The Orphanage

This is story my friends and I wrote in middle school. We had 3 different versions, one from each of the 3 main characters point of views. Sorry, but we never actually had a chance to finish, but if you're interested in the plot ending we had just comment or message and I can get that to you. Enjoy!

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Time seemed to continue endlessly and seemed to stand still.  I glanced up at the clock hanging overhead, tick-tock, tick-tock.

I glanced out the window of our homely kitchen into the rainy night that had blanketed Detroit in complete wet and darkness. Every so often I would feel the roar of the thunder and blowing of the boisterous wind.  

It was Saturday night and I was home alone. My parents had just taken my little sister to visit my aunt for a while. I couldn’t go because I had basketball practice just before they left.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

I sighed as I picked up my basketball with my name engraved on the side, Dante Kyto, and twirled it on my index finger. Our team is the best in Detroit, and I am one of the main players. Our school, Chadsey High, has had the champion title for the past four years! I plan to make it five; my dad and I were even considering getting me a scholarship for college in basketball.

I ducked under the doorway to my room, and stepped inside. It was hard being so tall sometimes. I wandered over to my desk and sat in the black swivel chair my dad bought from a thrift store. I was glad my teachers didn’t assign any homework on the weekend; it was pretty sweet to catch a break once in awhile. I picked my phone up to call my friend Jared, but laughed to myself-the poor phone looked like a dog had tortured it. I began to dial when I noticed my phone had a new voicemail.

I checked it and it was from my mom. She told me they would be out for a couple more hours because they were stuck in horrible traffic. The message ended with her sending my dad’s and Lita’s love and reminding me to call back. I left a message telling her everything was good here and I would see them in a little.

I set down my phone deciding that I could talk to Jared anytime I wanted. I wanted to use this time to relax. I decided to waste the rest of the time just listening to my CD player.

Soon the couple of hours they were supposed to be at my aunt’s turned into four hours, then five. It was already 11:00 so I began to get a little uneasy; they were should’ve been on there way home hours ago. I reached for my cell phone again. I quickly punched in my father’s number, “Ring, ring, ri-Hi you’ve reached Steve Kyto. I’m not here so leave a message-”

“That’s weird, he’s not picking up,” I thought, “he usually always picks up.”

A little worried now, I tried my mom’s number, no answer.

“Alright, I’ll call my aunt,” I decided.

“Ring, ring, ring- Hello?” My Aunt Becca’s hearty voice answered.

“Hey, it’s Dante. Can I talk to my mom?”

There was a pause on the line.

“Well, they should be home. They left not but three hours ago…” she replied.

“Wha-” I started, but was interrupted by loud knocking.

Knock, knock.

“Aunt Becca, I’ll call you back,” I quickly said, and ran downstairs.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” I breathlessly yelled on my way down.

I ran straight to our decrepit front door and twisted the knob to reveal a policeman. 

I thought I was in for it.

He was average height and kind of big, but then again, he probably spent his last couple of hours on duty chowin’ down on donuts and coffee.  The police officer lifted up his hat and his brown eyes speculated me as if I was on America’s Most Wanted.

He looked up to me and asked, “Are you Dante Kyto?”

I hesitantly nodded my head.

“Son, you need to come with me,” he stated.

“I swear whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” I said quickly.

I expected him to start giving me the “talk” and handcuff me then and there, but he just stared. Then he finally spoke, “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”

He just kept rambling on and on saying he was sorry. Sorry for what?

“Um, officer, what are you talking about?” I questioned.

He didn’t answer for a moment.

“Your parents and your sister have been in an accident, and I’m afraid none of them made it out.” he shook his head sadly.

I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe. The world stopped and I realized, I was all alone.

 

 

Crinkled leaves fell from the painted trees above and landed softly on the sidewalk. I watched them fall, and fall, until I stopped at a black gate adjacent to a dark gray sign. In the dark lit by the pale moon, I tried to read the sign, St. Vincent’s-

“That’s kind of weird. Why does the rest of the sign look like it’s been crossed out?” I thought as I read the rest- Orphanage.

I sighed sorry; I couldn’t believe that so much had been taken away in just one night. I never would have thought of how much I would miss my little Lita and my mom and dad, it was almost unbearable the pain I felt. After the officer told me what happened, I guess I blanked out ‘cause I woke up in a hospital the next morning.  The bed reeked of medicine and the room was so empty; only a table and a counter or two covered the space.

