.

Even so, I'd never taken out my anger on others. Not like Cressida.

Since she'd arrived at the convent, she'd become some kind of leader for the older girls, and they enjoyed nothing more than picking on others.

Because I was already ostracized by the older nuns, I'd been the perfect target for their taunts and punishments.

It's not enough that I have to withstand everyone's whispers that I'm the devil's child, or the fact that no one would willingly associate with me, since I bring bad luck. No, Cressida and her gang of mean girls had to resort to corporal punishments to make sure that my lifeisa living hell. After all, it's a fitting fate for the devil's child.

"Check the back, I'll check the front," Cressida orders them, and then I hear shuffling.

Their steps are coming increasingly closer to my hiding place, and my body is already quivering with fear. What they willdo to me when they find me… I don't even want to think about that.

This week, one of my chores had included working in the kitchen, so I've been helping some of the other nuns with the preparation of the food. I thought it would be easy enough, since I could chop vegetables and peel potatoes without interacting with anyone. That's always my perfect type of chore, since no one will be able to pick on me in any way.

This time, however, it hadn't worked in my favor.

Somehow, Cressida had gotten sick from yesterday's lunch. Somehow she'd found out that I'd helped with the food, and in her mind, I was already guilty. I'd contaminated the food with my filthy hands and for that I needed to pay.

Following Cressida's mysterious sickness, a few other girls had fallen ill, and so I'd become the center of everyone's scorn—again.

More noise alerts me to their movements and they seem to ransack every part of the church.

Please don't find me… Please…

I still have the scars from my last encounter with Cressida. My knees had been so badly busted, I'd limped for two weeks. And that had been merely for meeting her eyes. She'd called me impertinent and proceeded to show memy place.

I don't want to imagine what she'll do to me now that she thinks I did something to her food.