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Lonely Hunter
Chapter One: The Attic
The small St. Aislin Orphanage was packed to the maximum and then some with orphans of all ages. They overran the place, with only just two people taking care of the facility and calling upon the aid of the older children. These children were mostly abandoned and unwanted, making them unappealing to adopting parents. Every week, more children from the streets of Mars were accepted, and some even left to fend for themselves, tired of being burdens and wanting to start new lives. This particular orphanage was one of the few that took in any homeless child, believing it better than letting them roam the streets.
Four year old Callista had been there for three years and was one of the youngest there. Now big enough for her own bed, one of the caretakers led her to her new room. Leading her through the crowded house, they stopped upstairs at the end of a dark hallway. Reaching up, the caretaker pulled down a cord from the high ceiling that revealed a trap door and the long wooden steps leading up to the attic.
“Listen to me, Callista.” The man said, looking down on the dark skinned little girl to see if he had her attention away from the ruckus coming from downstairs. “You’re going to sleep up here from now on. There‘s a bathroom in there and everything so you don‘t have to risk coming down. We‘ll bring your meals to you, okay? ”
The four year old just looked at him with large dark brown eyes. She understood, her gaze turning to the steps leading to the dark room, this was going to be her new home.
The caretaker correctly interpreted her silence for understanding,. Callista didn’t speak much anyways.
Picking her up with one arm, he went up the old and creaky wooden stairs. Since the ceiling was extremely high to keep the kids from messing up there and breaking their necks, so were the stairs. After a few moments, Callista sneezed as they entered a very dark and dusty room. The ceiling was much lower than anywhere in the house and cobwebs covered everything, including a small bed against a wall with a small round window.
Putting the small child down, the caretaker watched with a sigh as Callista immediately headed for the small bed. Looking through the window, she had the perfect view of the large backyard, where dozens of children were playing in the playground..
“This is only temporary till get some more room here. So don’t get too comfortable.” the caretaker explained, as he walked over to an old oak cupboard where they’d put extra linen and things. “You’re in charge of cleaning this place up. It should be dust free by lunch.”
He opened the cabinet so Callista could see where she could get her blankets and pillows from as well as cleaning materials on the bottom shelf. Turning her head, she saw him leave down the stairs and disappear.
Callista looked back outside, her eyes blank.
When another caretaker, a young woman, came in with her lunch, she was stacking the last of over a thousand dust-free books into neat piles against the walls.
“Good job, Callista,” the caretaker said, though not really looking at the room and sounding preoccupied. “Here’s your lunch. Dinner will come at five.”
She left the tray with food on the small table before walking out without another word or glance.
Callista brought several books over, one at a time, to stack on the seat of the chair…then several more to make a step so she could get on the chair in the first place (which she had done earlier to clean the table, but had put the books back after she was done). Then, after retrieving a plastic vase with a plastic yellow flower that she found, she pulled herself onto the chair and placed it on the center of the table.
Still not mastering the use of forks and spoons, Callista aided the process by using her fingers. As she ate, her eyes glanced down on the top book she had used to get on the chair. It had a deep red cover with a silver star in the center. She was staring at it, her hand in her mouth, when yet another caretaker came in.
This time it was a pudgy middle-aged janitor. Cursing to himself about “lousy kids’” and their “filth”, he went into the bathroom with barely a glance at Callista. Since the man ignored the girl, the girl ignored him, her concentration on the book as she fed herself with her small hands without even looking at the plate, making a mess on herself.
When Callista had finished, she dropped down from the chair and sat down next to the books. The janitor finished cleaning the bathroom and stared at the girl, who was covered in tomato sauce , with a frown before shaking his head and leaving down the trap door.
Grabbing the book, Callista smeared red sauce all over the pages as she flipped through it. All words she couldn’t read yet., though there was something that interested her greatly. There was an illustration on one of the pages of a black dragon surrounded by other hideous creatures. Facing them off was a man wielding a silver sword and wearing armor bearing a red cross. Under it, in words she couldn’t read, was ‘Dragon Slayer’.
“Callista!’
Looking up, she found herself picked up roughly by the young woman caretaker that had brought in her lunch. The book landed on the ground with a soft thud.
“Look at you! Now I have to give you a bath! Come on…”
Callista looked over her shoulder at the book on the floor as she was taken to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
She did most of the work, the caretaker having to go back and forth to tend to other children, in the bath. Once clean, the woman returned long enough to help her out of the bath , dry her off and helped her into clean clothes.
“Just dump any dirty clothes down the chute over there, kay?” She said, pointing to the hole in the wall in a corner of the bathroom. “I brought your clothes so you should be able to do this by yourself next time.”
The woman then left to go off and tend to some other child, while Callista watched her leave.
In her short four years of life, this was how she had been treated. The most attention she ever got was when she had been an infant…but she really can’t remember that part of her life. There were so many new caretakers that took shifts taking care of the children that she never grew attached to any of them or saw them as her mother or father. Another thing was that she was young. Too young to play with the older kids, too big to play with the younger children. She was the only child her age there and so didn’t really make any friends; the orphans were too busy making chaos to notice her.
Yet she wasn’t lonely.
Walking over to the bed, she crawled on it and sat on her knees, looking out the window. The kids were still playing and running around, teasing each other or the caretakers. Some were sitting under a tree, whispering secrets to each other, while older ones slept in the tree’s high branches.
Though Callista did wonder…
To be continued…
AN: God this first chapter was so freaking boring to write (which is why its so short)….but it must be told This is how Callista’s inquisitive, independent and lonely personality develops. Plus I told myself I wouldn’t update Family Matters until this was done :p
Don’t worry, with lots of action coming in future chaps, it’ll get more interesting, I swear. Please review and continue reading…just don’t flame me too much. Lol.
