Out of Ashingdon

Lost souls

The small girl tipped her head upside down, and began to gather her very long wavy honey- blond locks into an unruly bun.

She pulled a face at her reflection in the tiny square mirror, and skipped out to the bedroom, where she half heartedly attempted to pull up her bed.

A loud crackling suddenly filled Wrens ears, her tiny hands flew to them to protect them from the noise. Cringing against the horrible sound, she lowered her hands as a dull voice sounded through the cell, and echoed out into the hallway beyond.

"An initiation ceremony will be held in twenty five minutes. All staff members are aware that this is uncommon, but it is compulsory after the previous events to have occurred. Once again, please meet in hall 2 for the initiation ceremony in twenty four minutes."

She chuckled at the announcer's exact precision, twenty four minutes!
But the light soon left her eyes as she was struck with the memory of Henry and Thorn's earlier discussion.

"What's her name? What does she look like?"

"I don't know. Yet,"

Why was Thorn acting like he didn't remember their plan?
Did he simply just not recognize her distinctive voice, or did he not want to follow through with the plan? No, perhaps he just didn't recognize her voice. It had been four years, after all. Her voice was bound to have changed.

He was a stranger to her now. Well, of course he was still the same old Thorn, but he was in a very different more developed body now. Maybe he had changed emotionally too. Maybe he doesn't remember her, but maybe he just doesn't care.

The speaker turned off, and Wren grimaced, biting her lip hard as she imagined what the initiation process consisted f.

She knew her worries were pointless, yet she struggled to calm her nerves. With a shrug, she began to bang on the cell door repeatedly, wincing as sharp jolts of pain shot up her thin wrists.

Deep down she knew there was nothing she could possibly do to disrupt or stop the initiation process. Her deceitful ideas would have to be put to use later, on the days and even possibly the weeks following the ceremony

She cursed herself in her head for her delicate bone structure as the cell door would not give, and the jolts of pain increased, but continued to pummel the steel door anyway.

She started to begg for mercy in her strange husky voice, until she heard heavy lazy footsteps approaching.
she wasn't at all surprised with how easy it had been to get the nurse, and was filled with satisfaction when the blob in a purple uniform waddled over to unlock the her cell.

The nurse glared at Wren from beneath her thick black eyebrows, so Wren glared back just as hard, if not harder, allowing her dark brown eyes to burn into the nurses dull grey eyes willing her to open it faster and then lessening the persuasive glare as the acceptance beep sounded, and the cell door creaked open. Her tense face broke out into a slight smile of success.

'Maybe he just has to see me. To see me, and visually remeber who I am' she thought, stepping out into the hall aglow with the pale morning light.
'I just have to speak to Thorn. Then everything will be okay,'

The chubby nurse lead the skinny girl down the thin hallway. Grunting and sniffing with every forced step.

Wren felt sorry for the women for a moment, but then remembered why she was here. This women was not someone who deserved pity, not at all. This women was disgusting, cruel, and psychotic, just like the rest of the staff here.

She grit her teeth hard together to stop from saying something she would regret, something that was sure to get her in trouble.
Her tiny hands furled into white knuckled fists behind her back as she thought of the things this woman had seen, and allowed.

Hard cold silver handcuffs had been slapped around the girl's pale wrists as soon as the nurse reclossed her cell door, and was told would only been let out of them once the initiation ceremony was complete.

Hearing those two words sent shivers down her spine, because Wren knew exactly was horrors await her at the invitation ceremony.

She had heard the rumours of these places, had caught the whispers that flew around the Saturday night feasts back in Echilia, and then had demanded confirmation of the horrible stories from Echilia's three Queens, Tressa, Estelle, and Juniper.

When she heard the stories were true, she knew she had to find out which prison her best friends were in. She knew they had been separated, that they would not all be in the same academy.
Whoever running these institutions would know better than to put five inmates in the same academy, all of which had been arrested at the same time, same place.

It was just too suspicious.

She got herself purposely thrown in here on a pure guess that at least one of her best friends would be in here, considering it was the closest to where they had been captured.

Imagine her surprise when she saw that both Henry and Thorn were inmates at Ashingdon, and that she only had three friends left to find.

She tried to push these thoughts from her crowded mind as they arrived at two smooth steel doors, a label above them reading assembly room 2.

Beyond the doors, Wren could clearly hear the excited chatter inside. When she tuned in to full volume, she could also hear every breath taken. Every heartbeat. Every whisper, every sound.
She was suddenly terrified as the near future dawned on her. How would she survive without her strong senses?
But it wasn't just her ability to hear literally everything, that she was scared of losing. Her sense of scent? Her extraordinary sight, her superhuman reflexes? And most of all, she thought of how difficult it would be to adjust to life without her persuasion.

Her key skill, what she was well known for in Echilia.

Her breath escaped from her trembling lips in nervous wobbles, but she hid it well from the nurse as she pushed open the large metal doors.

Know one must find out she knows all about this place.

Know one except for Henry, and Thorn.

And even they... she thought, as her heart rate speed up, and she wrestled wih her mind to control it. Even they, would have to wait.