Into Darkness

[Julia]

Into Darkness

Prelude

Last Hope Orphanage, it was known to be a safe place for homeless and parentless people, a place where they could start a new life by themselves. None of that has been true. I have seen the true face of this so called orphanage. It's not an orphanage, but a prison or even hell itself.

I can still clearly remember the day when I came to this place. I was happy and hopeful. I was thinking that this would finally be the needed change in my life. I was around sixteen, young, naive and inexperienced. I didn't know what to expect. The first sign were the orphans that were living here. They were scared, both of me and the people that were working there. But why were they so scared? What made them react like this? Nowadays I could explain it, but back then I had no idea. The very moment I entered the orphanage, it was already too late to return. I was now trapped inside this prison, together with all these people. This place would now be the reason for what I have become.

Arrival

I am wondering why I had to leave my old orphanage and instead had to go to this one. Had I done anything that they didn't like? Did I betray them in any way? I was just eating breakfast when they came to me, telling me that I would be transferred to the Last Hope Orphanage, but they didn't even tell me a reason. I had to obey them unwillingly; resistance wouldn't have helped me in any way. I would have got to this place in one way or another. So, without any resistance from my side, I was led inside the car that brought me to the orphanage. I was allowed to take a box with me to carry a few things of my own. I put in some of my favorite clothes, my favorite plushy and a few other rather unimportant things. I didn't have much that I owned, so the decision wasn't all too hard for me.

Two hours later I arrived at the orphanage. It actually didn't look that much worse than the other one I was before. The moment I stepped out of the car, it drove away from there, perhaps not to give me a chance to get back inside, I didn't exactly know why. After observing the surroundings and the two men that were approaching me, I made my way towards them as well. They seemed rather friendly and greeted me in a polite way. One of them was kind enough to take my burdens, the little box that barely had anything inside. It wasn't really heavy, but I didn't mind it either.

Together with the two men, I was showed around the place. The place itself inside looked kind of nice, especially the furniture was much better than in the other orphanage. But the people who were living here and who passed us, something must have been wrong with them. They were acting weird, they were clearly scared of the two men and when I was trying to approach one of them, he backed off quickly. I didn't know what to think of this, I was just telling myself that this was just a rare occasion, and that just these few people were like that. But even if I told myself that, it was a failed attempt to cheer me up, but in reality I was worried and scared myself. I wondered if I was going to end like them, but I had to stay strong. The men were nice and I doubt they would let something get to me.

Eventually I was showed my own room. That was the first orphanage I heard of that had for each orphan a personal room, instead of one large one where everyone was sleeping. I was surprised and impressed by the room, it wasn't really big, but it had everything I needed and it was all for myself. The sight of my room gave me hope, I was happy and for a second I forgot all the encounters and worries I had before. One of the men told me to stay here inside my room until it was time for dinner and that they would inform me about it, while the other placed the box onto my new bed. I simply nodded and watched them leaving the room. I made my way over to the door to examine it a bit and I quickly noticed that there was nothing to lock it with.

That would mean that anyone could enter my room at any time. That didn't make me feel comfortable in any way; in fact it made my worries come back. I hoped that there was some kind of rules that didn't allow the occupants to enter the room of the others or perhaps it was just a mistake and they forgot to hand me a key for the lock. For now I just decided to wait for the dinner and see how things would turn out. I looked around in my room a bit and eventually took out my plushy and made myself comfortable on the bed. It was so nice and soft, not so hard like the old one. It made me smile...