Caytlyn Brooke - Dark Flowers

Cover, interior, and eBook design by

Blue Harvest Creative

www.blueharvestcreative.com

Editing by Bailey Karfelt

dark flowers

Copyright 2016 Caytlyn Brooke

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the authors imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by H2O

an imprint of BHC Press

Library of Congress Control Number:

2016954062

Print edition ISBN numbers:

ISBN-13: 978-1-946006-09-7

ISBN-10: 1-946006-09-2

Visit the author at:

www.bhcpress.com

Also available in softcover

E LIZA GLANCED ACROSS the table at the Head Matron, who sipped her tea with a permanent scowl etched upon her face as she listened to the nun next to her. Just another minute.

Just like that, gone. No one ever saw her alive again, whispered Amy, one of the older orphan girls seated farther down the table. The younger girls seated around her gasped in unison and leaned closer.

What happened to her? Where did she go? a young girl named Lacey asked, her green eyes shining with a mixture of curiosity and worry.

Matron Criggs sat down her tea and turned her back completely on her charges, intent on her private conversation.

Amy smiled. She tried to run away through the swamps. In the dead of night, she broke the lock on the window and fled, straight into the bushes. They say she just started walking, running, sprinting as fast as she could away from this place. But the swamps were pitch-black and the leaves so thick that no moonlight could be seen. She kept running and running and finally, she thought she had escaped far enough away. She took another step, almost to the little town on the other side, and fell into the black water.

The girls gasped again as Eliza rolled her eyes. This version of the story of the missing orphan girl couldnt be true. She bit her tongue from pointing out the obvious flaws and instead made her move toward Matron Criggs tea.

But she might have made it, Lacey insisted. She could have climbed out and made it to the town.

True. But she didnt, Amy replied quietly. For she forgot one very important thingalligators.

Next to Eliza, another girl with dark brown hair clutched the edge of the table in fear, but not in response to Amys story.

Eliza, stop it, youre gonna get in trouble, cautioned eleven-year-old Millie.

Eliza rolled her eyes and finished pouring the ink into the head matrons tea. Dont be such a baby, she scoffed under her breath, slipping the half-empty glass bottle back into the folds of her sleeves just as Matron Criggs turned back to her tea.

Alligators? one of the girls was saying. Did they eat her?

Amy shrugged and moved her fork through her starchy mashed potatoes. No one knows. A few days later, a search team went out and tried to find her. They even took a few hounds. Then, after hours of searching, one of the dogs came back with something in its mouth, something pale and cold and thin.

The table was silent, each girl dreading the next words.

The dog brought back an arm. Celias severed arm, Amy hissed, looking as horrorstruck as her spellbound audience. There were even teeth marks at the end where the gators had chomped it in half.

No! all the girls cried, their eyes wide with disbelief.

Eliza scoffed.

Its true, Amy insisted. Celia used to be my old roommate when I first got here.

Immediately arguments struck up between the girls as they discussed the details of the story. Millie turned toward the sudden swell of voices and pulled on Elizas sleeve. What are they talking about? Who is Celia?

Eliza shushed Millie out of the corner of her mouth and watched with growing anticipation as Matron Criggs picked up her teacup with two hands, inhaled the sweet fragrance, and raised it to her lips.

Here we go!

Setting her teacup down, Matron Criggs licked her newly blackened teeth and frowned when she noticed Eliza staring at her. What are you looking at? Eyes down and eat your peas, she scolded .

Snapping to attention at the Matrons voice, all the girls stopped talking and returned to their meals. Eliza inwardly groaned as the youngest orphan gathered her courage and asked, I was wonderingis the story about Celia true, maam?

Celia? Matron Criggs snorted. What story? The one of how the gators took big bites out of her?

The little girl nodded and looked down, biting her lower lip.

Its garbage, Matron Criggs barked. No one gets out of here unless I say so. The head nun took another sip of her tea, spreading the ink to her lips. She looked down at the girls and smiled widely, her mouth a giant black hole in the center of her wrinkled face.

As one the girls averted their eyes.

Matron Criggs sucked in a quick breath through her teeth and narrowed her eyes. Do you think one of these girls has something else to say, Sister Emily?

Sister Emily, one of the younger nuns and the one member of the staff that Eliza liked, looked up from her lumpy mashed potatoes and tilted her head. Something else to say? Im not sure what youoh Matron! Your mouth, its black!

Black? the Matron repeated, not looking surprised. She grabbed her teacup and looked inside. Ink in my tea, she sneered. Clever. And who was the little brat who came up with this latest scheme?

In an act of rare harmony, the girls remained silent, their faces betraying nothing. Matron Criggs studied each girl in turn, until her eyes at last alighted on Eliza.

Eliza stared back at the nun defiantly, a smirk tugging on the corner of her lips.

I should have known, Matron Criggs spat. Miss Eliza Q. I believe its off to the box for you.

Eliza pushed back her plastic chair and stood. And I believe you really need to see a dentist, she replied, batting her eyelashes.

The girls gasped in unison. The box was far more terrifying than the story of Celias demise.

Liza, stop it, Millie hissed, grabbing hold of Elizas plaid skirt.

Matron Criggs foul smile widened. Make that two days in the box! Faster than the girls could blink, the woman rounded the table and dug her sharp nails into Elizas upper arm. Lets be off then, shall we?

Eliza allowed herself to be dragged from the dimly lit cafeteria and down a winding hall, until Matron Criggs stopped before a waist-high door, bouncing a set of brass keys in her hand. Finding the correct one, she sorted it out from the others and unlocked the door. The well-oiled hinge swung open, revealing only darkness.

In you go, you little brat, the Matron ordered with obvious glee as she pushed Eliza through the opening.