"Sierra and Zachary?"
"Poor kids, 10 and 6 right?"
"Right. The worst part is that Zachary might have a chance at being adopted, he's still little and sweet."
"But the girl?"
"She's 10."
"Poor thing."
"It's her own fault, she's shy and can't hold a solid conversation if her life depended on it."
"She's holding him back and she doesn't even know it."
"And they can't be adopted separately?"
"No, they have to go together. I'm not sure why, some legal thing."
"Those poor children."
"They don't have it that bad, I'm the one looking after them you know."
"You're right."
"Finding someone to adopt a 6yr old and a 10yr old is the hard part."
"No one wants them?"
"Everyone wants Zachary, the problem is no one wants the girl to go with him."
"Can we really blame them?"
"An older girl that needs her hand held for everything, i'm not sure i'd be sold either...."
Sierra covered her mouth, the voices continued but she couldn't stand to listen even a second more.
She ran up to the room that she shared with her brother and a couple other children who were all asleep.
Her throat grew tighter and tighter as she went over everything her caretaker had said.. 'No one wants the girl to go with him.'
'No one wants the girl.'
She shut her eyes tight, attempting to stop tears from flowing but she couldn't. She pressed her hand over her mouth, knowing not to wake the other children or alert the caretaker that she was awake and had heard everything.
She pressed her face into her pillow and sobbed, her mind racing, not allowing her to sleep.
'No one wants the girl.'
'She's holding him back.'
'It's her own fault.'
'No one wants the girl.'
'Can we really blame them?'
The conversation plagued her mind, she was unable to forget it. It swirled around in her head, it made her stomach ache and wrapped around her tightened throat like barbed wire.
Days passed and each one clouded over by the realization that she was the reason her and her little brother were trapped here. The conversation she was never supposed to hear followed her like a shadow.
Every time she and her brother met with families, 'Everyone wants the boy, no one wants the girl' Rang through her head like a song she could never forget the tune of, no matter how hard she tried.
For months she was tormented by the words of someone who was meant to care for her.
She sat with her little brother, helping him color in the lines and pick out the crayons he liked the most.
"Sierra, Zachary." A voice chimed behind her, one that brought back the thoughts of its conversation with a stranger.
"That's a lovely drawing Zachary, will you be giving it to your parents tomorrow?" The caregiver smiled
YOU ARE READING
The Secrets of Charis: Before the War
Fantasy"You really don't want to do that." He growled, noticing out of the corner of his eye that amidst all the commotion the person he despised most in the world was getting ready to cast a spell on him. Another spell. She had turned him into a monster...