“Where am I? What happened?” I wondered. “My parents and Lita-“

            I jumped out of the bed and ran out the room into the quiet hallway when a large doctor stopped me.

            “Where do you think your going? You need to stay in bed.” He stated calmly.

            “Screw that! Where are my parents and my sister?!” I exclaimed.

            He sighed and looked at the floor. Not this again, I didn’t want to here it-

            He looked up and softly said, “Dante, they’re dead.”

            I stood there for a moment, just stood, in the gaudy hospital gown I was wearing.

“Son, are you ok?” he reassuringly asked as he brought his hand to my shoulder for comfort.

I couldn’t feel anything, I didn’t feel alive. After a minute or two, I turned away from the doctor, his hand slowly dropped from and wandered back into the empty hospital bed.

            I kept trying to convince myself that this wasn’t really happening. My whole life was gone; I just didn’t know what to do. Life could never be the same.

            Without word to the doctor or the clerk, I got up and left the room. Nothing was out of the ordinary, just the regular beeping noises and weird smells; but as I was walking towards the elevator door, I passed a room that was empty. I had a strange feeling the person that was in there didn’t make it. I shuddered at the thought and started to the elevator when I passed another kid from my school.

I wasn’t sure I knew him and I never would’ve looked, but he was in a wheel chair. I’d seen him at school a couple times, but we never acknowledged each other. He wasn’t exactly the type of person I would hang around with; we lived in completely different worlds. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel that at this exact moment, we felt experienced the same feeling.

Lost and alone.

He stopped and we stared at each other for a moment, his dark eyes questioned my place, and I pondered over his wheelchair. Though we only stared for a few seconds, it felt like hours. We quickly turned away and headed in opposite directions.

“Just forget it,” I thought, closed the elevator door and I headed down into my bleak future.

 

It was two weeks since the accident happened and now I was forced to live in this dump you’d call an orphanage. I had to get rid of everything in the house. I didn’t want to live there with constant reminders of what I had just lost in every room and every corner of the house. During those two weeks, I didn’t go to school. I said good-bye to my friends just a few hours before I left to the orphanage. It was painful, but I hoped I would see them soon. I guess at the orphanage, they had their own school. I didn’t want to stop playing basketball, or let my team down, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. Saying good-bye to my coach was too much. I decided to let him find out where I’d gone on his own.

Reluctantly, I pushed open the gate with a sigh and it creaked open. The gate opened to a wilting garden with a large willow trees shadowing a long winding path leading to a large door. I hesitantly walked up to the door.

“Here we go,” I prepped myself as I slung my backpack higher over my shoulder.

I knocked on the door three times before a lady with a pinched, wrinkly face and a tight bun flung it open.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” she fiercely whispered.

I didn’t really much about the time these days, but my guess was around two in the morning.

“Um, sorry,” I replied, “I’m Dante Kyto; I was sent to live here.”

Her wrinkled, periwinkle eyes questioned me for a moment.

“Alright, let me get you up to your room,” she sharply said as she turned and beckoned me to follow her up spiral stairs that looked like that could fall apart any second.

Once we reached the top of the staircase, she stopped and pointed to a room on the right side of the hallway.

“This is your room. You will have four roommates and you will share a bunk. There is no jewelry, electronics, or make-up allowed here. If you have any the items listed above, please give them to me now.”

I felt the lump of my CD player in my backpack as I shifted my weight.

“No. I’m pretty sure I don’t.”

Again, her eyes suspected me. What was with this lady?

“I am Ms.Wingrif, headmistress and supervisor of St. Vincent’s Orphanage.  If you have any questions ring the door to my room,” she paused to look at me and smiled, “Welcome to St. Vincent’s Orphanage.”

And with that, she was gone.

I silently opened the door and without bothering to look at who was occupying the beds, I spotted an open bottom bunk. I set down my bag beside it, slipped into the bed and tried to fall asleep.

Shattered bits of light from the moon shown through an old, rusty window and revealed a musty room with two bunk beds and two dressers. The room smelled of dirt and dust. I heard mumbling above me. It sounded like someone had just muttered the name Vladus.

