When She Escaped

Aymee wasn’t trying to get lost that day. As she later told The Headmistress, she had simply been trying to get out of the stuffy orphanage and into that big, beautiful world that she had always dreamed of entering. Besides, the gently falling snow outside her small, dirty window made the forest look so magical and mystical that she really just had to go outside and explore it. Clambering quietly out of the window at the dead of night was just as romantic as Aymee had imagined it to be, although the drop from the slanted rooftop was quite far (and it would not be very romantic if she fell and died). Scrabbling the cold and wet shingles, she had hoisted herself down to the snow covered courtyard and crept towards the biggest obstacle in her mission (maybe besides The Headmistress). The wall.

The First Headmistress had commissioned the wall to be built the year that the once monastery had become an orphanage. Intended to keep people in and out, the wall was menacing, looming into the sky, taller than the tallest inhabitant of the orphanage. This was the problem that Aymee had faced as she mapped out the plan in her head. She decided her only hope was to attempt to rock-climb it. Aymee had done rock-climbing before in the orphanage gym (once the large meeting hall of the monks), and she didn’t remember it being too hard.

Well, as soon as she faced the wall, all of her dreams of an easy climb flew away, over the wall, and into the forest. The wall looked suddenly much larger than Aymee had thought it was, and the loose rocks she had planned to hoist herself up on had all but disappeared. But as Aymee wasn’t going to go back to sleep when she was so close to making an escape, she took a deep breath and started to climb the wall.

As she huffed and puffed so much that she thought she would blow the wall down, her muscles burned and started to feel sore. The top of the wall seemed as if it would never come, and the drop seemed very, very far. The stone courtyard below her looked cold and hard and uncompromising, and she supposed if she fell, she would be in peril of certain death. Besides, The Headmistress could look out at any moment and see her, auburn bob blowing in the icy wind, her fingers finally curled around the top of the wall. Hoping that The Headmistress was getting a good night of sleep and would not see her, she pulled herself to the top of the wall. Aymee sighed as she remembered she would have to do this all over again on her way back from the forest, but she decided to not think about that for the time being.

She turned carefully and looked down at the drop on the forest side of the wall. It was far, but not as far as the other side had been. There was a sizable pile of snow at the bottom so Aymee figured if she fell, she wouldn’t be as hurt as falling on the other side. She clambered down the wall, muscles still painful and fingers still burning. She dropped into the pile of snow and turned to look into the forest. It was just as magical as it had seemed from her window, the gentle snow softly coating the trees, the birch’s white bark glowing ethereally, the moonlight shimmering on the fresh, untouched snow. She pulled her worn jacket tightly around herself.

As she walked, she looked around, seeing the little details that made the forest seem storybook-like and mystical. The fresh snow crunched under her boots and her auburn hair was gradually turning white from the gently falling snow. She smiled, then shivered, and then imagined herself to be one of the heroines in her favorite books. Wandering through the Forbidden Forest, the girl was framed perfectly by the glimmering snow. Suddenly, Aymee reached a frozen riverbed, the ice smooth and glassy like an ice-skating rink. She picked up a snow covered stick on the ground near her, and threw it onto the ice to test the thickness. The ice stayed exactly as it had been before, so Aymee reached out one foot onto the ice. It held her weight, so she carefully made her way across. Just as she was about to reach solid ground, she slipped, twisting her ankle.

“Ow!” she cried in pain. Her ankle felt like it was on fire, and Aymee felt she didn’t have nearly enough water to cool it. And even worse, she could see the pink streaks of dawn starting to paint the sky. Soon, someone at the orphanage was bound to notice a girl missing from her bed. The Headmistress would kill her! Sitting on the wet ice she started to shiver, and the once magical looking forest started to look crooked and scary. The trees loomed into the sky, their dark branches foreboding. She tried to stand up, to stagger back to the direction of the orphanage, but… where was the orphanage? Oh no.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her, crunching through the snow. Expecting to see The Headmistress or one of the Wardens from the orphanage, Aymee turned around slowly and put on her most sorrowful and repentant face, only to be surprised when it was a stranger. A young woman with a jacket, a headscarf and snow boots stared at her, clearly just as confused as Aymee was.

“Hello,” said the woman quietly. Aymee nodded and almost immediately a storm of questions escaped her lips.

“Do you know where the orphanage is? What time is it? Can you help me with my ankle? Do you live out here? Who are you?” The last question was the only one answered by the woman.

She pulled down her headscarf, revealing coppery-auburn hair the exact same shade as Aymee’s. “I...” she murmured, like the words she was about to say had never touched the air. She bit her lip, but went on. “I know you, Aymee.”