Orphanage || Story Time || Part 1

 A man woke up in an abandoned office. It looked old, but one could tell that at some point it was very luxurious. He felt two more presences beside him. Both gave strong emotions of fear and sadness. The man was lying on a big desk. He sat up to find his legs pinned to the desk by a lot of vines. The floor of the room was filled with them. They were keeping everything in its place, including him. 

He tugged at them, freed himself, and fell down the desk. He groaned, but before he could complain properly about it, he looked down and gasped. Right beneath him was a thick, big block of ice which was fitted so well inside the floor that it seemed to be a part of it. There was someone frozen inside it. He could see that it was a young woman, but he didn't recognize her. She seemed to be sleeping, but from her expression, he could tell that it wasn't peaceful.

Out of nowhere, the vines started to move. They wrapped around him and pulled him to the other side of the desk. Right before his eyes, the scene changed. It was now a polished, clean, and very bright room. The vines and dust vanished away right before his eyes, except for the small spot he was sitting on.

A woman appeared behind the desk. She was sitting on a big, elegant chair staring towards the man blankly. The man tried to speak, but the vines prevented him from doing so as they wrapped around his mouth, too. They covered everything except for his eyes. It was very quiet. The only sound that broke the silence was his shallow breathing. Was the woman not breathing at all? Why was it only his breathing that could be heard?

Before he could figure out what was happening, the door of the office opened, and another woman came in with a young girl behind her. The little girl looked scared and was trembling. She spoke before any of them could speak.

"I promise! I didn't do it! I would never steal! I was just-"

The woman behind the desk finally moved. It felt like someone finally pressed the start button on a video. She spoke loudly. It felt like her being a statue before was actually best for everyone. "You were hungry?! Is that what you are trying to say?! That we do not feed you?!"

The man noticed the uniform the little girl was wearing. This wasn't just a random office but a principal office of the orphanage. And the woman behind the desk was probably the principal. The reality dawned on him as he finally remembered how he entered this abandoned haunted orphanage, but it felt like he was back in time when it wasn't abandoned. No one was even acknowledging him. He was in the middle of the scene, and they weren't even looking at him. Even though he was constantly wiggling and making muffled sounds.

Was he really in the past, or was he just having a hallucination?

Both women started to scold the little girl. They were so loud, and the poor girl just stood there trembling. She was trying to speak, "I-I... I didn't steal... He took my lunch. I was starving so I-I took hi-"

The woman behind the desk stood up, "You know the punishment, don't you?"

"N-no, ma'am! please! I didn't-"

The little girl trembled and fell silent as she saw the woman she came with, grab a big scenery frame from the wall. She walked towards the girl and raised it.

"YOU WILL TAKE THE PUNISHMENT WITHOUT MAKING ANY NOISE!"

The woman yelled and swung it down, but it never hit the girl. Instead, it hit the man. He feels the intense pain in his head. He tried to keep his eyes open, but they closed for once. He forced them to open again and found the woman up close to his face.  They were acknowledging him, but with the most creepy smiles. Their smiles were crooked, and they were so close that he could smell their expensive perfumes mixed with the smell of death. It made his stomach turn. He tried to look anywhere but at them. 

The little girl who was still standing at some distance gave him a weak apologetic smile. She spoke in a soft whisper, "Day 36. It's fine. It's just been 36 days. I have been here for decades now.... but I am fine. You will be too, so please don't leave me alone with them." She pleaded.

The way she was still trembling said otherwise. She was anything but fine. She was just trying to console the man as much as she could in this miserable place.

The man couldn't understand what was going on, and his head was spinning. He couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and closed them, giving in to unconsciousness. He heard the women laughing as darkness took over him. It filled the man with dread, but he felt tiny hands hold his hand, which somehow made him relax. He fell unconscious, knowing it would happen all over again when he opened his eyes again.

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Fern jolted up. She was covered in sweat. Why was she seeing a man trapped in an abandoned orphanage again? She felt her anxiety rise as she realized that it's actually been 36 nights of her getting this nightmare over and over again....The exact number of days the man has been stuck in that orphanage.

To be continued.......