Into Darkness

[Julia]

Mellanie

A few hours later I woke up when I heard a bell ringing. I must have fallen asleep in the time I was lying on my bed. This must have been the bell for the dinner; at least I was hoping that it was just that. Thankfully, one of the men that led me to this room entered the room and told me that it was time for dinner and that I should hurry. I did just as told and followed the man to the dining room. It was fairly large with several long tables were the people that lived here and the ones that worked here were separated. I was led to a table that was rather empty compared to the others. I took a seat next to a young girl at the edge of the table. I peeked briefly at her; she was beautiful and had this cute smile on her face. I wonder what she was so happy about. The food that was just now placed around the tables didn't look that much different than the one I got in the other orphanage.

For some reason the orphans didn't talk at all, whereas the people that worked here talked happily and joyfully with each other. All they did was staring at their dishes and began to eat immediately when the food arrived, everyone, except for me and the girl next to me. I was wondering if she was new here, just like me, but for some reason I just couldn't gather the courage to confront her. I felt so nervous when I just thought about talking with her. What was wrong with me? I knew that I had problems to talk to new people, but I didn't know it was that bad.

Eventually I looked at her again and at the same time she returned the glance and we made eye contact. It lasted a few seconds before I turned away my head to look into the opposite direction and my cheeks were suddenly becoming warm... dear God, was I blushing? The girl made me blush, just by looking at me. But it didn't make it any better when I felt that she was still looking at me. I didn't feel well, this feeling I had, it made me feel awful. I just wanted to escape from there, but I didn't think that was an option.

"At least someone who seems alive." The girl whispered eventually after looking at me for a while longer.
I froze up a little when I heard the girl talking. On the one hand I was glad that at least she had the courage to start a conversation, but on the other hand I was unsure of what to say. The least I wanted was to say something wrong. Eventually I turned my head around again to glance briefly at the girl. Unbelievable... she was still smiling.
"What's... with all these people here? Why are they... so scared... and quiet?" I asked her with a concerned expression.
The girl shrugged a little before she looked around the room. Turning her eyes back on her plate and glanced another slight smile to me before taking a bite.
"Hm... are you... uhm... new here, too?" I asked quietly, still feeling awkwardly embarrassed.
"A few days..." She replied back quietly, probably she was feeling just as weird about the silence as I did.
"Except for this odd silence... is this place any good? What do you think about this?" I asked her with a somewhat worried expression.
"Don't know... everything seems decent. Nice rooms, showers... everything is clean. Just the atmosphere here is strange." She replied quietly and continued to smile at me. I wonder if she was happy to be able to talk to someone, at least it seemed to be the case.
"Yeah, it's crazy. I never had an own room ever before. It feels... I am not sure... just great to be able to have some privacy. I didn't have that in my old orphanage." I said with a clear hint of impression and flashed a smile back at her.
"It's great... just like one big family house." She said, although she had a questioning look around the room. No wonder, this wasn’t exactly a happy family.
"A silent family, that's for sure. I am just glad you are not like them. I was really worried everyone was like them." I said with a relieved sigh, looking down at my plate with a curious expression.
"Any idea how the food is around here?" I asked.
"Nothing wrong with it." The girl replied quietly with a smile before she took another bite.
"Hm, alright then. Time to give it a try." I said with a brief smile and took a bite myself, tasting the food some before I spoke up again. "Mhm, not bad."
"When did you arrive here?" The girl suddenly asked me.
"A few hours ago. I was transferred here to this orphanage, for... whatever reason. They never told me." I replied honestly and let out a sigh.
"Hm... well my old home got closed because they lost funding." She replied.
"Oh... well, at least you know the reason. I am still thinking I did something wrong. Something that made them do this." I said with a frown, blindly staring at my food now as I was lost in thoughts.
"I'm sure you did nothing wrong. Probably them not daring to tell it's actually their fault." She replied with a soft smile.
"I guess you are right. I shouldn't really bother myself with the thoughts. I am here now and that's all that matters." I said with a soft sigh and continued to eat from my meal.
"My name is Mellanie by the way." The girl whispered with a soft smile.
"I... I am Anne, at least that is what people call me all the time." I replied hesitantly, seemingly being nervous.
"Can call me Mel." Mellanie replied quietly with a small smile.
"Mel... it's a cute name!" I said joyfully and returned the smile. I was really happy. This girl, Mellanie, she made my time here much more bearable. I was confident that the time here would be going to be a good and enjoyable time now that I have met her.

