The Reaper

Zaley Scott was a dreamer. She always wanted a different life for herself, a life that she would never get the opportunity to live. A life where there were beings and magic that she could learn to harness or even just a mundane life with parents who actually cared about her. She would've given anything to remove herself from the life she had found herself trapped in. The little girl sat in the corner of the orphanage's playroom scanning the words on the page of an extremely large Steven King book much too complex for her basic reading skills to comprehend. She squinted her eyes at the long words trying to sound them all out and still unable to read most of the words yet. Still she tried her absolute hardest finding words she knew from her year five class and trying to sound out the rest of the words. Ultimately instead of trying to read the book she began to piece together her own adventure inside her head where she was no longer trapped inside of the orphanage she had been in for most of her young life, and to a world outside the sad world she had found herself entrapped in.

She imagined great villains that she could defeat with a wave of her hand and become a hero. She put the book back down on to the floor letting it fall shut. Imagining these fantastic worlds that she'll never get the opportunity to visit. She must've sat there for hours visualising the multiple ways that she could've saved the world before she was bought back to the harsh reality by none other than Mrs. Potter. Mrs Potter was the severe woman who ran the orphanage. She looked to be in her fifties with a long crooked nose which she used excessively to smell out the leftover food that the children smuggled into their rooms for extra snacks at night when they were still hungry.

"Zaley? What are you doing?! It's dinner time. Go to the dining hall now!" Mrs potter yelled in the poor girls face. It was then that little Zaley realised that she was the only child left sitting in the room. "Yes Mrs. Potter I'm sorry I didn't realise- I mean I didn't-" Zaley stumbled over her words fearing the woman who was glaring at the small child sitting in the corner of the play room. Zaley's inability to form a proper sentence due to her fear of Mrs Potter was making the old woman's temper worse as she got more and more frustrated. "Dining hall now!" Mrs Potter all but screamed at the small ten year old girl who was barely holding back the tears which were welling up in her emerald green eyes.

Zaley ran directly towards the dining hall her strawberry blonde hair falling around her face as she ran. The dining hall was really just a normal dining room of a house with an extra long table situated in the middle of the room. As she entered the room she tripped over her feet falling to the floor. The other twelve children laughed at her clumsiness as Mrs Potter helped her to her feet. "Zaley take your seat please." She sighed annoyed at the child's antics before going off to the kitchen to get the food for all of the children sitting hungrily around the table as Zaley ran to her seat at the other side of the room next to her classmate Gwendolyn. Zaley noticed Jimmy, a boy a few years older than her sitting at the other end of the old oak wood table talking loudly to the group of friends he had accumulated whilst here. He and his friends were all but yelling and were beginning to give Zaley a headache. Mrs Potter began handing out the tasteless beef mince and sloppy mashed potato which she always cooked on Fridays. When Mrs Potter took her seat at the head of the long table she began saying grace with the rest of the children which stopped Jimmy's loud conversation making Zaley sigh in relief. Zaley never said grace, she didn't believe that god existed she had already had such a bad run at life so far even at the age of ten that she couldn't believe that an all powerful god wouldn't help her which caused Zaley to question his existence entirely.

When the others had finished saying grace she stared at the food sitting in front of her she didn't want to eat it because it looked extremely unappetising as Mrs Potter refused to peel the potatoes before mashing them and the mince was always much too chewy but she was very hungry as she accidentally missed her lunch today due to her day dreaming of mystical worlds. She took a bite of the mince and tried to pretend that it didn't taste like rubbery dog food. She ate it all including the mushy mashed potato with the gross skins in a matter of minutes and was left a bit less hungry. She spotted Jimmy and his friends at the other side of the table Zaley gazed out of the small window behind Jimmy seeing the grey clouds accumulating in the sky and a veil of fog forming on the ground. It was a rare instance when it rained in Maple Hill, and when it did it only rained for a few hours so the children rejoiced the rare moments but mrs potter refused to allow any children to get a cold so they were never allowed outside to play in the rain.

"Gwen it looks like it's going to rain! We haven't had rain in ages!" Zaley said loudly and excitedly watching the window.

"Zaley what do you mean? It's really sunny out there. There isn't any clouds in sight at all." Gwen said staring at Zaley like she was crazy. Zaley gave the same look to Gwen. How didn't she see the clouds. Zaley couldn't see a ray of sunlight outside at all. She continued looking out of the window hoping it would hurry up and rain so she could prove her point and show that Gwen was the crazy one. Suddenly the fog that had formed outside began to gather together slowly turning darker. Zaley's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. She had never seen fog do that. "Zaley give up it's never going to rain. Well at least not today." Gwen said misreading Zaley's confusion thinking she was confused that it wasn't raining. In fact Zaley was confused that the fog had now formed a black hooded figure that stood in the middle of the street with fog floating off of their long cloak. The figure looked into the window with dark soulless eyes it turned back into a clod of fog and floated right through the closed window making Zaley jump out of her chair in fright staring at the looming figure standing behind jimmy. Zaley remained on the floor beginning to scream afraid of the thing behind jimmy.

"ZALEY STOP SCREAMING! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Mrs potter said standing up and getting out of her chair as Zaley continued to scream her head off. Hoping it would scare the ghostlike thing off and away from her fellow orphan but the figure didn't even seem to notice Zaley as it placed its hands to Jimmy's head. White most began to be sucked from Jimmy's head as he remained staring at Zaley like she was insane. After about ten seconds of the ghost sucking the white mist from Jimmy's head it let go of his head and his head fell forward lifelessly before the ghost floated from the room and out the window again. "JIMMY!" One of his friends yelled at jimmy who was now collapsed on the table. Mrs potter ran over to jimmy worriedly watching the boy for any signs of life as she approached him. Zaley stopped screaming tears now rolling down her cheeks slowly.

"Is he alive?" One of Jimmy's friends asked Mrs Potter quietly.

"Yes he's just unconscious." Mrs potter said feeling Jimmy's pulse.

"SHE DID IT! SHES A WITCH! SHE NEARLY KILLED JIMMY!" Yelled one of the other kids who looked to be the same age as Zaley.

"NO I DIDN'T THE GHOST DID!" Zaley yelled back angry that she was being accused of hurting one of her friends.

"Now children there is no such thing as witches or ghosts. Jimmy probably passed out from the screaming or something along those lines. Because of the screaming Zaley will lose her privileges for the next month." Mrs potter replied calmly shaking Jimmy trying to wake Jimmy up. "Now after this all children to their rooms now go to bed." Mrs potter finished slowly helping jimmy up to his room as Zaley and the rest of the children walked off to their rooms as well.