Wolves are grinning in the shadows

The temple of the guardian Clementine was burning beautifully. The trembling children's hands involuntarily reached out to the fire pit, which was nothing compared to the fireplace in the main living room. Sparks of flame smouldered like stars, soaring into the night sky. The ashes burned the coniferous smell out of the fresh, winter-biting air. The girl completely ceased to understand where there was snow and where there were ash flakes. Little Alice jumped onto a marble bench and began to carelessly dangle her legs in soot-stained shoes that were half a size larger. At the boarding school, they were always given clothes and shoes to grow. The first snowflakes fell tenderly on the girl's long eyelashes. She blinked them away along with the salty moisture that had accumulated in the corners of her eyes. Alice was twisting wool stockings in her hands while the wind was biting her bare knees. She, as usual, tore her tights when she ran from the kitchen, hiding the stolen sweets in her pockets. "Put on your stockings," Friend's grumbling echoed inside. "Or I make you?" "Leave me alone," the girl waved him off like he was an annoying fly. She was already fourteen! She didn't have to obey anyone! Today Alice finally got the long-awaited, coveted freedom to clenched teeth and broken knuckles. She managed to catch this cunning bird by the tail, and she was not going to let go of such extensive opportunities anymore. "Why are you so obnoxious?" The Friend continued to mutter worse than the old man. The girl pouted and kept silent, showing the highest degree of resentment that she was capable of. Alice lifted her head to the night sky. It seemed that the diamond scattering of stars was reddened by the fire raging below. "I should have called Pete with us," Alice regretted aloud. "Can we go back for him?" "Such a hanger-on will never leave the boarding school. He's not like us," the Friend proudly chuckled, and Alice, with a disappointed sigh and a heavy anchor on her heart, agreed with him. "Pete has always been good to us... to me," the girl corrected herself. Of course, the boy did not know about her terrible secret. She closed her eyes and imagined in the darkness how the royal boarding school was burning. All her regrets burned in that flame and her tears dried up. She blinked them off again and, twisting her stockings, stuffed them into a worn bag that hung over her shoulder. Alice used to carry textbooks in them, but the time for unnecessary lessons has already passed. The girl would not dare to burn down the royal boarding school, in which orphans like herself slept peacefully. Alice had never considered herself a murderer, but she didn't give a damn about the guardian, who had been fertilizing the soil with her rotting flesh for a hundred years. "I bet, that Guardian Clementine also didn't care about these stupid temples." "We don't have much time left. Now the teachers are jumping up with buckets," a Friend burst into the stream of her thoughts. "Yeah" Alice sneezed from the cold and jumped off the bench. The girl galloped towards the creaking gate, happily whistling a funeral song. Behind her, women's screams and lamentations could be heard, but ahead of her ... a bright future awaited them.