"Say... is it allowed to invite someone to my room?" I asked her to break the silence that came up out of a sudden.
"Hm... no, don't think so. But we can see each other in the spare time." Mellanie replied with a small smile.
"Hm, it is still better than not being able to see each other at all. I really would love to see you more often. We... talkative people have to stick together, right!" I said with a happy expression while I looked around the table, having noticed that we were the only ones talking on this very table, it was really awkward.
"Once we have spare time, I mostly am in the library to read, since there isn't anyone to talk. But we can go outside and talk there. Not allowed in the library since a lot of people study there." Mellanie replied with a small smile, finishing her dinner.
"When are we allowed to go outside?" I asked curiously, still being clueless about the time schedule.
"Tomorrow after lunch." Mellanie replied with a small nod.
"So... I guess I won't be seeing you again today?" I asked with a slight frown.
"Don't think so... but don't worry; these beds make you sleep pretty well." She replied confidently.
"Oh... sleep, that's one of my favorite things, too bad that I never really had any choice but to sleep all the time. But it's not that bad, I can always escape into my own little world there." I said with a slight sign of amusement.
"Guess we'll talk tomorrow about how your dreams were then." Mellanie said suddenly.
"You... really want to talk about them?" I asked with a blush on my face, not having expected that.
"They can be fun subjects to talk about." She shrugged lightly.
"You will have to tell me about your dreams as well then! For the fairness." I said with a soft giggle.
"If I have any." Mellanie replied on a bit of a teasing tone, just to make fun of it, I guess.
"Oh come on, you will! I am sure you do!" I protested in an amused way.
Mellanie smiled more broadly before looking around. "Hm... think it's time to bring our plates back." She said, already seeing a few others return their plates.
"Hm, looks like it. Lead me! I don't know where to bring them to." I said in a somewhat apologizing way, as everything was still pretty new to me.
"There is a table up front where we have to put our plates when we finished eating, happens with every meal. So that those assigned to do the dishes today have an easier time moving it to the kitchen. You'll probably get a schedule soon too." Mellanie explained while taking her plate together with her knife and fork to bring it to the table she was talking about.
"Ah... yeah, for a moment I hoped there weren't any schedules. I hate having to stick to rules." I said with a soft sigh, doing the same as Mellanie and followed right behind her.
"It's not a bad thing really. You keep yourself busy and everyone gets their turns." She replied, putting her plate down before turning around to me with a kind smile.
"Well, it's a bad thing if you are lazy like me." I said with a slight smirk, putting down my plate as well and returned the smile.
"I suppose now is the time we have to head to our rooms?"
"Yup... which room do you have?" Mellanie asked, already beginning to walk to the exit of the canteen and expected me to follow her.
"Oh... ehm, it's somewhere near the end of the corridor where the rooms are located. I... haven't imprinted the room number yet, but I guess I can still find it when we are close to it." I explained to her with an embarrassed blush, following her.
"Got room 12 myself." She replied with a smile, walking through the building.
"I wonder if it's close to my room. That would be cool!" I said smiling.
"Yes, but no leaving your room in the middle of the night." Mellanie warned me out of a sudden, as it was one of the rules within the orphanage that I was going to learn about some time later.
"Oh? W-why not? Are there monsters outside my room?" I joked, unknowingly as to why I wasn’t allowed to.
"They just want to keep order I guess and make sure you sleep. You can go out to the bathroom if you need to though." She replied.
"Hm... alright. I have already learned myself the hard way that ignoring the rules has consequences." I said with a soft shrug, smiling at Mellanie.
"It's not that bad..." She replied before she'd end up in front of her room. "Guess this is good night?"
"Hm, I will see you tomorrow then. Good night, Mellanie!" I said cheerfully and smiled back at her.
"Sweet dreams." Mellanie said with a soft smile before she would enter her own room.
"Thanks, you too!" I said and made my way to my own room that was merely a few more steps away from where I was.

Back in my room I swiftly closed the door and made my way over to my box that was still lying on my bed. Somewhere inside it, there had to be my pajama. I am pretty sure I took it with me. It was my favorite after all, with flowers all over it. And there was it, underneath all these other clothes, my pajama. I took it out and began to change my clothing. I had everything I needed, my plushy, my pajama and a smile on my face. Nothing was going to stop me from having a sweet dream now!