Orbis Intus Orbis , Panton est Ornus Vel Lux Lucis

Yes! This is my first story! Not ever, but you get the idea!Truthfully, I think this sucks. So much that i want to finish it! Mwahahaha!

She woke to the smell of smoke clogging her nose. “Jeremy its time to leave.” She gently shook the boy sleeping next to her. The rome was messy and small, crowded with what mismatched furniture the orphanage could afford. It looked ominous under the dim yellowed light of the morning sky; clouds of soot disfigured the sun and outside everything was covered in a thin film of ash. “ we have to get out of here soon,” the girl thought. “ Jeremy!!” The boy finally stirred, his peaceful face flushed with sleep. Even though they were the same age, he had always seemed a lot younger and more innocent than she. Always together, never apart ever since that day seven years ago when he had come to this orphanage. He arrived on her birthday, and she had thought that he was a angel sent from God. And he did look like and angel, with his large gold- green eyes, pale flawless skin, and a silky halo of golden hair. She had immediately begun her hardest to vie for his attention, and even when a week had passed and he hadn't said anything ( to anyone) she did not give up. And it was well worth it, because when she finally did hear his soft voice....

“ Amy I'm ready” Jeremy's voice startled her out of her reverie. “Okay ,Jer, we still have about a half- hour before the sisters start to wake up. Don't forget about the sister who sleeps in the main office; if we set off the alarm it will wake her up. You go first to disable the alarm and I'll be right behind you to pick the lock. Got that?” Jeremy nodded his head silently in understanding. “ Good. Oh and Jer? please don't screw up.” For a second she could not tell the expression on his face, but then a crack in the stoic mask appeared as the left corner of his mouth raised into a smirk. And then he was gone. She waited a minute, then two, nervously tapping her fingers on the table besides her bed. Every second dragged by, but finally it had been five minutes. She left the familiar room to the cold, dark corridor that practically epitomized the monostaic orphanage where they lived. Her soles slightly squeaked on the dull linoleum floor that paved the ground, and at every window she ducked under the line of sight, “ You never know who could be walking around at four thirty in the morning.” She said, rationalizing the paranoia clogging her thoughts.

After she had passed the first few stations though, her fear slightly subsided. The halls were a little brighter now, with the morning sun slowly rising higher in the sky. She could now make out the room numbers of the doors she was passing. It was a strange feeling- these children, her friends slept behind these doors, without a clue that she was leaving them behind. She felt a slight pang of guilt for leaving them in a place like this, but then realized that any more people would have just put them in unnecessary danger. And really, Jeremy was all that she really cared about. She had never actually given any of her other friends more than a superficial thought, when she actually did think about them. “ Well then, goodbye.” she whispered to no one in particular. Nearing the end of the long hall, she caught a glimpse of the from door through the main hall. Jeremy was probably hiding in one of the many alcove in the room. She didn't really understand why the hell they put so much security on the front door. A mere lock would have sufficed, but they had put an old fashioned lock, alarm system, and card swipe. As far a she knew, none of the children would even be able to get past a simple lock. Well, except her and Jeremy of course. But really, most of these children had no where else to go.

The whole institution was strange; thats why she and Jeremy were running away. And the older you got, the more likely it was that you would disappear. She and Jer were already thirteen, and they had been in danger of “disappearing” for almost three years. The only reason they hadn't disappeared yet was because they were always together.

As she reached the front door, Jeremy came out from the shadows to meet her. “Is everything off?” she asked. “Yeah, check the tripwire in the lock though. It may not be a part of the main system.” he said. She stuck her pin into the lock and held back the first mechanism, then put a pipe cleaner n and began to feel around. Nothing. “its all clear” she said “Now all I have to do is.... there! Done.” She slowly twisted the knob and they both tensed in apprehension. But nothing happened, no trick alarm went off, and they both let out a sigh of relief. “ Thats it?” Jeremy started laughing hysterically. Amy was shocked because Jeremy never laughed. “ Jeremy, calm down, be quiet.....c'mon, we have to leave!”She whispered urgently, unsettled by his strange behavior, and she started running out the door, dragging him with her. Which each step they took, ash from the ever burning fire stirred into dusty motes, dirtying their shoes. Thank God they were getting away from this vile fire. Over thirty feet tall, this “Tabernacle” was fed by the sisters three times a day, twice at night, with huge loads of logs that took almost the entire group to carry. The entire act of feeding this fire was unsettling, with an almost cult- like ritualism to it. And every so often there would be a slightly smaller, wrapped up package that went into the fire with the wood. Everyone always pretended not to know what it was. Every time another child went missing, when little Mary or John didn't show up for breakfast one day, everyone ignored it. Because they knew if they said anything, they would be next.