“Who’s Vladus?” I wondered out loud with a trace of astound in my voice.

Strands of black hair dangled down from the bed above me as a narrow face speculated me; it was the kid from school I had seen in the hospital.

He took one good look at me then sleepily mumbled, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Of all the preppy ‘Barbie’s, I was put with you.”

I really didn’t feel like taking his crap right now.

“Deal with it,” I spat back.

He got down from his bed and in my face. And here I thought he was too lazy to do anything, much as get up.

“What are you trying to say steroids? I bet your parents died just to get away from you.”

I stared at him and observed his pale face- it almost looked like his eyes were dry from crying. His wrists had cuts all over them.

He looked at me with an almost anxious face, “Are you going to hit me or what?”

I almost smiled, “Cutter, wouldn’t it just hurt more if I didn’t.”

His hand formed a fist and he drew his arm back- I didn’t really want to fight, but the guy was asking for it. Just as his fist was about to make contact with mine, the door opened.

It was the old lady from earlier, only fifteen minutes had passed since she let me in, and she didn’t look too happy. But I don’t think she could look happy if her life depended on it.

“You two boys better quiet up soon or you’ll get no breakfast,” she left the room and slammed the door shut.

I sat back down onto the bed and grabbed my backpack. Right when I went to dig out my CD player, I saw two heads on the opposite bunk pop up.

“I didn’t even notice them before,” I thought, “They must’ve been sleeping this whole time.”

While Cutter slipped back into his own bed, I decided if I should say hi to those guys. Before I could say anything, the guy on top with dark, gray eyes and ruffled black hair with subtle gold streaks beat me to it.

“Hey. I’m Vladus, you?”

This must’ve been the kid Cutter was talking about earlier before we started to fight. He looked around our age, maybe a little older.

“Um... I’m Dante. How long have you been living here?”

“Way too long man,” he replied, “Been trying to get out of here for years and do something with my life.”

The other boy stood up and squinted over me with a frown on his face. Unfortunately, his frown turned into a huge, dorky smile.

“Hi guys. Sorry I didn’t say hello earlier, I was recharging my brain power. So your name’s Dante, huh? You must be a really good sportsman and that kind of stuff.”

I had only had one word for this kid, nerd; seems like everything in this place could be described in one word. He was probably eleven or twelve because his head didn’t come past my elbows.

“Who are you?” I was awestruck by the huge, red glasses he slipped on.

 “I was given the name George Wilfred Thompson by my parents whose names are Julie and Fred. They named me after my great grandpa George because-”

“That’s ok!” I stopped him before he made my ears bleed,” It’s nice to meet you George.”

Ah heck. Why’d I even ask?

“Well Vladus, George, nice.uhh…meeting you but I think I’m going to try to get some sleep before light,” I said. I was really tired, the past couple of days I hadn’t been getting the best of sleep.

“Cool, cool,” Vladus stated,” Just keep your eyes open for the stocker.”

Stocker?

“Thanks for the warning,” I questionably responded.

I looked over to my bunk. “Looks like cutter dozed off,” I thought. 

I sighed, who would have thought I would be stuck here with him, of all the people. Things in this place were going to get a little rough.

Vladus looked at me and his eyes turned darker and darker.

“Seriously though bro.”

I gulped.

“I’ll be sure to,” I stated.

We all climbed into our beds and tried to sleep and I was almost asleep until George’s high voice began, “Alright, we had all better get a good recharge for tomorrow…”

I didn’t hear the rest of what George said for two reasons. Reason number one, I blocked him out with the stuffy pillow laid on my bed. And two, I had fallen into a dream with no George and no cutter, but best of all I was with my family in a place where we all could stay together.

So I fell asleep until about seven when I heard a loud beeping coming from the black alarm clock set on the dresser between the bunks.

            Beep Beep Beep.

 Even though I wanted to wake up, there was no way I was going to get up and turn it off. I figured someone else would. The alarm kept beeping like that for a few minutes. Then soon enough somebody clicked it off.  I sighed in relief that somebody had turned it off, but wished I hadn’t when I heard the voice of none other then, George.

“Ready for a fresh new day everybody?”

Nobody answered.

“Time for breakfast, which you should know is the most important meal of the day!”

Vladus sleepily responded, “Which we all know George, you tell us every freaking morning.”

