Chapter : 5. My punishments..

ANA’S POV:-

Leaving Theo in his crib, I went out with the three kids to face my punishment and as we were taught, we all came to stand in a row, straight and silent, waiting for the lesson. As always, Hector came out of their room with a cane in hand and swiped it once on a nearby wall for testing, making all of us flinch.

Hector is a guy in her late forties, fat and disgusting. He works at a constriction site, and always reeks of alcohol. He has the heart of a monster that doesn’t feel pity for anyone. I don’t know how the child welfare services permit a man like him to foster.

“Today we got a call from a teacher because apparently one of you is not doing your homework. And you know the rule. If you want to stay in this house you have to work, study and look after yourself or else... Ana, you know the drill. Get in place.”

My body was quivering like I was freezing in fear. No matter who breaks the rule among us kids, I’ll always be the one to get punished because I’m the eldest. And watching me suffer, the other kids will never dare to make mistakes in fear.

With my head hanging low, I went to kneel in the middle of the living room and forward my palms for my punishment, facing the kids who could watch it all from their spot.

“I hope this will teach you never to disobey us again.”

With a warning to the little ones, he started whipping the cane on my palm, making a loud swiping noise echo in the dead silent room. The thin stick was cutting into my palm, giving me pain like hell. But I’m not supposed to make any sound as well as everyone standing there to learn the lesson. One sound from any of us and the punishment will be worse than this.

Closing my eyes I kept counting the whips to distract myself from the pain and to not make any sound, even though the first layer of my palm had been torn and it’s now bleeding. I counted to almost 40 and I know he always gets tired by 50. So 10 more till I’ll be free.

“No! Stop it. Don’t hurt Ana. I promise I’ll do better from now on and I will never miss my homework. Please let her go..” My eyes opened wide to hear the cry of Michael on the very end of my punishment and my breath hitched to think about what was coming next.

“See. This is why teaching you little varmints is so important. You just never learn to be grateful.” Throwing the cane away, Hector got ready to take the punishment a step further.

“No. No, please... Please don’t. He’s just a kid. He made a mistake. Please let it go this once. I beg you.”

In fear for my life, I started begging and crawling backward to get away from him, but he had no mercy in his eyes. So, just as he was about to catch me, I quickly got up to run away from there. Unfortunately, Serena was there guarding my only escape, and before I could get away, she caught hold of my hair and threw me at Hector’s feet. Taking the initiative, Hector pulled me up by my hair and hit my head against the wall hard, making the whole world spin around me before I tumbled down on the floor.

But it didn’t stop there. While I was lying on the floor, unable to recover from the hit, he landed a few punches on my face and a few kicks on my stomach and my back while the little ones screamed and cried loudly in fear.

“Hector. I think it’s enough for one day. We don’t want her to die like this.” With a grunt and one last kick on my stomach, he did let me go and went straight into his room, banging the door loud.

“Clean up the mess and go to bed. Don’t make this same mistake again.” With another warning, Serena also followed her husband while I was still fallen numb on the floor, spitting blood and gasping for air.

“Ana? Are you okay? Ana?”

I was in no state to answer to that. I’m too broken to keep up with this anymore. I’m just an ugly and worthless orphan who has no place on this earth. Nobody loves me. Nobody needs me. Then why am I still alive? Who am I still bearing this for? I’ve had enough...

Pulling myself up from the floor, I somehow got myself up on my feet and started waddling my way out of the apartment.

“Ana? Where are you going?”

Ignoring all calls, I got out on the streets and kept walking in oblivion in a trance, wishing that death would find me somehow. It was raining heavily outside, washing away the traces of blood from my body, and healing my bruises with cold.

I don’t know how long I kept walking like this until all of a sudden I saw bright lights coming right at me, showing me a glimpse of the death. This is it. This is my end. Thinking that, I closed my eyes to invite eternal peace, but instead of relief, I felt a pair of hands pushing me to the side.

“Are you out of your mind? If you want to die, find another car to jump in front of. Don’t get me in trouble. Now move out of the way.” Moving me up on the sidewalk, the driver got up in the luxury car and soon it stormed out of my sight.

What was I doing? Was I actually trying to kill myself because of those assholes? And even if I die, would it stop them from abusing another kid? What if after my death they replace me with Lyla? Does she deserve to go with the same pain I’m going through?

No. I can’t let it happen to her. She’s too sweet and kind to deserve this. I have to keep living this life for the sake of those innocent kids. They need me.

Releasing a deep sigh, I accepted my fate and decided to go back to that horrible life even after knowing that the moment I stepped back inside, they would make me pay for trying to escape. But what other choice do I have? They already have my everything.

I finally felt the chill inside my bones from walking in this heavy rain for too long. I still have to go all the back to the apartment too. So wrapping my arms around my body, I tried to walk as fast as I could, and as I was expecting, the moment I stepped back inside the apartment I saw everyone waiting for me there. The kids were still standing in their place, with Theo wailing in Lyla’s arms this time, while Serena and Hector were giving them death stares, holding my belongings in their hands.

“So, you’re finally back. Where did you go? To call the cops on us? I was about to burn your precious mother’s picture and your documents to wipe your existence from the world, thinking that you betrayed us.”

“No. I.. I just went out to get some air.”

“Air? In this rain? You’re not fooling anybody, Ana. So what it would be? You or your belongings?”

“I made a mistake and I’m ready for my punishment.”

“Very well. Sit on the couch with your legs up.” A single tear rolled down my cheeks to know what my next punishment was.

To make sure they didn’t destroy my mother’s picture, I obeyed their order and took my seat on the couch with my legs elevated high because this time Hector was going to whip under my feet as a punishment for running away. Thankfully, the kids were smart enough to cover their mouths to prevent themselves from making any noise and he succeeded to cane me 50 times before returning to their den.

“Ana?”

“Go to your bed and sleep. Leave me alone.”

Driving the kids away, I chose to sleep on the couch for the night where they couldn’t see me cry or whimper in pain. My entire body was sore and aching as if I was going to die. I can’t even walk all the way to our room even if I want to. So, I just slept right there in exhaustion.

The next day I had a high fever from all of what I went through and was unable to get up. So I took the day off from college while Lyla took the responsibility of taking over my tasks. The day after that, I felt a lot better and once again I was up on my duty. But I had no idea that in this one-day gap, a lot had happened behind my back and the next time I step out, my life will change completely.