The WinterGreen Orphanage

Lakeview Hotel

It was a little before midnight when they arrived. The two men, already worn out from their adventure, kept having the odd feeling of being followed by someone. This was up until passing a county border thirty miles from the orphanage.

The inside of the hotel was a beautiful, ocean themed ballroom with several door and hallways leading out of it. Everything was rather well picked up, with sparkling clean picture frames and windows.

The clerk who gave them their room was a young girl, about twenty-two, name Elizabeth. None of the other staff members seemed to know a lot about her except that when she was young, her mother disappeared mysteriously. When checking in, she looked over at William several times, her face rather blank as if without feeling. William didn't let that bother him though, he was too tired to care about anything but resting.

His father looked restless as well, but with a hint of something else...something frightful. Had he heard the voices too, or was he just spooked about the mysterious appearance and death of his wife? William tried not to give the death of his mother a lot of thought, especially since there was no possible way she got to the orphanage.

Midnight.... One... two... the hours just kept coming as William lie awake in bed. He had so many unanswered questions, so many things he thought to be impossible when he had first arrived at the orphanage.

WinterGreen, a name that had meant so much to him as a child, was now an abandoned wreck. A place taken by some lunatic, or who knows what else. His mother's death, the strange markings on his father's cane.

Something was happening, and William intended to find out what. Things had to improve if he and his father were ever to restore the orphanage to the way it was.

Rumors. Rumors were all they had heard since leaving the orphanage at a young age. Until William was eleven, they had thought it was fully functional, and may have even had new children in with all the disasters occurring over the years. They were wrong, however, and now that they had seen what condition it was in, it was time to hire some help.

William decided that he would head into town the next day and do a little more research into the orphanage. For now, he would keep an eye on his father, who was sleeping restlessly in the bed across the room. Slowly William fell asleep, not bothering to turn the lights or television off.

The next morning...

William's eyes flew open at the sound of rustling nearby. He shot up, getting off the bed almost instantly. He slowly shook his head, reaching down for his phone, which was now missing.

"Damn it..." he mumbled quietly to himself, beginning to search through drawers and cabinets. He finally found it in one of the dressers, wrapped up in his jacket. He had no memory of taking it off last night, as a matter of fact, he remembered sleeping in it. He looked over to the bed where his father had been sleeping the night before. Empty. Maybe he went down to get breakfast? William checked the clock nearby.

Five in the morning, about when his father would normally get up to cook. William nodded his head in approval and headed out to the main room of the hotel.

Barely half way out of the door a cold chill ran up William's spine and caused him to immediately turn around. Sitting toward the back of the room was a young girl. She was simply sitting there, staring at William intently, as if observing something about him or around him. And then, she suddenly vanished.

That was enough for William already, he turned and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Immediately he headed toward the stairway, going down to the main room to find his father.

William's hunch was right. His father was downstairs having a cup of coffee with Elizabeth. He looked shaken this morning, maybe William hadn't been the only one to see something strange at this early a time. Elizabeth looked more alive and aware this morning.

"Good morning, William, was it? Care to join us for coffee on this fine morning?" She smiled at him and gently pat the seat beside her. Daniel nodded, always being the more polite of the two men, even at a time like this.

"Very well." William sighed to himself once more and took a seat between the two. "How are you holding up this morning, dad?" William worriedly looked over to his father, who was much more pale than usual. Sipping his coffee quietly, Daniel looked over at Elizabeth.

"Your father saw something this morning, and I am going to assume that you did as well." She glanced over toward the stairs for a brief moment. "A young girl, sitting toward the end of the room you two were given. Am I correct?"

William nodded, "But how did you know I saw her?" Elizabeth just brushed off his question, going into the office room and rummaging through stacks of papers. The two men could hear her curse to herself several times before coming back to the table with rolls of paper folded up in her arms.

"She was the only one left at the orphanage, abandoned by all her friends." Elizabeth rolled out what looked like a floor plan for the orphanage. Pointing to the classroom the men had been in just the day before, she began to speak again. "This, is where she was last seen. This was before all the staff and...and anyone else nearby went missing." For someone who worked in a hotel office, Elizabeth seemed to know a lot about the orphanage. William felt more uncomfortable knowing this stranger had more information the he had, even though he had lived in the orphanage for the first few years of his life.

He did remember a few things, however. He could remember there was one boy he would hang out with in the orphanage, a boy named Isaac. Up until a year ago Isaac had kept in touch really well, but that suddenly stopped one day after Isaac had an accident at work.

Daniel began having a bad coughing fit, pulling William out of his thoughts and back into the real world. Elizabeth speedily went and got a handkerchief for Daniel, handing it over to him. He just kept coughing, unable to catch a breath.

William began to worry about his father, and after looking to see what may have been causing it, noticed what looked like small red handprints around his father's neck. Out of instinct he threw the rest of his coffee over onto his father, catching whatever had hold off guard.

There was a terrible screeching sound as it slithered away, knocking down most of the tables and chairs in the room. William looked over at his father.

"Don't lose it!" Daniel looked furious, as well as scared. William nodded and chased it around the corner and into the hallways. Elizabeth stayed with Daniel, observing the wounds on his neck.