The Orphanage

Chapter 5

Those two weeks we had of our punishment were horrible! I had not gotten a detention in a while so I had forgotten exactly how painful they were.  Sure, I would take care of Isabelle after her detentions, so I knew how horrible your skin looked afterward and I imagined how painful it was, but imagining the pain and actually experiencing it were completely different.

You see, when I first came here I was a bit rebellious and did as I thought right, so I would often get detention.  But as I grew up I realized that the best way to survive here was to simply do as you’re told. Even if you hated it, it was always best to keep your head down and your nose clean, and that is what I had started to do.  The teachers thought they had finally managed to break me and turn me into their little puppet, but they couldn’t have been more wrong.  I had simply become smarter and started to secretly plan out my escape from this hell-hole where I live.  

It had taken years for the whole plan to be made and for me to be old enough.  You see, I had started planning this when I was 12 and was ready to leave this place, but I knew I wasn’t really mature enough to be able to survive on my own.  That is why I waited until I finally turned 16 and was mature enough.  Now originally this was a solo plan, I couldn’t really trust anyone in this place.  Who knew who was a puppet to the directors and would rat me out the moment they found out?  I simply couldn’t risk it.  But all that changed once I got to know Isabelle.  She was a fighter, she would fight for what she believed in and would not back down.  Isabelle became a friend, the first one I have had since Emily, and I knew I could trust her.

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This time around Isabelle and I were a lot more careful in making our plan, making sure not to talk about it or accidentally leave it out instead of putting it away in a safe place.  Since the directors now had our room bugged, they could hear our conversations.  However, they still respected some of our privacy and had yet to install any cameras.  This made Isabelle and I invent some kind of code for what we were trying to say, so the directors would not suspect anything. We also started giving each other little notes written in the aforementioned code as an extra precaution so as to insure no one found out our plan this time.

As for practicing my 'power'  I had taken to doing that in the school gym at midnight so as to do it privately and not be called a freak again.  I was not advancing as quickly as l would have liked with my power development but I kept at it.  I would succeed in controlling it and actually using it and not just doing everything possible to make sure it didn't come out at unexpected times.  Plus, as my parents used to say “Practice makes perfect” so I just had to continue practicing and I would succeed.

In the little free time Isabelle and I had between all this and school we would run up to the library, a place I previously avoided because of its sleepy and stuffy atmosphere, and researched everything that might be helpful, practicing these newly acquired techniques also at midnight.  Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep in that time, but perfecting our new plan was more important than sleep.  Sleep was reserved for a few minutes during class and also a few hours during the weekend.

Finally, 2 weeks after the allotted time, our new plan was better than ever and ready to put into action.  We would make our escape Sunday at midnight, when everyone was fast asleep and then we would then proceed from there.

It was Saturday afternoon, the day before the big escape, and Isabelle and I were at the art room getting some supplies we might need.  We had already gotten black fabric paint, scissors and were about to leave when Isabelle grabbed some duct tape.

“What do we need duct tape for?” I asked.  Nowhere in the plan was there any need to tape things.

“Duct tape works for everything.  You should always carry some duct tape with you just in case.” She answered cryptically.