Sophia was wearing a pretty white gown with a delicate headdress woven from small white flowers. In those clothes, she looked exactly like 'The Lady' herself walking straight toward me through the doorway. And Arthur, standing beside her, shone with the same confidence and warmth that people always described in the Great King. In that moment, the two of them felt like royalty stepping into that miserable orphanage.
I forgot about the world. I forgot about my fear. I forgot about my escape plan. I simply followed them upstairs. I did not even realize how obvious I was being until I saw my reflection in a window. My mouth was wide open. My eyes looked like they were glued to them. I was practically stalking them.
Embarrassed, I quickly hid behind the door.
But a moment later, Sophia looked over her shoulder, smiled softly, and motioned for me to step forward and join them.
When I stood beside them and met her eyes, something strange happened. My heart skipped a beat. My stomach fluttered as if butterflies had suddenly been released inside me. I did not know what those feelings meant then, but they were warm. They were gentle. They were new.
Because of that nervousness, I tripped over my own feet while walking to them. Sophia asked me my name. I panicked and told her my age. She asked me my age. I panicked again and told her my name. They both tried not to laugh, but they failed terribly. Maybe my answers were really funny, or maybe they had not laughed in a long time. They laughed so loudly that every kid in the building came running to the hallway to see what had happened.
After that, we talked about our parents and how we ended up in that place. Their stories were different from mine, but there was a shape of sadness in all three of our lives. Because of that, it took no time for us to become inseparable. In a place where children rarely smiled, I suddenly had a family of two. Their presence made the nightmares at least bearable.
Two weeks passed before I even realized it. Two weeks of staying by their side, of discovering what it felt like to laugh without fear, of sleeping without trembling, of being hugged without being hurt.
And then the day came.
The day the beast returned from his vacation.
We were standing near the main door, talking about something silly, when I saw him walk in. The moment he stepped through the entrance, everything I had suffered before Arthur and Sophia arrived flashed through my mind. My knees weakened. My heart thumped violently. The world I had come to love, the small joy I had found, felt like it was going to shatter right then and there. The thought alone made me tremble.
The next day, while I was hiding behind a shelf, Sophia called my name loudly, playfully, without knowing that I was trying to stay invisible. Her voice reached him.
He turned toward her.
His eyes… those eyes I had seen in the darkest nights… the eyes he had when he did those terrible things to me… they appeared again. Sharp. Predatory. Hungry.
The moment I saw those eyes, I burst into tears. I did not even understand that I was crying until my vision blurred. But Sophia and Arthur did not see his eyes. They had no idea why I cried that day. To them, it became a strange mystery. They kept asking me about it later, but I never answered. How could I?
Two days later, he called for me.
I went into his room without saying a word. I had already decided it was safer for them if I kept silent and accepted everything alone.
Luckily… that day, he only beat me. And only on parts of my body that my clothes could cover. That gave me time to hide the truth from Arthur and Sophia a little longer.
But I already knew something in his gaze had changed. This time, he was not just beating me. He was studying me.
And that terrified me far more than the pain.
Some days later, I found Arthur and Sophia arguing in the hallway. I still do not remember the reason behind their quarrel, but I remember stepping between them to calm Arthur down. The moment he softened, Sophia smiled and said in her sweet voice, 'Even mamma never succeeded in calming him, but you are able to do that.'
I did not understand why she found that so amusing, but the look in her eyes made it clear that she was genuinely impressed. When she noticed me blushing, both of them burst into laughter and began teasing me until even I could not hold back my smile.
We were still laughing when the air around us suddenly turned cold. A chill crawled up my spine. Both of them stopped smiling at once. I turned, already knowing what I would see.
The beast was standing behind me. He had laid his hand on Sophia's shoulder and was asking her to come to his room.
He looked different that day. Scarier. Hungrier. His eyes were darker than usual and his fingers lingered on her shoulder as if claiming it.
Sophia sensed it too. She immediately ran behind Arthur and hid.
Arthur stepped forward.
I always knew he was brave, but in that moment he did not just look brave. He looked like a furious young tiger ready to leap at its prey. Even the beast stepped back. Their eyes met and, for the first time in my life, I saw fear inside that monster's gaze. He turned away and returned to his room without uttering a word.
It was an unbelievable sight, one boy frightening that man. Every kid who witnessed it stood in awe. That evening, children who normally avoided everyone came to our room one after another. They sat with us, laughed with us, even played a little. For the first time, the silence in that place broke. By the time we slept, it was nearly midnight.