Chapter 13 - The Mercy Cage

The thirteenth chapter of our thriller novel, in which Charlotte settles into her new normal.

Charlotte - - New York City, 1900

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Prologue // Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5 // Chapter 6 // Chapter 7 // Chapter 8 // Chapter 9 // Chapter 10 // Chapter 11 / Chapter 12

Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, New-York Historical Society.

Exhausted from the heat and what felt like an eternity of boiling garments chapping my hands, I am beyond eager to finally land in my bed. I worry what we have to sleep on may hardly be better than the floor, but I persist in hope. Cautiously, I follow the other girls into what must be our shared bedroom, though it is unlike any I have ever slept in. You mean we do not have the privacy of our own rooms? I walk in, only to see rows of beds in one room. I suppose there are at least beds. There is no dresser or even a modesty curtain at that. My god, how will I change? How can I live here? Upon walking in, the girl with the shaved head, who I now know is ‘Anne’,  has hurriedly bounded over to what must be her bed and is feverishly scribbling away in a notebook, looking rather… pleased? At least the most content I have seen her since arriving at the house. After a few moments, she pauses and her eyes light up. She grins and then dives back into writing. It is the most peaceful I imagine to ever see her.  I wonder where I might find something to document my own horrid stories here.