He sat up slowly and jumped down from the bed, and staggered to the door.

The noisy bed creaked as I got up and when I stood up I noticed Vladus and cutter had nothing on but their boxers. I sighed down at my striped pants and continued out the door.

            So we all headed down the spiral stairs; the place looked a lot nicer in daylight. Once we got down the stairs and made a right, a small door way opened up to a large dining room with a rectangular table occupying the middle of the room. There were three windows on the left and the right side of the room, and the back.  The windows were as wide as two doorways, and almost as tall as a basketball hoop. I was really surprised by how big the room was, from the outside, you would’ve never noticed-well, at least at two in the morning you couldn’t.  I hadn’t gotten a chance to check out the rest of the orphanage, but I had a feeling the rest wouldn’t be as nice. We made our way into the dining room and as we went to take our seats, it felt like the whole room was staring. I guess we were a little late on the wake up call.

There were only four seats left, in the middle of the table, which forced me to seat next to annoying George and zombie Vladus- I think he was still asleep. Cutter was at the edge of the four seats, also forcing him against his will to sit next to a preppy looking girl with blonde hair. She was pretty cute; maybe I’d talk to her after breakfast. 

The girl started to talk to Cutter, probably introducing herself, telling her life story and such. I couldn’t hear what Cutter replied to the girl, but I was pretty glad because it didn’t look like he had any interest in her at all- figures.

I glanced around the room to take a look at who I would be living with for the rest of my life- well, at least until I was an adult or miraculously got out of here. Across from me sat a blonde kid, he looked about ten years old, with a bright red shirt too big for him on and a huge gap between his front teeth. Next to him was another boy who looked about the same age, had the same blonde hair, just no gap in his teeth. A couple seats down there were three girls, all looking about my age or maybe a year younger, all of their faces were blank and expressionless.

Ok. Now I was really getting creped out.

I sighed heavily as I observed the rest of the kids in the room and wondered if hanging out with Vladus and Cutter. What was his real name anyway? This whole time I hadn’t even bothered to find out. Not exactly the best way to start out if there was ever a chance we would be friends, but I highly doubted that. 

            Food was placed on the table and people began to eat. I stared down at the silver plate in front of me; the only things that occupied it were scrambled eggs and toast.  Here we go.

I lifted the shiny fork and decided to try out the eggs.

“Ugh!” I thought as I spit them back onto my plate, “These are so dry, they taste like they were cooked way too long!”

“What’s the matter Dante?” George started, “You really should eat your eggs, you know they are full of healthy proteins and-”

“No George, I’m not,” I bluntly replied.

            George shook his head muttering to himself and continued to eat his own food.

I put the fork down and settled on the toast. I put the bread up to my mouth but I couldn’t bring myself to try it. I had gotten enough experience with the dry eggs. Just as I was setting it back on the plate, it broke in two pieces. That’s just wonderful.

            Right when I was about to dare to take a sip of the orange juice sitting in the glass before me, I heard a snapping noise; almost like a branch breaking. I turned my head around to the large window behind my head and glanced into the trees to see what could’ve made the noise. I saw nothing. I looked around the table to see if anyone noticed the noise, but everyone was engrossed in their meal.

I came out of my thoughts just in time to hear Cutter getting yelled at by Mrs. Wingrif for who knows what. I kind of felt bad for the guy. When Mrs. Wingrif walked away, he slumped back into his chair. I took my sympathy away deciding that he didn’t really deserve it.

            When breakfast was over, we headed back up to our rooms to get changed. I wanted to get ready fast so I could get a chance to talk to that girl in the dining room. I put on my usual basketball shorts and t-shirt and my black jacket. I noticed Cutter had his outfit on that I usually saw him in at school; black skinny jeans and a gray tight t-shirt with a black splatter design on it. Vladus threw on dark blue jeans and a plain gray t-shirt. I didn’t even dare to look at what George was wearing.

“I wonder if she’s still down there,” I thought.

I quickly put my dirty clothes away, stuffed my backpack under the bed, and combed my jet-black hair out.  I was so caught up in trying to catch her that I didn’t even notice the others looking at me like I was crazy. Oh well.

I rushed out the door and down the stairs and luckily, I didn’t have to go too far. Right as I turned the corner, I bumped into the girl.

