Two

After bathing and turning a little cleaner, Penelope wandered close to the crowd, wondering why people was there until she started to hear the new prime minister, General Cain booming voice.

 

"These children will no longer be on the street. I will create a safe place where they will be given work and earn their way to food and shelter to stay." The man continues as people cheered but Penelope shook her head. Hope, that was what this man is selling, nothing else, it would be a miracle if he does deliver on his promises but maybe she was just the one who was being unnecessarily bitter. She had lost hope a while ago and she doesn't plan on getting it back anytime soon, not when it means that she would open herself to be hurt by others. 

"For the plans to be in motion, it will take some time but know this, I will do everything in my capability to make that time and its effects short for you lot. No more going to bed hungry." The man boomed as the crowd cheers again. 

Penelope watched with vivid interest as the man brought out a sack of something heavy, thrust his hand inside and threw some of the contents on the people gathered. 

He is crazy… was… was that… Gold? Penelope couldn't believe her eyes. It took the crowd a minute to register what happened before pandemonium broke out as people started to fight their neighbors who managed to gain just a handful of coins.

General Cain did the same move more times and the last time was to her direction and this time she was ready, she had rushed to the other directions like others did so she had some precious seconds to pick a few coins before hands started to reach for her. Using her thin figure to an advantage, she broke free from the hold of others on her and raced as far as she could from the crowd, some people broke into a run after her but Penelope didn't stop to check, she just continued to run until she felt she was far enough from the scene in an alleyway where she was paused to take a breather.

"Who do we have here?" a nasty voice said as she cringed, why didn't she look around before stopping?

"I didn't know that anybody was here, let me get out of your hair." Penelope said stiffly as she turned to make her escape from the same group of boys who confronted her in the crowd earlier. 

"Not so fast Fly." The Bully said as one of his gang stepped in front of her to block her exit and she had no other option than to turn and face the bully. 

"I don't have anything. The food I was eating earlier were given to me by some girls, I begged for it." Penelope explained in case he had seen her eating earlier, it was not the first time she was being cornered because of something that must have happened and she had just shrugged it off. 

"Not that… Empty your pockets." 

Penelope blanched at the order, the coins which she was already planning for. "Look I have got nothing on me." 

"Then you will have no reason not to empty your pockets, let's see if those girls gave you anything more than just food or the rich noble man you spoke with later on." The bully said as Penelope contemplate, taking her chances with the boy guarding her escape route. 

"No." Penelope voice shook but she couldn't give the coins away. Those were her ticket to eating well for the next two weeks. 

"I was not giving you an option. Pad." The bully called and before Penelope knew what was going on, the one behind her gripped her arms as another gave her a punch on her face that left her disoriented. "Search his pockets, quick before somebody come along."

The boys let of exclamations of shock when they finally saw her coins, all three of them. "Jackpot, we will eat well for a while on this."

"Leave them, they are mine." Penelope protested as the leader struck her with his foot in a kick that left her winded. 

"Guys, I think Fly here needs to be taught a lesson in sharing. Are you boys up to it?" Penelope could only curl in on herself as she was kicked from all angles before they finally left her alone, crying and moaning in pain. 

"It took a while before Penelope could crawl to a sitting position and then stand up and slowly made her way to the place where she called home, a special place where she hid her clothes and anything that still held meaning for her, hidden behind one of the many alleys. When she got there she saw the gang that robbed her was already there scattering her things. 

"He has to have more, find them." The bully gritted out as he kicked her bags of rags which she used to staunch the flow of blood. "What is he using so many rags for?" he added disgusted at the sights of the rags.

Penelope quickly hobbled away from the place before they would see her and give her another set of beating. Her new home has been destroyed, she would return during daylight to see if there is anything that she can salvage from the mess those people were making so she could find a new hide out and a place that is far away from these group of boys as possible. It won't be long before they start to connect the dots and so she needed to disappear, maybe to another district in the capital or she might just have to leave the capital entirely.

It was long after dark before Penelope found a new place for the night, it was not as secured as she would have liked it to be but it was also the best she could see, she was too tired to go and to look for a better place especially since she was bone wary. 

She crashed on the ground as she fell asleep to the good times in her life when all she had to worry about was which of her mother debts to rich customers does she need to draw. The three golden coins which would have saved from weeks of hunger now was what her mother used to give her every month to buy anything she will as long as it had to do with things that will enhance her beauty as a girl. She was just seventeen and yet she had seen so much more than her age. She looked more like a sixteen year old boy but she prefer that over being a girl almost ripe for marriage instead. 

Her family was her happy thoughts and when she sleeps, she lets herself believe that maybe she would be united with them in future and could go back to that simple lifestyle. It wasn't long after her eyes went close that her sleep was disturbed by some noise which made her jerk awake and then lay as still as possible as she watched the scene that unfolded before her very own eyes.  

"No, please. I didn't mean to do it." The boy who for all intents could have been her because of his lean stature, dirty clothes and bruised body begs the person who stood in front of him, his face a shadow casted by the moon but all the boy attention was on the man not the two behemoths who were pinning him to the wall. 

"You didn't mean to steal from me… because you did. You street children should be exterminated and I planned to do just that. I would be doing the empire a great service by ridding it of scums like you who would give it a bad name." The voice which could only belong to the Prime minister said as Penelope eyes widened at what she was witnessing. 

"Please my lord, my life will be yours if you just spare me, I will never try it again." The boy begs with tears and snorts running down his face. 

"And why what use will I have for your likes? I have nothing to do with you." The prime minister shifted and his moon cast its light on his face. The face which currently held hard eyes with an unforgiving glint and lips which were stretched in a grin that spoken of nothing other than ill.  "But you are right about one thing though. Your life is mine and I decided if you should have it or not."

"Please…." The boy begs but the Prime Minister took out a jeweled dagger. 

"And I chose not." The prime minister said just as he dug the knife into the boy chest, removed it and plunged it in again. 

Penelope couldn't control her gasp of shock, she was heard and when they look towards her direction, she stood up and took off in a dead sprint, ignoring her pain, she could feel the pain if she was alive, she wouldn't be alive if she had remained there and the man next words confirmed the conclusion she had just arrived at. 

"Kill that Urchin!"