The Story Of Dusk

Rindi would beat her until the brink of the death if they found her now.

She was afraid, but she was really upset by Rindi"s mockery earlier, thus she burned the dress, but now she regretted it.

Rindi had told her unforgiveable words, she told Senja that her deceased mother was useless so did she. It was fine for her if she just mocked her, but she couldn"t stand when Rindi started to bring her mother"s name.

Senja shook her head and wiped her tears harshly until her face turned red.

No! She didn"t regret it! Rindi deserved that! Moreover, Rindi could get another dress, she could get whatever she wanted, but the word that had been spoken couldn"t be withdrawn.

It would always hurt Senja whenever she saw her step sister.

Rindi shouldn"t say that her mother wasn"t a good person when Carye was the one who had seduced her father, seducing her own brother- in- law was a disgusting thing, but when Senja blurted that out, she received hard slaps on her both cheeks as a replied.

Rindi would be eleven years old two weeks from now, however, it would be like the other years that had pa.s.sed, there would be nothing for her to look forward.

Her Grandfather wasn"t there to make Carye, reluctantly, arranged a party for her. She was only good when Senja"s grandfather was around, except that, Senja"s life was a living h.e.l.l.

Especially when her father was around, he would do nothing when his wife and his steps daughter bullied her, as if it was them, who had his blood running on their veins.

Elder Dam was away again because he had to take care of the former Xinghe Kingdom"s territory, recently there were many revolts there from Xinghe"s people who opposed Azura"s actionsfrom taking their land.

In the middle of her fear, Senja"s stomach started to grumble as a reminder, which it has been twelve hours she has not eaten anything yet.

The little girl was too skinny for a girl in her age, she looked like nine years old instead of eleven.

She needed to wait until night before she could crawl out of her hiding place and hoped tomorrow Rindi would forget about her. She should be very busy for the fireworks festival to mind about her, right?

With tears stained her face and hunger stomach Senja chose to lay down on the pile up blanket that she had always put there as she would always runaway into this secret door whenever she got bullied.

She wondered, when this torture would be over?

Senja really wanted to go from this mansion, but she didn"t brave enough to do that, she didn"t know about the outside world except from the world that she briefly knew from her short journey with uncle Ye Xiu.

That was a beautiful memory until he left her alone, despite her begging.

That was also the only festival that Senja had ever seen and visited, she was lucky enough to have that special moment of birthday. The only birthday that she celebrated.

Three years had pa.s.sed since that day and now those memories started to fade away as if it had never happened in the first place.

Somehow, Senja had this stupid imagination that uncle Ye Xiu would appear out of nowhere and brought her away, no matter where they would go, as long as she could escape this place and be with him, it would be fine.

The only person who looked for her would be her grandfather, but Elder Dam would be alright even without her there.

He didn"t really care about his granddaughter, at least that was how Senja felt about her grandfather.

Inside the dim room and this narrow place, with hungry stomach, Senja fell asleep.

The moment when Senja was awake was when there was no more light inside that could be illuminated that place.

It seemed the dark night had come as the sound of cricket could be heard from the ventilation.

Senja sat up and rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes, her stomach growled again. The girl finally stood and attached her ears on the door, trying to hear a strange sound from the other part.

When Senja didn"t hear anything, she opened the secret door carefully, stretched out her head to look at her surroundings.

There was no one there, only a guard or two who would walk pa.s.s this place when they were on duty. Besides that, no one would interest enough to come near here.

Senja tiptoed toward the door and opened the handle gingerly, even so, still there was a bit noise that she produced.

First, Senja would go to the kitchen and looked for the remaining dinner dishes to keep her stomach from raging mad.

This wasn"t the first time Senja had done this and she didn"t mind it, even though she was the real young miss in this mansion, but she was treated poorer than those servants and guards.

Senja had been living like this since the first month Carye was married into the family, before, when she had not known about the secret door, they would pour her with cold water and locked her inside the room.

The wet Senja would get a fever for three days afterward, only during the day like that, they would let her be and stopped to bully her. It would only last for less than a weak.

Those painful memories were playing before her eyes, every time she was in this situation.

"Young Miss Senja?" Someone called out her name when she heard there was a slight noise inside the kitchen.

Senja froze when she heard that, but then her tense shoulders relaxed when she saw it was the old mama, she was the one who always take care of her ever since she was only a baby.

However, the old mama couldn"t do anything when Carye and her two daughters were bullying Senja, she didn"t have power to stop that neither she could tell her master, w.a.n.g Yu, about that. If anything, w.a.n.g Yu would punish Senja more brutal.

"Young Miss Senja, where have you been?" She reached out Senja"s small body and covered her with warm blanket. She knew Senja would come to the kitchen, because that was what she usually did.

It was only her and a few maidservants, who was still loyal to the late Mistress, Senja"s mother, who knew about this.

"Come here, see, what this old woman has for you." After the old mama wrapped Senja with the blanket, she pulled a bowl of rice with a few meat and vegetables atop of it. "I have this for you."

Senja"s dim eyes suddenly lit up, the bowl of rice no longer hot, but at least she would have meat for her to eat and Senja couldn"t complain. This was much better than searching the whole kitchen for remaining food.

"Thank you…" Senja wiped the tears that fell down on her cheeks and this made the old mama"s heart ached for her.

"Don"t thank this old woman, this old woman can"t do anything for young miss Senja until she has to suffer like this." The old mama gave chopstick to Senja and wiped her tears with her sleeves. "Now, eat. I have a slice of bread if you still hungry."

Senja nodded and then buried her nose on her bowl, savoring the tasty meal that the old mama had saved for her.

"Slowly, be careful…" The old mama rubbed Senja"s back to make her slow down.

This was one of many scenes when Senja had to endure this hardship in her own house.

Tomorrow would be a busy day as Hikari and Rindi would be too occupied with their dress and appearance, especially Rindi, who had her dress burnt.

They would take their revenge later, but for tomorrow it would be safe enough for Senja to go back to her room and have a proper sleep.

Thus, after Senja ate her meal and kept the bread for later, the old mama accompanied her to her courtyard.

Carye couldn"t take this courtyard away from Senja, because Elder Dam would be very livid if he knew that happened and found out his granddaughter was sleeping in an inappropriate place.

"This old woman will try to make your sisters busy, so they could forget about you." The old mama said with a faint smile on her lips.

Senja nodded and hugged the old mama. "Thank you."

The old mama chuckled. "No need to thank me."

And then the rest of the night went so silence as Senja slept peacefully. She didn"t have a bad dream like she used to, probably because she was too tired.

When she woke up the sun had risen high, it was noon and she had a slight of fever as she touched her forehead and it felt warm against her palm.

Senja shifted her eyes and found there was a bowl of rice beside her bed, this must be the old mama who had put it there.

After she cleaned herself and ate the meal, Senja was about to go out, Carye had opened the door and stood there with unreadable expression.

She was wearing a purple beautiful dress with golden st.i.tched along the edge.

Senja also stood at the same spot with expressionless face, she didn"t need to smile or begged her, as Carye wouldn"t like it and she didn"t want to do it either.

If Carye wanted to punish her, she would do it no matter what Senja did.

"Come with me." Carye said callously.

However, Senja didn"t move, she kept staring at Carye. "Where?" Her voice was too small to be arrogant, but it laced with indifference.

"To the market, there will be fireworks festival tonight." She said.

Senja frowned, this was unusual for Carye to let Senja attended any festival or to let her out of the mansion.