“Oh; sorry!” She apologized quickly.

“It’s ok. My name’s Dante, what about you?”

She had a huge smile on her face and her eyes were beating with curiosity.

“Hi! I’m Charlie Harpen. I’m totally new here. So how did you end up here?”

“…Well, my parents and my little sister were visiting my aunt and they got in a car crash. That’s it.”

Charlie almost looked sad for a minute, but then smiled and stared talking again, “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Its ok,” I replied and gave her a smile, “How did a pretty girl like you end up here?”

She laughed lightly then got a little somber.

“My parents were at a casino and were drinking a lot that night. They thought it was okay to drive, but they were wrong. It was around 8 at night and they ran a red light and hit another car.”

I was about to say I was sorry for her when I noticed around the corner, cutter was just staring at us. His face looked enraged, almost ready to kill someone.

“Hey wh- “ I started but stopped because before I could get a word out, cutter ran up to Charlie and pushed her back against the wall, “How could you!” he screamed in her face.

I didn’t know what to do. He just pushed a girl against a freaking wall.

“You think you can just come in here and be all happy go lucky about your parents KILLING someone!”  He started again, “People who had families and friends, and people who cared about them!”

Cutter’s voice broke a little and I could’ve sworn I saw a tear roll down his face. 

We were still in the hallway; some kids stopped walking and stared at what was happening. Charlie looked shocked and confused. I was also confused. How could’ve Charlie’s parents’ death upset him like that?

I could be so stupid sometimes. Maybe, Charlie’s drunken parents were the ones who killed cutter’s family. Crap.

“Ok cutter, step off; it wasn’t Charlie’s fault whatever happened."

            “Shut up this isn’t your problem!” he turned to yell at me, “You don’t know what happened, you have no idea how much pain I have been through in the last weeks.”

I was pretty calm until he said that.

“You think, just because your family got killed, it makes you and your feelings the most important in the world? All of our families are dead. Gone. We all feel the same, even though Charlie’s parents killed your family, there’s no reason for you to take it out on her. So just get out of her face. ”

“You’re saying that I think my feelings are more important that everyone else’s?! My brother, my best friend is dead! And all you can do is think about how selfish I am?” 

“Guys! Fighting won’t bring back your families! Just stop, this is stupid!” Charlie finally spoke out.

All of a sudden, Mrs.Wingrif appeared at the bottom of the stairs, “Children, children! This is unacceptable behavior! I think it’d be wise for you to get to your classes now.”

I stared at Charlie, then cutter, trying to decide what to do next. Cutter looked at me, as if he was trying to figure me out, or trying to kill me with a look. We didn’t speak, just stared, almost like at the hospital. Even if it was only for a seconds, it felt like hours. Then, just like before, he turned away, and we all headed in opposite directions.

School went by fast and in such a blur to me. I never got the greatest grades at Chadsey. I wondered how everyone was doing. Here in the orphanage, it felt like we were in our on little world and the outside world didn’t exist anymore.

            I hadn’t seen or heard anything strange so far since breakfast, and I hoped I wouldn’t. Now since classes were over, I headed back into the room because they required that after school, we go straight up and work on homework. I didn’t get why they made us do that, a whole hour locked in with those three.

            Reluctantly, I trudged up the stairs to our door and stepped inside. Cutter lay sideways on his bed, staring at the ceiling. George was humming away and working at the dresser in by the window. Vladus hadn’t come from his classes yet, so it was just us three for now. I went to get my CD player out of my backpack and sat down carefully on the springy uncomfortable bed.

In forty-five minutes, I had finished math everything but history. I opened the crummy history book filled with dust and almost falling apart and turned to the assigned page. My teacher had assigned the first two chapters to read and a few questions; I thought history was ok but reading-not so much. I sighed as I started to read with music rocking in my head from my CD player, I couldn’t even hear the other two, or if Vladus had come in.

The title of chapter one was, St. Vincent’s Orphanage: A History. OK. I usually did pretty well in history at Chadsey, but as boring as this was, I didn’t think I’d stay awake for the whole chapter.

I began to read, “Before it was renamed to St.Vincent’s Orphanage in 2001, it was formally known a St. Vincent’s Asylum.”

I stopped reading for a second. “This place…used to be an asylum?” I thought. I turned back to read more.

