Authors Note ~ Hey everyone, I hoped you enjoyed the prologue. This is my first ever book and I aim to be publishing a chapter at least once a week. Plz enjoy it and just have fun. I'm doing this for a new experience.

*15 years later*

"SCARLET! Get down here right this instant."

I woke to the fright of Madam Trudy's ear peircing yell again. Her voice was not tender at all, if anything it was screeches from a dying cat.

"I will be down in a minute Madam Trudy!"

I quickly got changed grabbing my dirty petticoat and pulling on my worn sneakers not wanting to make Madam Trudy wait any longer.

Skimming down the stairs, I tried to avoid the cracks and splinters while making sure I looked presentable enough for my day work of chores. I avoided all of the little old wooden toys, dodged the rotting puzzle and jumped over the rocking horse. All to take the quickest route possible to the sitting room where Madam Trudy will be waiting.

I arrived and gently knocked on the wooden door.

"Come in Scarlett, you've wasted enough time already."

I turned the squeaky door knob and snuck into the little room, the bright sunshine blinding my eyes as I walked over to Madam Trudy's Desk. I curtsied, and looked up seeing Madam Trudy, her short messy brown hair with glints of greys gleaming in the morning sun, her crooked mouth with her scary smile, the little lines of aging wrinkles covered by overdone make up, and her dead scary eyes staring into your soul. I bowed my head again and waited for Madam Trudy to give me my orders.

"Now Scarlett, I need you to do extra chores today as George left earlier on this morning forever while you were to busy snoozing your head off in bed. We also had some messy visitors today looking to adopt some children so you gotta clean the place. You know you could of had the chance to be picked but once again you somehow avoided adoption. I will never understand why you do this but what ever the reason why it's your fault, not mine! Now here's the list of chores and get to work."

I took the list from Madam Trudy's wrinkled hand and curtsied again, giving my respect. I left the room through the door I came in not wanting to stay longer in her office then I had to. But just as I was about close the door, Madam Trudy called out!

"Oh and Scarlett, try to stay out of the way and avoid everyone please, now get to work!"

As I finally closed the door, I sighed, another day in this miserable Orphanage and another day of hard boring work. I opened up the list, looked at it and saw it was almost double the chores today and now that George was gone, I was now the oldest meaning I had the most responsibility within the orphanage.

"I might as well get straight into it and skip breakfast" I mumbled to myself. "The faster I get everything done, the quicker I can actually enjoy today. Let's see the first thing on the list is to... wash the dishes, of course that's always my first chore."

I quickly but quietly made my way to the kitchen and started my least favourite chore. Today's Dishes were not pleasant at all, the tap handle fell off into the sink revealing mould, the plates were covered in grease and grimace, the cups of water had little insects swimming in it, and every now and then you could see a couple of cockroaches sneaking around the kitchen. It really was a big health risk and the worst conditions. The orphans could get sick by looking at the area but yet we even cooked and ate from here. It was horrible

I quickly finished of the dishes and got to work on my many more chores to come including, vacuuming the hallway, making the little kid beds, moping the always dirty tiles, cleaning up the mess from the visitors and dusting the whole orphanage. It was a lot of hard work and I missed George helping me out, he was a good friend but I am happy he finally got out of this hell hole now he was 18.

After a long hard day of chores I was finally finished, I could now go to my room and read my favourite books. I skimmed upstairs and climbed the ladder, I was finally ready to loose myself into the world of fantasy in my private attic when I overheard Madam Trudy's voice and a strange mysterious muscular voice that sounded like a 40 year old man

"We have lovely fine ladies at this orphanage ranging from the ages of 2-15. They all have their own unique personalities, some more then others and would be great for a perfect daughter."

The strange voice replied with "Well there is a specific type of young lady I would like, a teenager preferably the age of 14 or 15, can clean and do chores, is intelligent and has to be beautiful."

"Oh well we have no ladies that fit that requirement sorry Sir. Our oldest is actually 12 and not very polite"

"That's not true" I mumbled to myself, "I'm 15, I'm the oldest, and I fit all of those requirements? So why is Madam Trudy lying? Is this why I've never been adopted, has she been hiding me from the world?"

All these thoughts flew through my mind,
I had so many questions and I wanted the answers, no I needed answers and I was going to get them.

And at that moment I fall through the attic trapdoor which I had been listening through and landed right in front of Madam Trudy and the Strange man...