Little Girl Lost Read Free

door opening flooded Tavera with fear. She felt as if she would vomit and it took every shred of her being to keep herself from passing out from fright. Instead she sat there on the floor, frozen.
    “Girl?” The shuffling of Madame Greswin’s feet and the tap of her cane drew closer, her shadow reaching the back room before she did. The two beady eyes glinted in the firelight and set themselves on the shivering girl. The woman stopped short, her cane banging hard on the floor as her wet, shriveled mouth quivered on her face. A thin, high whistle came out of her mouth as she stared at the girl, her gnarled knuckled gripping the head of her cane. “Where…where did you get that ribbon, girl?”
    The ribbon. She must have put it in her hair and forgotten to take it out. Just as Tavera gained her voice back, the woman’s eyes darted to the floor in front of her, falling on the metal pieces in the girl’s apron. Tavera felt the rage of the woman growing steadily and then the sharp, hot pain of being grabbed by the ear.
    The woman’s fingers had an iron grip on the tender point and Tavera shrieked in pain, blocking the woman’s cane with her hands, the hard wooden shaft cracking against her wet hands. Auntie Greswin panted, her beady eyes glazed over with intense emotion. She dropped her cane to the floor, her free hand reaching into her apron pockets. The glint Tavera saw out of the corner of her eye elevated her terror to heights unknown and she fought against the old woman, shrieking and kicking, managing to drag the old woman to the floor with her. But the bony, stone like fingers still gripped her ear.
    “Evil little girl,” the woman snarled, the glint still dancing somewhere out of Tavera’s direct line of sight. The suggestion of what was there was worse than actually seeing it. “Stealing from me, breaking my machines! How dare you! I’ll not have such treachery under my roof. Evil little creatures must be PUNISHED!” The glint shot closer and then the pain of her ear went from a throb to something sharp and raw.
    Tavera was unable to keep back a beast-like shriek as the sensation seared into her brain. Something brushed against her fingers. She wrapped her small hands around it, striking around as hard as she could with it. It hit something both hard and soft. Tavera struck it again and again before the little girl realized nothing was holding her anymore. Tavera dropped whatever was in her hands and without thinking shot up off the floor, propelling herself out the back door and bolting down the alley in the opposite direction that the thieves had gone.
    Her boots and thin dress were worthless in the winter air. The thin leather soles skipped rhythmically across the barely cobbled streets as the girl ran desperately, tears threatening again in her eyes. Oh goddess, why had this happened? Her ear still stung. Cold, icy air licked the edges of her small body, the activity and pitch of her anxiety keeping her going. If anyone noticed she was bleeding, no one said anything. If anyone was concerned as to why a small child might be running around in the dead of winter without a coat, no one stopped her. So she ran, the energy it took to keep back her tears and run becoming too much for her to bear. Tavera finally stopped, slumping down against a crate and giving herself over to her sobbing.
    The cold snow started to bite through her skin, the air pressing in around her. Still she cried, her hands starting to clench with cold, her body shivering. Why had this happened? Why had the woman done that to her? Her hand trembled as it reached up to the side of her head, the numb skin of her ear not registering the pressure but she felt the damage.
    The little girl sobbed again, seeing her hand was covered with a red smear of blood, dark crust speckling her hand. What was going to happen to her? She couldn’t go back to the sausage shop; even if Auntie would take her back, she was liable to beat her within an inch of her