“It housed more than 100 residents and workers. Many of the people who lived here had many problems in their life or in their minds. One example of one man who stayed many years at the asylum, and was crazy in his mind would be Leif Keller.”

I stopped reading again. “Why did that name sound sort of familiar? Maybe….” I pulled of my headphones, got off my bed, and stood up to look at cutter.

I glanced over to the other side of the room. Vladus was on his bed, reading I think, and George was…well, doing who knows what.

“Hey. What’s your name?” I demandingly asked.

He didn’t even look in my direction, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Come on, the worst thing I can do with your name is use it instead of saying Cutter all the time,” I tried to get him to see that I wasn’t going to ruin what was left of his life just by knowing his name.

“Why does it matter?” he answered.

I wish he would just tell me instead of trying to start a fight, “Because I think this person has your last name.”

“What?” he got down from the top bed and looked over my shoulder. He read over the page in the book, then at my answer sheet. He took a minute or two then looked up and said, “Never heard of him.”

Cutter climbed back onto his bed and paid no more attention to me. I couldn’t stand how he could be so obtrusive. I decided to let him have a few minutes, and tried again.

“So your last name isn’t Keller?” I questioned. He still hadn’t told me his name.

He paused and took a deep breath, like I was the one trying to start a fight and he was the one who had to try not to break out in fists.

“Well, maybe you like being called a suicide freak who just wants to die. I just thought if your last name is Keller, like the guy in this book, then maybe this place could get a little more interesting.” I stated bluntly; this guy didn’t seem to know how to get a hint.

He jumped down again, and pushed me back onto my bed so I was lying on my back. What was wrong with him? I was just trying to find out his name.

“Was that a threat?” he looked at me with challenging eyes and a smile, just like he had the night before.

“Will you guys just shut up already? I know you guys hate each other, but seriously, go fight somewhere else.” Vladus lazily spoke up from his bunk on the top. He just looked over long enough to tell us, and then he went back to his homework.

Cutter was going crazy. Maybe being in the orphanage got him all messed up. I wasn’t going to kick his butt again.

“Vladus is right. Just back off,” I said and paused to just stare at him, figure out what his problem was.

He challenged me again, “Are you afraid to fight?”

Annoyingly I turned to completely face him, showing him I wasn’t going to let a little shrimp like him take me down.

“Nah, I’m just tired of getting into these little catfights with you,” I answered.

He rolled his eyes; we were both getting pissed.

“Whatever.”

            Vladus and George stared at us as we stood there facing each other. Then they went back to whatever it was they were doing. He went back to his bed and me to mine. Right as I was about to throw my headphones on, Cutter spoke up from above me, “My name is Jayden… Keller.”

 

My headphones froze halfway to my ears, then as I was about to reply, I saw George’s mouth open and I threw my headphones on and tried to finish history. Other than the guy Leif Keller, who went crazy in the crazy house and then went missing and still is, nothing else was interesting.

It was around 4 o’clock when Mrs. Wingrif knocked in and told us we had some free time for the next couple of hours.

“Finally,” I thought, “that was the longest hour ever.  Cutter, or Jayden, is seriously going to get it next time.”

I shook my head, threw myself back and lay on the uncomfortable pillow again.

“Oh yeah, I forgot!” I thought as I quickly shot back up.

I was supposed to meet Charlie after homework. We were in the same class, but sadly we were on opposite sides of the room. Somehow, she got the invite to me without the teacher noticing. The classroom was pretty ordinary, maybe a little smaller than a normal classroom, and it smelled weird. It smelled like old and musty. The whole orphanage had that old musty smell, the kind when you go to your grandma’s and sleep on their couch or something. I stepped off the bed, slid my books into my backpack and stared to head out. I saw Vladus was already gone when I got up to meet her, and George was “recharging his brain power”.  So when I left, Cutter was really the only one there, and I didn’t think he’d care if I left or not.

            I opened the door, and jogged downstairs to find Charlie. I was supposed to meet her in the living room, so I headed over.

I turned into the room and saw her sitting on one of the small red couches.

“Hey Charlie,” I said.

“Hey. I want to show you something,” she replied smiling, as usual.

I loved her smile. Even though her family was gone; she still found something to smile about.

“Sweet, what is it?” I questioned smiling back; her smile was contagious.

