Chronicles of Allegra chapter one One day left. Squeezing her toes into the battered pair of leather shoes, Allegra adjusted the patch of tape that hid the hole underneath, and folded her socks over to hide the splits. She patted down the knots in her hair as best she could, and pulled on the oversized dress, tying an old string round her waist as a makeshift belt to keep it in place. Just one day. One day to convince a family to take her. ‘You can do this,’ she told herself. Are you sure? The voice in her head didn’t agree. Giving herself one last pat down, Allegra headed to breakfast. If today didn’t go well, there might not be another. ‘Did you hear that howling last night?’ Freya, one of the eldest, asked sweetly. ‘You mean the dogs?’ the little girl replied sleepily, stirring her halfeaten slop. ‘Dogs?’ Freya laughed. ‘Dogs? Don’t you mean werewolves? It was a full moon last night, you know. The Witch was letting her werewolves out for dinner.’ There was a clatter as some of the younger girls dropped their spoons in fright. ‘Looks like they won’t be wanting the rest of their breakfast,’ Freya smirked, as the rest of the table giggled. You could see the outline of the Witch’s house from the top floor of
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