GLASS CHILDREN [Completed]

ROOM 61

Standing in front of the two numbers he'd worked so hard to get to—fighting off some weird ghost-thing of a kid who kept asking where his mommy was all the way from room number eight and having to deal with seeing a dead baby turn into maggots—Nikolas was dumbfounded on what to do.

"Go in," a familiar voice said from behind him that made the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "William told you that's where the game is, didn't he?"

Nikolas was afraid to answer, but did anyway: "Yeah," he whispered. "He did."

"Then go in...it's not bad."

"I know it is."

"No."

"Yes."

"Fine," Lily huffed. "I'll have to make you go," she whispered in his ear which made a shiver run up his spine that lingered. "Room 61 is the last room in this hall...the only one that's not numbered with an even number in case you haven't noticed."

What's so special about that?

"I don't care about some stupid room," Nikolas said, getting angry with her. "I'm done playing these pathetic games. Why am I here anyway?"

"B—"

"None of this would've happened if I would've just stayed at home and slept in my closet like I do most of the time when my parents fight!"

"Just l—"

"SHUT UP! NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE ANYWAY! WHAT'S UP WITH THIS PLACE?! WHY'RE YOU ALL HERE?" Nikolas was yelling now and his voice was echoing throughout the cold ad lonely hallways of Rosewood Asylum, but he couldn't bring down his voice due to his being upset. It was impossible for him to control his anger most of the time, but in other words he was just like the rest of the children here: lost and confused.

Lily slammed her fists down against her sides. "WE'RE ALL LOST, OKAY?! Nothing helps and nothing can make us leave. If we die here, we're stuck in this place forever until we can leave...that's how it is. But Levi and I can't leave...we're their protectors, I guess, or something like that."

The boy's heart sank. He kind of started to feel sorry for her, but at the same time, his anger was still buried deep inside of his mind and he couldn't shake the feeling of himself being closed in and next to an eyeless little boy for the rest of his life. "I...I'm—"

"You wanted an answer, so you got one, Nikolas. You can leave if you want, but believe me: everything follows you. The bad stuff that you've done," she paused, beginning to scratch as her arm as if it were layered in mosquito bites. "It follows you and it never leaves. Ever."

"But...but I haven't done anything bad," Nikolas replied, feeling as if he were entirely wrong.

"Yes," Lily argued with him. "You have. Reach into your back pocket and pull out what's back there...you'll see."

"See what?"

"Just do as I said."

Without regret, Nikolas reached into his back pocket and moved his hand down far enough to where he could feel a metal object that was rounded like some type of oval shape with a thin piece over the side. At first, he couldn't have guessed what it was, but then he wrapped his fingers around it and removed it from his back pocket. "A switch blade?" he questioned, confused as to why it was even in his back pocket in the first place. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with anything," Lily smirked, moving behind him to open the door to the mysterious Room 61. "Come on in this time. It's fun."

Nikolas shoved the knife into his hoodie pocket. "That's what you all say about everything."

Opening the door, Lily moved aside to let Nikolas go in first. In the beginning, he resisted to going into the strange room that was probably filled with murder weapons and horrible splatters of blood on the wall based from Lily's behavior about the whole place.

"Hello, Nikolas," a tiny and soft voice came from a comfy chair in the corner of the room. "Whewe did you come fwom?"

He could tell that it was Arthur by the lisp and British-like accent that he and the other two toddlers possessed. "William told me to come here," he forced down the lump of air in his throat with nervousness coursing through his veins. "Why?"

"We just wanted to know," Arthur hopped down and walked over to him, slowly taking off his gasmask and holding it above the floor in his small hand. "We'we diffewent now."

Actually, Arthur wasn't wrong at all. As Nikolas looked around in the room, he saw William and Judith in the adjacent corner playing with a few old toys, their gasmasks off of their faces as well and tossed to the floor beside them; they, too, looked different in appearance. William had both of his eyes and his skin wasn't as pale as it had been; Judith had a full set of pearly-white teeth that used to be blackened and chipped; Arthur's hair wasn't a mess anymore and all ten of his tiny fingernails were there without a flaw. "Is this how...?"

"How they looked before the accidents?" Lily finished his questioned aloud, crossing her arms and she leaned against a wall. "Yep. Before they got here, that's what they looked like: adorable and—"

"Mis-Mischievous?" Arthur struggled with the big word.

"Yeah..." Lily smirked at the boy, watching him cross his legs on the floor and join the other kids in playing their games. "Mischievous."

"How'd the get here anyway?" Nikolas questioned, glancing over at the trio of toddlers on the floor as they played with various blocks and metal toys that had to have been from at least eighty-plus-years ago. "Like, where were they all before? They don't sound American."

"Originally, I'm guessing that they're from London based on their accents and what they remember about their deaths."

"How did they die?"

"Ask them."

"What?"

"You heard me," Lily said, walking over to the children. "Ask them how they died."