Chapter Two

Cionnaye's first day at work

  Cionnaye stirred slowly awake, feeling the morning sunlight beat down on her cinnamon toned skin. She sighed with anger as her eyes opened slowly to let the blue and yellow hues of the sky enter her line of sight. "Today, another day of torture" she moaned to herself as she got up from the warm, flat cot in the corner of her new home. Bitterness ensued her when memories of yesterday filled her mind. "Why did Mamá make me do this?"  She kicked around the little belongings she said had repeatedly until the malicious feelings for her mother passed, looking up at the sky for the second time through the small, square window. She stood alone in the cabin, slightly confused. Wasn't she supposed to be somewhere? "La casa grande!" she shouted as she rushed out of the cabin doors. Cionnaye ran to the master's house though the grassy field that separated the visitors from the servants, without looking back. Stares were constantly following her, looking at her measly dress, but she ignored them the best she could. She promised her mother that she wouldn't get whipped the first day.  Cionnaye reached the bright, white steps with brevity. "If I can survive this, I can survive anything" she stated loudly as she opened the big, white doors. Her first day at the big house was going to be a rough one.

*

Cionnaye cautiously walked through the entrance of the hacienda, lightly balancing each one of her steps to avoid getting noticed, slowly getting glimpses of the grand room before her for observation. She looked around the entrance room for signs of life, but none showed. "They must be in the kitchen eating" Cionnaye thought as she glided from one side of the room to the other. Where was she supposed to be? She leaned against a painting nearby, tired and scared for her life. The picture frame cradled her bare skin with its smooth wood finish, distracting her from the current complication at hand. What if someone found her? What if she got whipped or worse? Suddenly, footsteps and voices entered the room. Laughter filled the empty space as bodies filed slowly on the wooden, polished floor. Cionnaye gasped and tried to hurry away, but the painting frame caught the edge of  her worn, brown skirt. She slowly bent down, careful to avoid any straying stares, and began to struggle with the fabric, twisting and turning the skirt away from the frame until she could break free. The more she struggled, the harder it was to pull the hem of the skirt off of the cursed painting. She yanked to fabric of her skirt with all the strength she had in her whole body, freely herself from the unwilling grip of the finished wood.  "Yes" Cionnaye cried silently, moving slowly away from the painting. The very moment she tried to scurry away down the stairs, the frame of the painting started to move sideways as a loud groaning, creaking sound rose from the picture.

     "Oh no!" Cionnaye cried as she looked down on the crowd of guests in the front room. Heads were starting to turn and look, wondering where that awful sound was coming from. Cionnaye had to take her chances inside the moving frame. Swiftly, she returned beside the painting and jumped inside the small gap that the painting had made next to her, careful not to draw any more attention. As soon as she was in, the frame of the picture closed back shut, hiding the hole she had jumped into, as if the portrait could sense her presence.

     "¿En Serio?" Cionnaye said with a surprised tone. How was she supposed to get out? Cionnaye dashed for the place the picture had been when she arrived. All she saw in its place was plain brown wood.

     "Come On!" Cionnaye shouted at the brown wood she was trying to budge. She pushed and pulled on the wooden wall until the little strength that she had regained slipped put from her again, begging her to give up.  She eventually abandoned tearing on the wall and got up from the barren floor of the mysterious room. Walking around a bit, she tried to get a sense of her new surroundings. Wooden walls and bare floors continuously covered the tiny room she was stuck in, seemingly for eternity.  A black, thick door made with polished wood appeared in her line of sight for the first time. She opened the door cautiously, curious to see the contents inside. As soon as she cautiously stepped into the new space, thousands of books came to surround her in every direction, while the sunlight from the large windows covered the magnificent room in a brilliant yellow.  She was stuck in a library.

Author's Note

how is my dialogue in this chapter?