They slipped and slid downhill and through the brush, the edge of the forest defining the beginning of the slope that eventually led to the river. From the river they would take the boat the nuns used and go downstream from there. Taking the boat would guarantee that they would not be followed for a good while. “ Jer....hold my hand” He scowled at her “ I'm not a little kid anymore!” he grumbled. “Well then do it for me. I'm having a hard time not tripping.” What ever happened to that cute little boy who held my hand for no reason, she thought mournfully.

The river was swollen with the recent rain, fast and treacherous. “We might even be in more danger than back at the orphanage” Amy thought. Jeremy lightly stepped into the boat, rope straining in the effort of keeping the boat tied to the pier. “Hurry up,” he said “ It might break at any moment.” She reluctantly stepped towards the boat. “ Look, Jeremy, there might be another way down the mountain besides the river. Maybe we should just walk downhill and look for a bridge or something. I mean, there could be, its not like we ever checked before...” “ Amy stop wasting time!” Jeremy's eyes flashed with frustration “ Even if there is another way, we only have a couple of hours before the sisters notice that we're missing. We wont be very far away by then on foot, and the sisters could even use the boat we left behind to come looking for us! No matter what, even if its scary, this is the best option.” She stepped into the boat without a word. “ Amy...” he said haltingly “ If you want....maybe...you could hold my hand.”

It had been over two hours since they left the pier; two hours of battling the vicious current and rocky rapids. So far they had barely made it, and the hardest part was yet to come. A mini waterfall lay ahead of them, not usually enough to cause any damage to the boat. But with the heavy rains that year, it would definitely be a problem. She and Jeremy had hardly talked this whole time, too caught up in trying to control the boat. Now that they got closer and closer to the roaring menace of the waterfall, they had even less to say, only gripped each others hands tightly. The first bump jarred them, almost knocking them out of their seats. “God!” Amy screamed “Please.....!” Jeremy shot her a panicked glance before shouting, “ The oars! Pull in the oars!” She reached for hers, but too late! It hit a rock and shattered, splintering into the boat. “ S**t!” Amy said. They were almost at the brink. “ Jeremy hold on!” She grabbed onto him, then screamed as the boat dipped and she stared down into the violently churning water at the bottom of the falls. The word dropped from beneath them. They were plummeting down a forty foot drop, still holding onto each other, not even in the boat anymore. “Please dear God! Let us live!” was Amy's last thought; and then impact. Blackness, inky dark, the crushing weight of the water falling from above, squeezing her lungs and making her take in the water. And she was no longer holding onto anything. “ Jer? Where are you? When I blacked out I must have...let him go....” Her thoughts were getting fuzzy, and she knew if she didn't get air soon she would die. She swam and swam, trying to find the surface. Instead she found the bottom of the river, and frantically pushed off from the floor. Even then, in the swirling darkness, she was looking for some sign of Jeremy. The edges of her vision blurred, and bright lights flashed before her eyes. “ I'm not going to make it...” She thought hazily “ I'm so sorry Jer....I couldn't save you.”

Amy woke up coughing, throwing up water and god knows what else was in her. She stared at the riverbank in fascination. She could see every stone, the sun was glaringly bright, everything looked stunningly clear. “ What the hell... I'm.....I'm not dead?!” she thought. Then “ Wait....Jeremy!” Amy tried to get up, but black and red dots flashed before her eyes and obscured her vision, and she was on the ground before she even knew what happened. She threw up again, surprised there was anything left in her stomach. She crawled to the river and washed her mouth out. Apparently, she had landed somewhere around a couple hundred feet away from the falls. She scanned the area for any sign of the boat. After a while, she felt like she could stand up without passing out. A bit up the shore, she caught a glimpse of something gleaming in the sun....