“What I want to show is not here, it’s some where else.” She quickly replied.
What could Charlie want to show me so bad? Ha. I hope it wasn’t something like that. I liked her and all, but we just met. Well, I guess I would find out soon.

“Alright, where to?” I questioned again, still smiling.

“Just follow me,” she said and grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

We went out of the living room, and turned the corner to go out the back door. There were other kids hanging out, wasting the time away, so none of them seemed to notice a little thing like Charlie, tugging a big thing like me around.

She pulled me to the back door, and we stepped outside. The sun was still out with an afternoon shade. It shone through the willow trees all throughout the yard. We walked past the trees and into a grass field.

“Ok, just a little farther,” she turned to face me as she assured me.

I’m not sure why, but I stopped and just had to laugh. She stopped too and looked confused.

“What’s so funny?” she wondered.

“I’m just so glad to have met you. You know, since I’ve gotten here, I haven’t had exactly the best time. With my folks gone and all, I thought I’d never be able to laugh and have fun like this again. But you…” I paused for a second and grinned again, “You make me smile whenever I see you.”

She stared up at me and I stared down at her. Then at the exact same moment, we started cracking up. I’m not sure one of us understood why, but it felt so good to finally relax and let go with someone-I hadn’t been able to that in a while.

“Aw. Thanks! Dante, you’re the sweetest person I’ve met here,” she said smiling her beautiful smile still holding my hand, and lightly squeezed it, “I’m really glad I met you too.”

I stared into her sparkling, turquoise eyes and grinned.

 “Let’s go before we have to go back to our rooms,” she returned my smile.

She took my hand again and started pulling me towards a bunch of willow trees.

I stopped her again.

“You don’t have to hold on, I’m not going to run away,” I jokingly said.

“That’s a good point,” she sad, then smiled playfully, “But I don’t know that and you are a giant.”

“Giant?”

“Dante,” she paused and smiled, “You’re freaking tall.”

“Fine fine. Where are we going anyway?”

“You’ll see.”

So we ran a little farther in the middle of the bunch of willow trees to a dark building with a cross on the top.

“There’s a church here?” I asked her. Then I thought how did she know about this place? We both got to the orphanage at the same time.

“Yeah.”

“Where’s the thing you wanted to show me?”

 ‘It’s inside.”

She led me to two large brown doors with a carving of Jesus and his arms open, as if welcoming us into the church.

My family wasn’t too religious. There was a church we went to around the corner from our house. It was a small congregation and we were some of the few members there. My mom tried to get us to go every Saturday, but that didn’t work too well. So we just went when we could, and my mom trying to get us there as much as possible. I enjoyed it, believe me I did, it’s just I didn’t make enough time for it.

“Dante?” Charlie asked.

I got out of my remembrance in time to say, “Yeah. Let’s go in.”

We easily pushed the doors and with a loud creak, they opened.

“Whoa,” I whispered. I didn’t know why I whispered when it was just the two of us and no one else was here. It felt like I had to though or some old guy would come out of nowhere and tell me to be quiet.

It was a church, but it felt like a castle almost. It was huge and there were stained glass windows lined up on both sides of the room. Each window displayed a story from the bible and each window with the sun shining through was an array of colors.

“Isn’t it amazing? Well besides the dust.” she questioned, “As dreary as the orphanage is, you would never think that there was a place like this in the middle of it all.”

“Yeah…” I replied not paying full attention.

This church was so big! Rows of large wooden benches followed up to a small stage with only two steps. There was a table with a red cloth in front of the alter with an old bible on top of it. Behind the alter was an old, rusted organ with a few broken pipes. And above that, there was a faded inscription on the wall that said, “Saint Vincent’s Church- God accepts all people.”

I guess by “all people” they meant, even though they were crazy, God would still accept them. I wonder if the last time they used this church was before the asylum was renamed as an orphanage.

“Ok. Follow me,” Charlie finally spoke up after minutes of us analyzing the church.

She walked past the rows of pews up to the alter.

“Hey Charlie, are you sure that we’re allowed to be here?” I asked. I was thinking about how this orphanage used to be an insane house and why was the church hidden by a bunch of willow trees?

“I don’t know.” She said as she beckoned me in front of the alter. She didn’t look too confident in her answer.

I wonder if Charlie knew about how it used to be an asylum.

