15| Devils Advocate

Claudine cried like she never had before after they had all left her. The left side of her head throbbed severely, and her forehead felt hot to her touch. Her tongue sat like a woolen piece of dried cloth in her mouth, and Claudine knew she'd sell one of her pinky fingers for water at that moment.

The last time she had felt this way was when her best friend, Eleana, died from internal bleeding. She had fallen from a tree when she had gone on a rebellious adventure with some of the other girls. She had gotten up, patted herself down, and felt that she was alright except for some minor abdominal pain. However, it was too late when the part-time nurse who came to the orphanage twice a week discovered the anomaly.

Claudine remembered that day like it just happened last week. She had held Eleana's hands in the makeshift infirmary at the orphanage, which was just a used room with a couple of bunkers thrown in together. Elena had died in so much pain.

A dark, dirty bruise had stained her ex