Somewhere close by.

The sound of someone yelling rang in her ears, and Clarice sprang out of bed and flicked her eyes to the wall clock immediately.

“Heavens!” She exclaimed with her mouth slightly open. She was doomed, no wonder she could hear her stepmother's voice on high display.

Furthermore, she peeped at the wall clock again which was ringing at 10am, and she sighed before going out of the room.

Clarice tiptoed to the sitting room, it was a small, comfortable place with a medium size couch. That particular house was where her both parents passed away and for a reason, she would rather not leave the house even though staying with her stepmom was unbearable.

She had to drop out of school a year later, after her dad died. And her stepmom said she couldn't afford to pay her fees.

Right from when she got married to her dad, she never liked Clarice. Coping with the fact that her father adored her and provided whatever she needed.

Clarice tried to fight back the tears trying to rest at the verge of her eyes. She missed her parents so much, her mom had to leave her when she was just seven and her dad passed away a year ago. Why was life so cruel to her, huh? She whispered.

“Clarice! You lazy being!” She heard her stepmom bellowing and she hid properly behind the kitchen door while the woman rushed to her room in an angry way.

“Today doesn't seem like a good day.” Clarice whispered, she could feel the bad energy coming off from her stepmom.

Clarice yanked her hair and roamed her eyes around the house. She had spent the whole night thinking deeply and didn't get to close her eyes until that morning, and it was the reason she woke up late.

She has been trying to think of a way she could change her life for the better. There was no work for her to do in such a remote community she was in.

It seemed like her stepmom couldn't find her in the room, and she walked out angrily and sighted Clarice standing by the kitchen door.

“Madam! Good morning, when did you come back?” Clarice asked in a low tone while pretending she didn't hear her calling out to her. The same woman standing a few steps away from Clarice had warned her not to ever call her “mother” ; she was being referred to as madam.

“What's good about the morning? Why is the house messy? Am I feeding you, so you can end up being lazy?” She hollered and Clarice shook her head.

“I was just about to start cleaning.” Clarice replied, hoping her stepmom wouldn't take it further.

“Do whatever you need to do on time. I have a visitor.” She whispered before walking away while her shoe clacking on the floor.

Clarice took a deep breath, assuring herself that everything would be fine someday.

She began to clean the place while trying to finish on time. After an hour, the doorbell rang, and she walked to the door.

She opened it and met someone, she hated the fact that she had to see him almost every day of her life. He was her stepmother's boyfriend.

Someone the woman was way older, and to worsen it, she started going out with him two months after Clarice's dad died.

Clarice felt her stepmom was a complete whore and had no shame. She wondered how her dad met her and what made him fall for her.

“Are you going to let me in?” The young man asked with an intimidating look, and Clarice opened the door wider and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

There and then, her stepmom walked out of her room in a diaphanous blue dress, and Clarice widened her eyes while the young man scanned her stepmom seductively from head to toe.

“Baby!” He cooed and moved to her stepmom, while Clarice felt irritated. She couldn't stand them, so she quickly left for her room.

She could hear her stepmother's voice as she giggled and laughed like a baby, and Clarice wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Heavens, people have no shame. Totally.” She whispered under her breath and laid on the bed with her back faced the ceiling.

After some minutes, the whole place went silent, and she got curious. What were those two up to? Some days, her stepmom has to send her out of the house to do whatever they wanted to.

Curiosity got the best of Clarice, and she stepped out of her room quietly and then, she heard the moaning voice of her stepmom as the young man obviously screwed her.

Clarice halted and shook her head. She couldn't take it any longer nor bear the torture of how her stepmom was disrespecting her father, in that same house he had adored and never sold it because of the good memories he had in it.

Sporadically, she wished she were old enough at that point he was deciding on getting married again, she would have stopped him.

Clarice walked out of the house in annoyance, and she kept walking without a sense of direction.

She got to a place and halted. A route she found strange, the spot had a written tag on a wood with the words “school ahead “. Was there a school nearby?

She had never heard of it, but who would build a school in a remote and creepy area like this, huh? She thought aloud and continued walking.

It got to a point that her legs ached, and she knew it was time she went back home. The young man must have left already.

She turned her heels and began to walk back home while making sure she didn't miss her way. Clarice planned to ask her stepmom if she knew about the school nearby.

If she had heard of any school close by, or it was just an old sign that has been there for ages.

She sighed and ruffled her hair, on getting to the house she met the door locked, and she cursed under her breath.

Now she has to wait for her stepmom to come back. She couldn't go in, especially when the door was locked. And Clarice felt it was better for her to find a way she would leave the house and never come back.

If it was possible, she was willing to find out more about the school close by and enroll in. That was one of her plans.