Heaven Warrior

~ 012

Heaven groaned, looking at the time go by slowly. She had picked up a shift at the hospital because they were becoming short-staffed. She was starting to regret it though, because they were very slow at the moment.

"Should've stayed my volunteering ass at home with my family." She mumbled.

"Hey, do you have any trash that you need me to take out from under your desk?" A soft voice called out, getting the attention of Heaven. Heaven immediately noticed how young and tired the girl looked.

"No, not really. You work here?" Heaven asked, with a curious look on her face.

"Yes ma'am. I've just never really worked on your floor before. I've been here for four months now." The girl replied, taking her broom from her cleaning cart to sweep the area.

"How old are you?" Heaven questioned.

"I'm sixteen. I work here as a janitor." The girl nodded with a small smile. "I mostly do all shifts, depending on when and where they need me." She added, sweeping a pile of dust into her dustpan.

Heaven nodded her head, trying to answer some of her own questions in her head. Why was the girl at work past midnight? Why did the girl have huge bags forming under her eyes?

"Do they not know that they can't work a minor past a certain time during school months? Are they overworking you or are you just willing to work extra hours?" Heaven asked, now intrigued to what the girl was about to say. She watched the girl chew on her bottom lip, as if she was nervous to respond.

"I'm just willing to work for the extra money." The girl mumbled, keeping her answer short.

"What's your name boo?" Heaven questioned. Honestly she didn't care that she was asking so many questions. She wanted answers as to why a sixteen year old was working past midnight during school months.

"Look, I don't need to get in trouble. I'm sorry if I bothered you." The girl responded, putting her cleaning supplies back onto her cart. The last thing she needed was being written up or loosing her job.

"You won't get in trouble." Heaven chuckled. "I just want to know your name." She shrugged. It was obvious that the young girl was hiding something. She just couldn't put her finger on it, but she would soon find out.

"Paisyn. Please just don't tell on me, okay? I really need this job." The young girl pleaded. She eventually got everything back onto her cleaning cart and was about to walk away.

"Paisyn, if you ever need anything you can always come to me. I'm Heaven." Heaven said, introducing herself. As much as she wanted to read Paisyn, she couldn't. It was clear that either the girl was uncomfortable or scared of spilling some information.

"What happened to your neck Paisyn?" Heaven asked, noticing the purple bruise ring that Paisyn failed to cover. She thought that her scarf would do the job, but it was clear that it wasn't.

"I broke out." Paisyn quickly replied.

"Doesn't look like a breakout to me." Heaven shrugged. "I can help you, but you have to want it baby." She added.

"I'll be okay." Paisyn nodded, trying to reassure herself. She wanted to just break down in Heaven's arms and tell her the truth of what had been going on for eight years, but she knew she couldn't.

"Promise that you'll come to me when you're ready." Heaven said. Unfortunately the young girl reminded her so much of Solana's situation. She wanted to help her get out before it was too late.

"Yes ma'am. Do you know if we will get our checks at the end of this shift?" Paisyn asked, now avoiding eye contact with Heaven. "I haven't received my last check and I really need to get this one.