The wind howled outside the impassive stony walls of an orphanage. The Laurel orphanage was a place of solace for kids that had been abandoned at birth, those that were homeless, and those that were peculiar.
It had been standing for over a century. The place was run by an order of nuns. It was peculiarly located at the outskirts of the city, surrounded by fields.
The orphanage had been built with stone, and despite its age, it was kept immaculate and pristine. The stone walls were regularly scrubbed and the courtyards tended to by the nuns.
It was surrounded by a few smaller buildings that comprised the school where the orphans were taught, as well as stores where the food from the fields would be stored after it had been harvested.
The sweet smell of old books lingered in the classrooms. Wooden floorboards adorned the rooms to keep them cozy even during the colder periods of the year.
The orphans would study arithmetic and basic history during the week and help out in the fields during the weekends.
A young dark-haired girl sat in the grass behind one of the classrooms under one of the trees, her nose buried in a book, her red scarf loosely wrapped around her neck. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past, making her shiver and tighten the scarf around herself.
"Hey, Emily, you’ll catch a cold if you stay out here. You skipped sister Eliza’s class again, didn’t you?" A brunette girl pointedly said as she walked across the grass in the courtyard towards her.
" Hello to you, too, Sammy," Emily said as she adjusted her glasses on her nose.
"Come on, let’s not get into any more trouble. We’re going to be late."
She stood up smoothly, dusting herself off as they made their way to the inner courtyard of the school, where the other kids were gathered.
The kids usually gathered together for a routine head count every evening.
Samantha was her best friend, her only friend. They did everything together and usually looked out for each other, which is why Samantha knew exactly where to find her.
Emily had a fair complexion and striking green eyes. For as long as she could remember, she had always been at the orphanage.
The sisters had found her at the entrance one evening.
Her cries had attracted the attention of the workers who had been returning from their evening shift in the fields.
They’d found her, a baby barely a few months old, with a note saying what her name was and to take care of her. The nuns took her in and raised her.
From a tender age, Emily loved to read. Books were always so.... interesting. She found that the more she read them, the more she’d lose herself in them.
A way to escape reality. She had always been peculiar. She could see things that other people couldn’t quite see. Apparitions, they called them.
It had started when she was five.
The other kids thought she was mad or simply making stuff up to mess with them.
At first, it’d just been a faint glimpse of light; sometimes it’d be whole beings.
Then one cold evening, she’d seen a young translucent girl with pale white skin run through the wall and through one of the sisters, who shivered and tightened her shawl around herself.
The little girl was laughing, her laughter ringing in a shrill, melodic voice that echoed throughout the halls of the small orphanage. The melancholic laughter slowly faded away as the girl vanished into thin air mid-run.
Then, before long, the apparitions became much more frequent, a howling wraith made of fire that blazed past her in the fields around the orphanage.
Disfigured beings made of darkness that floated around, radiating such a malevolent aura that it’d make her shiver even on warm evenings.
"Hey, look, it’s Emily the loony," one of the orphans, Nick, shrieked. The kids all burst out laughing and ran away in mock terror. She had long grown used to their boorish behavior and derisive laughter.
Nick was one of the kids who always went out of their way to make life a living hell for the kids who weren’t part of his group of little thugs.
He was a little taller than the rest of the kids and much bigger, too. He also packed a mean punch.
" Hey, shut it, Nick," Samantha yelled, glaring furiously at the brat.
" Or what, what are you gonna do about it, huh?" He retorted, sticking out his tongue.
"It’s ok, Sammy, He’s not worth it. He’s a perfect example of what happens when one carries around more muscle than brains." Emily loudly said, smiling sweetly.
In the next moment, a loud slap echoed through the air. Emily was suddenly sprawling on the ground with Nick’s bigger form towering over her. The other kids quickly grabbed Samantha, preventing her from intervening. She struggled furiously, but the boys held her firmly.
" What was that? I dare you to repeat that," Nick screamed, his face turning red in righteous fury.
"What kind of coward needs his underlings to beat down a girl, huh?" Samantha yelled as she struggled more violently. The boys chuckled derisively at her fruitless attempts to break free.
"It’s alright, Sammy, I can handle him on my own," Emily said calmly as she searched for her glasses on the ground.
"That’s right, Sammy, shut your mouth and do as you’re told.", Nick sarcastically taunted. The rest of his ragtag crew laughed even more.
"You’re asking for it now," Samantha shouted, as she renewed her efforts to escape her captors.
"Ignore him," Emily quietly muttered. Her hands finally grasped her glasses from where they’d fallen on the ground.
Sitting upright, she placed them back on and turned to look at Nick’s sneering form, then froze. Nick smugly stood in front of her with his hands balled into fists.
"Come on, get up. Show me how brains beat muscles." Nick taunted with a shameless grin on his face.
Samantha turned to Emily to protest, but then she noticed the look of abject horror in her friend’s eyes.
"Hey, Em, what’s wrong?" She noticed her eyes glued to Nick, who obliviously kept throwing taunts. "Em, snap out of it."
"What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue," He grinned, which elicited more wild laughing and taunting.
He confidently strode forward and grabbed Emily by the front of her shirt. As he raised his fist, the look of horror on Emily’s face intensified. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel[f]ire.net
Nick’s eyes gleamed triumphantly as he looked down at Emily.
"Just look at her, she’s so pathetic." Nick sneered.
"This is what you get for carelessly running your mouth when you’re just a weakling. Serves you right. Nobody talks back to me." Nick thought
Unbeknownst to Nick, a dark, shadowy figure had materialized behind him. It’s form towered over seven feet.
It smiled back at Emily, revealing a dark maw full of rows of jagged fangs. It placed a finger on what was supposed to be its mouth, indicating for her to be quiet. Emily whimpered in fright.
Then, in one fluid motion, it reared back and stuck its hand through Nick’s chest. A strong wind suddenly erupted in the courtyard at that moment.
Emily screamed hysterically. Nick’s eyes widened comically in shock, then rolled into the back of his head.
His mouth opened in a soundless scream. His body slowly rose into the air, limbs flailing erratically as the dark being lifted him.
The gang of boys he’d been with frantically scrambled away from him, yelling in terror.
The nuns arrived to see what the commotion was about, only to be greeted by the sight of a child "levitating" in the air.
With a violent tug, the being ripped its clawed hand out of his chest.
Nick fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth, his body convulsing violently, with wild, erratic spasms.
The shadowy figure vanished without a trace, and Nick’s body suddenly grew still like a marionette whose strings had been cut.