“Charlie,” I said.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“You know that this orphanage used to an asylum, right?” I carefully questioned.

“…It was?” she raised her eyebrows and her mouth fell open.

“Yeah, that’s why the sign in the front is crossed off and written over.” I explained, “And I think they used this church before it was an orphanage.”

“Well….” she got serious, “Just c’mon and see what I found.”

I jogged over to where Charlie was standing behind the alter. She lifted a latch to reveal cement stairs leading into complete darkness.

“What…what is this?” I shockingly asked.

She grabbed my hand again and starting pulling me down the stairs.

I stopped and started, “Charlie where the he-“

“Dante, it’s dark so be careful. I’m not sure what this place is and that’s why I wanted to show you,” she said.

And so we tugged down the stairs and into the darkness.

“This is crazy,” I thought, “Where could this go?”

We got down the stairs onto a hard, cold floor. This place smelled like crap. It was like rotten eggs mixed with sweaty gym socks and...What was that other smell mixed in? It smelled mostly like…blood. It was so dark; I could barely see Charlie right in front of me.

Not looking back, Charlie let go of my hand and whispered almost to herself, “I left the light on…why…” She carefully walked a few feet in front of me. It felt like we were on a ramp now. Kind of like the kind you walk on to get onto a boat or something. CRASH!
“Charlie? What happened? Are you ok?” I said.

I tried to find her hand to help her up. Once I had found it, it was wet.

“Are you bleeding?” I questioned, “What happened?”

“I’m fine…” she said, “I just broke that old lamp.”

“So now there’s no light down here? How are we supposed to get out?”

She didn’t answer right away, and I tried to read the expression on her face, but it was too dark.

“No. There’s another light in the room down the tunnel. But it’s really small, so it’ll be hard to see.”

“Ok. Let’s find it then.”

She nodded her head; at least I think she did.

We started again, but this time I was leading; even though I had no idea where I was going. We cautiously trudged further down the tunnel in complete darkness. I lead us slowly forward because Charlie’s hands still had glass in them so I didn’t want her to bump into anything again.

“Charlie, what were you saying before you broke the lamp?”

She paused again. “When I left here to find you, I left it on. But…when we got here it was off.”

“That’s weird. Maybe it just burned out.” I suggested.

“I don’t know,” she whispered to herself.

So in silence again, we kept going through the tunnel to find the room she was talking about. I tried to hold my breath but the smell was really strong. What creped me out was that it smelled so strongly of blood. As I led her, I used one hand to feel the wall, and the other to hold hers. The wall of the tunnel was ice cold and felt like sand paper. I could feel my hand start to bleed from being scratched by the roughness of the wall, but still I kept going. After what felt like forever in dark and silence, my left hand on the wall fell onto a breeze of cold air and dropped to my side.

I stopped and tried to peer into the dark.

“Dante,” Charlie finally spoke up, “This is the room. The string to turn on the light is in the middle.”

I let go of her hand, “Ok. Wait right here just in case I can’t find it.”

Slowly, I walked forward, feeling for some kind of string or chain in front of me. SMACK!

“Ow,” I said.

I reached right in front of my face, and immediately found a slimy chain and tugged on it.

She was right. The light was super dim, it wasn’t much help, but at least now we could see what was around us. And I really wanted to see what was up with this place.

I heard a yell behind me. I quickly turned around to see cutter standing behind Charlie. He looked like a pathetic version of a horror movie gone wrong.

“What…cutter what are you doing down here? Did you follow us?” I questioned.

Charlie was still catching her breath from cutter running into her and scaring the heck out of her.  Cutter had bloody cuts all over his hands and his nose was bleeding.

“No…no I would never do that. I was frolicking in the meadow with the butterflies when I just happen to come across this tunnel in the ground, accidentally bumping into a wall and giving myself a bloody nose, and then falling on a lamp that someone seems to have broken and cutting my hands,” he sarcastically replied.

Charlie looked at him like he was insane and walked over to my side.

“Sorry… I knocked over the lamp...” she slowly apologized.

“Really?” he sneered at her.

“So, now what?” I stepped in.

 “Dante….and..?” Charlie looked over at cutter, motioning him to tell her his name.

Cutter didn’t reply; instead, he started to wander over to the other side of the room.