In A Dark Mirror
By Zoë A. Porter
Summary: The life of 15 year old teenager Aifric is turned into a living nightmare when she finds herself the sole survior of a horrible car accident. Struggling with the loss of her family, she faces an uncertain future in an old, run down, catholic orphanage. Aifric does not only have to face her own grief, but unter the strict regime of the nuns, she has to uncover the secrets of her new home, and ally with new found friends in order to survive and fight for her freedom.
Rating: Mature for violence and mild sexual themes
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Dear Ladies or Gentlemen,
I hope, whoever you are, takes this seriously, because I am desperate. My name is Aifric Lyons, I’m sixteen years old, and I’m a prisoner. Fourteen months ago, I lost my entire family in a car crash. After months in a hospital, I was brought here, to St. Mary’s Home for Children, north of Limerick. This house is an orphanage, run by the catholic church. The nuns here, were supposed to help me, but instead I found abuse and violence. We are six girls living here, and all of us are spanked and beaten almost daily. There are very strict rules, and even the slightest mistake results in beatings. The Abbess, Mother Agatha, says, that this is because our souls can be saved this way, because we are stained with sin. I don’t know what that means, but losing my family was not my fault! If she thinks, we have misbehaved greatly, we are beaten with a whip. My friend Heather is very ill from the last whipping, but she is not allowed to see a doctor. Yesterday, one of the girls, Mary-Jade, has jumped to her death from the roof. She was ten years old. The police was here, but they wouldn’t even hear us out. I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I think they collaborate with the sisters, to keep what’s going on here a secret. A few weeks ago, Heather and I began to document the abuses with the camera of my phone. I put the memory card into this envelope, so you can see for yourself. I include a list of names and dates, so you can see who of us is on the pictures. I really hope you take this seriously. Please help us, you are our last hope! Yours, Aific Lyons
Aific looked at the lines she wrote, and hoped it would seem credible enough to them to at least look at the photos. They had to takes this seriously, they just had to!
She carefully pulled the memory card from the telephone, hoping that all images were saved there. She had checked if they were on the card twice, but now the batteries had run flat, so she couldn’t check again. She wrapped the card into a piece of paper, carefully labelled it Memory Card and put it inside the envelope, together with the letter, and their carefully taken list of abuses. There was one line on it, with name, date and time, for each of the photos on the card. She closed the envelope, and double-checked the address. It wasn’t a real address, because they couldn’t find out the street. Instead it only said The Guardian, Dublin. Aifric knew for sure that the Guardian had an office in Dublin, and she thought a British paper would investigate the affair more open mindedly, because they wouldn’t have as much reason to fear the authorities than an Irish paper.
She got up, hid the envelope under her blouse, and went to the dormitory, where she slipped the envelope under Mercedes mattress. Mercedes was waiting for a signal, to smuggle the letter out of the house, when she was sent to the shops the next time. Originally, that had been Aifric’s part, but she had been grounded since Mary-Jade’s death. Agatha suspected her of conspiring with Heather. Which was, strictly speaking, exactly what she did.
Aifric then turned to doing her housework chores, and visited Heather in the infirmary afterwards. Heather looked worse than ever. It had been three days since Agatha had beaten her half to death, and her condition still hadn’t improved. To make things even worse, she had developed a fever. Aifric was certain her friend needed antibiotics, but the sisters wouldn’t call an ambulance. With the mobile dead, and no reception anyway, there was no chance for Aifric to do it herself. The only phone in the house was in Agatha’s office, and that was out of reach.
“Hey, sweetie!” Heather’s voice was weak.
“Hi, love!” Aifric greeted her. “There are butterflies flying outside.”
That was the codeword to tell Heather, that the letter had been handed to Mercedes. The same words, that Aifric said to Mercedes five minutes earlier. So secret was their plan, all three of them had sworn not to speak of it uncoded. Not even when they were alone.
“How are you feeling?”
“Shitty?”
“You look better.” Aifric said. “You’ll be fine soon!”
“You’re a lousy liar.” Heather managed a smile. “But thanks for trying.”
Aifric took her girlfriends hand. “We’ll get through this. Scout’s honour. And when we’re free, we get ourselves our own room. With a big cosy bed.”
“Girl scouts don’t shag each other!” Heather grinned.
“How do you know? You’ve never been one, have you?” Aifric raised her eyebrows.
Heather began laughing, but her laugh was cut but a terrible sounding cough.
“This doesn’t sound good!” Aifric was truly scared for her friend now. “Let me get Sister Claire!”
But Heather waved her off.
“No! Listen,” she began. “If I don’t make it. You have to promise to carry out our plan, and get the girls out of here. Save yourself!”
Aifric felt tears welling up. “Nonsense. You’re gonna be fine! You and I…”
“This is important!” Heather interrupted her. “You told me, you want to live. Now here’s your chance. If I don’t make it, you need to live for the both of us. Get a life, live your dreams, find a nice and -also important- hot girl to be with. All that stuff.”
“Heather, don’t talk like you’re gonna die! You are scaring me!”
“It’s OK, love. It’s just in case.” Heather managed a smile. “I just feel like shit right now, so I’m rambling.”
Aifric gently ran her fingers through Heather’s red hair. Her forehead felt hot and sweaty. Heather closed her eyes, and it looked like she would fall asleep. But then she spoke again:
“You are the only person, who has ever loved me unconditionally. Thank you for that!”
“I will always love you.” Aifric whispered, tears streaming down her face.
“The butterfly is free!” Mercedes informed her, later that day, when she was in the kitchen with her.
It was the sign, that Mercedes had managed to put the letter into a public mail box.
Now all they could do was wait.
Heather died later that night. When Aifric heard the news, she felt strangely unmoved. It was like the moment of shock, when you hurt yourself badly, but the pain has not started yet. The moment were you cannot breathe, or scream or cry, and everything around you seems to fade into nothing.
Just that the pain didn’t come. Instead she was frozen in that moment. To Aifric, the world felt like had become black and white, and dropped away from her. So far away, that even Mercedes’ tears couldn’t reach her.
It took a very long time, until Aifric finally screamed.
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