The Cursed Orphanage

Chapter 2: The Horror

The next day, was no better than the previous one... We have been woken up at 7:00, just as we usually were, but trust my words, no living soul could fall asleep that night, therefore it wasn't a challenge to get out of our dully lit chambers. I knew it perfectly, that in 15 minutes we will have to be downstairs, in the eatery, that's what we call the huge room, with a half collapsed ceiling, grey unpainted walls and the stink that seemed to live and prosper, mixing with different other smells, therefore producing an incredibly disgusting atmosphere in the room. Once I was downstairs with my whole room-group, it wasn't long until I found the place to seat myself down and get settled in for the announcements, and by looking at the people around you could tell that I was not the only one awaiting for them. Once our director was up on the stage, it was obvious that the thoughts in his head were exactly the same as in ours... For your note, he was the only honest and fair person among all the adults here. He was over 70 years old, with a short, hoary hair, yet green charming eyes. It seemed as though he had an answer to any question you could possibly think of. We knew, he was about to give us a lecture-long announcements...
" Good morning, kids" he started his talk trying to sound cheerful.
" We all know by now about the yesterday's event, but no matter how shocking and unpredictable was ... hm..." Mr. Patterson couldn't go on like this...
" We all need to give a minute of mourning  to  poor Nina, and I hope, that smart and ambitious girl is now in a better place... Nonetheless, we all need to keep going. I swear, I will put this all down, so everything will be back to normal in no time. Thank you for your attention, finish your supper and get to work."
" His heart is made out of stone" whispered in my ear my friend George. As a result of him never taking care of his appearance that much, his ginger hair were always tangled and mangled. Although, generally he was a tidy person, he kept saying: " Even if I would look fascinating, they would never lower their "royal" expectations anyway".
He was obviously correct at this point. I was trying to find the right words, but all I could squeeze out of my mouth was:
" You know what? I would not like to be the next to be chained to the floor".
" Agree" he breathed out shortly. Apparently he did not have anything to add either...
In 5 minutes we have been gone to our working stations, for me, I was supposed to be helping to wash the floors in our chambers with some other guys. For George, he had to help outside, gardening (even though we had such a pathetic garden). Today, I was especially lucky, it was my turn to be washing the toilet floors, "looser's job" that was the perfect name for such thing.
I was supposed to be there from 9:00 am, all the way to 20:00 pm, where in some countries they call 2 hours of child work a labor...
At eight o'clock at the evening we met each other in the library, which again was pretty pathetic, however you could be sure that the library is the comfiest place in this "forgotten by gods" orphanage. George was already inside, looking over an old tome, you could even see the dust rising up to the lamp.
"Hey George!" I exclaimed.
" Hi there! Come look at what I have found" he murmured with a slight mystery trembling in his voice.
" I wonder where you found this..." I stared at him with worry.
" Ms. Bagham, an old hen! She forgot to lock the library for the advanced learning..." I had nothing more to say, so
I've came over, but I didn't get a point of having a half erupted book on the table... But he elucidated that it was " A great history of the orphanage". I have never known about even a slightest existence of it! I've skimmed through some paragraphs, and it became clear that the basement of it was by far the most mysterious place you could find. According to the old legends, there was an antique object that was made for summoning ghosts, but it a was just a legend, I guess. The object was secretly hidden by its keeper - The Hermit, and the place itself was camouflaged so well that no observant eye would be able to find out its spot...
" Look, we have to investigate the matter of this event, or I will never be able to even fall asleep!" George said with a high pitched voice.
" Will you shut up!!!?" yelled just as usually our librarian Mr. Scroop.
" You won't be able to fall asleep because of unsolvable mystery, or because you are scared to be the "next"??" I asked, trying not to let the laugh out.
" Didn't you hear the librarian, just shut up..." he commented, slightly offended.
"We should head off to the basement today, and perhaps we would be able to find some clues" I said a bit quieter.
" I know right! We can't let the mystery of the year just slip away" said George.
" So, let's just gather our stuff, but make sure Ms. Begham doesn't notice and puts all this down before it all starts, while I will collect all the needs" I reminded my friend.
"Alright," George laughed with the upper excitement , " Just don't forget the flash light, we are gonna need it " he grinned at me.