Miranda

The hallway leading to St. Peter's dormitory was a bit shady, the only sources of light were rows of almost burnt-out candlesticks that were arranged along the wall of the hallway.

A soft sound like that of a baby clapping her hands was made from the water that was dripping from the cracked ceiling in the balcony of the hallway. This usually happens anytime it rains, and today it rained heavily. And most times, when it rains heavily it goes past leaking from the ceiling to flood the place, more reason why the paint was peeling off from the wall of the hallway.

A noise that sounded like a gigantic cat scratching the concrete floor with its long sharp nails could be heard from the end of the hallway. The scratching sound and the drops of water from the ceiling on the balcony gave an intended and eerie rhythm, reverberating throughout the quiet hallway.

"Miranda" someone called in a hushed tone that sounded like a stifled sneeze from the last room in the hallway where the scratching sound was coming from.

"Miranda "A girl putting on a faded lace singlet-like gown, called out quietly again from the top of the bunk she was perched on.

"Miranda," she called again when she got no response, this time more loudly.

"What do you want?" Miranda, who was sitting on the bare floor in front of a lit candle with her legs, crossing each other like a prophet who is about to pray, answered coldly. She was dragging her hairpin on the ground as she stared blankly into the fire from the candle.

"It is late, can't you see?" The girl inquired.

"And so what?" Miranda asked.

"I want to sleep, and so do the other girls in the next room"

"Who made you their mouthpiece?" She asked, a distant smile playing across her face. "Have you suddenly lost your tongue, Katherine?"

"No one," Katherine reluctantly answered.

"So why are you disturbing my peace?"

"You are the one disturbing the peace and quietness of this dormitory, Miranda" Katherine replied. "I would talk to Lady Agnes, the dormitory leader, first thing in the morning", She went on to say.

"I dare you to," Miranda stated?

"I will definitely" Katherine swallowed back her words and kept shut immediately as the stern look Miranda shot at her scent a cold shiver down her spine.

"Challenging my authority again, isn't it?" Mathilda inquired and Katherine made a muffled sound, with her hands covering her mouth, shaking her head vigorously in a negative way.

"What did I say I would do to you the next time you dare talk back at me?" She asked as she stopped dragging her hairpin on the ground. "You better start talking before I lose my temper", Miranda barked out.

Jolting in fear, "That you were going to dig out one of my eyes" Katherine answered.

"And?" Miranda questioned, urging her to go on with the report.

"And that you were going to feed it to the birds of the sky with me watching with one eye" Katherine continued, trembling. Her voice was shaky like she was about to cry.

"Undermining that, you still have the tenacity to talk back at me, why?" She asked, raising the hairpin to her eyes to take a closer look at it.

"You thought it was a mere threat?" Miranda questioned further, resuming scratching the pin on the ground like she was trying to make it sharper as she stifled croaky laughter.

"I am just anxious about what tomorrow holds for me. If you were in my shoes, you would feel the same way also", Miranda said, shifting her gaze to Katherine, who had coiled up at the end of the bed.

"I have watched a thousand and one children walk out of this orphanage, clinging tightly to the hands of their newly found parents. But I have been yearning for years now, with no one to hold. Now that the luck has finally shined on me, I am a bit nervous. I feel things wouldn't go the way I have envisioned it in my head" Miranda lamented, but Katherine did not utter a single word.

"Let me give you a backstory of my life, I know you haven't spent a year here so you know nothing about me, are you interested in hearing my story?" She asked.

"Yes," Katherine quietly replied.

"My first night here was nothing to write home about compared to yours. I had a monster as a roommate. I reported Lady Agnes several times, but there was no amount of punishment given to Miriam that made her change her ways" Mathilda paused for a while to see if Katherine was following before she continued with her story.

"Just in one week of my arrival, I already had my skin battered, and until this day, I still have some scars to show for it" Miranda went on, pulling up the sleeve of the nightgown she was putting on to reveal a cross-like stitched up wound that was close to her wrist.

Running her fingers on the rough scar, "I will never forget that day. It was a hot afternoon, most of the children were out running around and basking in the sun as if their lives depended on it while I was, etched up on my bed just like the way you are right now, trying to learn how to pray with a rosary as it was my first time in an environment like this" She continued with her story.

"When suddenly, Miriam badged into the room, panting heavily with beads of perspiration mixed with blood lining her face, she was staring at me like a lion that was about to pounce on its prey", Miranda stated, laughing dryly at her joke.

"Do you know what?" Miriam asked me in a grumpy voice, the new girl in the next room told me she was a match for me, blabbing endlessly about how she was going to make a mess of me if I dared take any step closer to her.