The Demoner Series: The Trails

Chapter Five - The Escape To Playground

  As I reach the corridor of rooms, I noticed the flowing number of orphan to room twelve and thirteen. I sigh to myself and pushed myself through the crowd. It feels like I'm in an eager mob rushing to the cafeteria. The tight squeeze through the crowd is almost impossible to breathe. To survive it, you need to take a very deep breath and push in as hard as you can or wait till it is over but that's not what I want. I took in a deep breath and rushed in to the crowd.

  "Heck, they should have made a rule for orderly manners," I thought to myself.

  The smell of sweat is very strong flooded my nose with ever inhale I took. Some orphans have went playing at the playground and came back without taking a bath! Peeyouh! They sure stinks. As I squeeze in, a boy who was covered in sweat went next to me. As his shirt met mine, the sweat filled clothes rubbed against my clothes. The sweat was passed onto me, that was just so dirty and disgusting. As always, when I squeeze out of a crowd, I literally flew forward.

  "Finally, fresh air" I started to pant, taking as much fresh air I can get. I glared back at the boy. "Hey, at least bathe first please!"

  Soon, all orphans went to bed. The teacher enters the room to turn off the lightings in the room. A pitch darkness almost seems like it pounded into the room, eating up every trace of light. The moonlight from the window beside me barely made it through, pushing itself into the deadly darkness. The darkness sucks up all light like the black hole, almost preying on every bit of light. My bed felt so soft, so welcoming.

  I thought of what happened today, about me meeting Raymond at the cafeteria for dinner and a teacher came to stop a possible fight, then Raymond told me to......

  My eye suddenly shot open, all sleep forgotten. Raymond said to meet him at the playground after sleeping time. I glance out through the window, my fingers on the window sill. The playground seems empty, with no sign of Raymond. Suddenly, I see a odd shape at the corners of my eyes.

  The figure seems to blend into the dark shadow of the orphanage. I would have been screaming and shouting that there is a trespasser in the playground, hands frantically flying all over the place, throwing my pillow and blanket around and waking up the others. That will be how I will panic in that situation.

  However, this is no ordinary trespasser, the faint light of the streets lamps shown on him, displaying a tall muscular teenager on the sand of the playground. I can trace out his shape, his hair swirled in the wind with a light glow of gold. There is no doubt to who he is.

  Raymond.

  Suddenly, he glances up to my window and our eyes meet each other's. His brows tilted and his eyes narrowed towards me. He starts to tap on his wrist, and gesturing me to come down with a wide wave of his thick arm. He added with fist pointing upwards to me and raise it up threateningly. Recognising the motion as "you are late, better come down or I will punch you."  , I decide to leave my bed to meet him. I throw my blanket to the side, swinging my legs in an arch outwards to the floor. I tip toe to the door and place my ears on it. There is a soft creaking sound of steps and it gets closer and closer, moving towards my direction. The sound is getting louder and more distinctive. I squeak in surprise as light shown below the door. I stood there,  absolutely still. I have no wish to make a noice, it can change my fate. If I am caught, I will not eat for a day! Life in the orphanage are unreasonably harsh. Even the slightest mistake can get you to suffer hunger or detention. Life sucks here but if I leave, I will be left with nothing.

  The footsteps die down through the corridor and light starting to fade, the same fierce darkness envelope the corridor once again, willing to devour all light. That's one problem with having only a small window at the end of the long corridor. It just gets so dark that you can't see a thing. I turned the doorknob.

  "Creeeaak..."

  I shut my eyes, hoping that the teacher does not hear it. Sensing nothing around, I took a peek with one eye, hoping to see nothing. Silence and darkness welcome me to the dark corridor. It reminds me of a horror movie, where there is a corridor of pure darkness and finding the way out. One wrong move and the ghost will haunt you. My arms starts to shake and knees wobble at the thought.

  "It is my turn now, one move and the teacher will haunt me," I think to myself.

  With every move of the door, the same creaking sound echo in my ears, I look with only one eye to see, the other shut tight to pray in my mind that nothing happened. It felt like an hour just to open a poorly oiled door, with all the creaking, I can think of a teacher coming into the corridor out of the blue, seeing a door opened with a little child holding on the doorknob, looking around in uncertainty.

  I look around, the orphans are asleep, the Teachers are out of sight. I heave a long sigh of relieve, and place my hand on my heart, feeling the fast pacing of beats against my chest. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. The air rushed into my lungs to provide a slight pressure to the chest and as I exhale, the air rush out, relieving my heart and chest. Trying to keep as calm as possible, I thought of good memories in the orphanage. Bah, nothing good ever happens here. Except for when I win from a fight with Raymond. A smile creases over my face at the thought, the loud THUD replays in my ears.

  "Most satisfying thing I have ever done," I think to myself.

Surprisingly, I feel strong and calm. I remember that this is Raymond who I had defeated in a fight, against the most infamous bully in the orphanage! I open my eyes to the lengthy corridor, the evil darkness flood my mind once again. I will myself to see through the dark to meet Raymond.

  Suddenly, the surroundings felt brighter again. It is as if I can see in the dark! I jump in surprise, speechless at what I can do, to see in the darkness! I look at the door lined on the wall of the corridors, and see the distinct details of the doors. The numbers on the door was focused and the curves of patterns became clear!

I have clearly lost my mind now...

  I crept down the staircase to the ground floor. Everything is as clear as daylight, the clock above the Teachers' room shows nine thirty at night, I can even see the picture and colours of historical arts lined along the lower hall. The streetlight from the open window of the hall brighten certain spot of the room. A ladder lay beside the window. Trying out this amazing eye ability, I peered forward, willing to see the photos of this orphanage's founders. In a blink of my eye, my eyesight magnifies so much that I can see the earrings of Ms Krane, the founder. I was so surprised by the sudden magnification that I jump backwards, for a moment thinking that it was the photo popping just in front of me. In the back of my head, I feel like something is draining from me, something like a fluid being sucked out of me. I shook my head, hoping that I was imagining things. Everything went back to normal, I can't see anything properly now. Once again, it seems like a big shadow of a giant covered the room.

  "Why am I here? How can I escape the orphanage to the playground to meet Raymond?" I asked myself.

  The window! That's it! I tip toe forward and tried to will out the night vision again, it started flashing a bit but fail. I can feel the fluid in my mind fully drained away.

  The ladder is placed conveniently placed next to the window. I climbed up the rusty ladder. The ladder creak and squeak  as I ascend up the steps, each time my hand and feet turning dusted with rust. The window was not far away now. The window is wide and was just enough to fit Raymond.

  "This should be how Raymond got out." I thought.

  I jump out of the window on to the soft landing of sand, rolling on the ground. I use one arm to arch to my waist, using my balled up shape to roll on the ground, using the landing force to bounce up for a good smooth roll.

  A slow clap can be heard from a distance as I land. "Nice landing..." says Raymond. The playground is beside a road, the street lamps lit up the playground. We stand ten metres from each other.

  "What do you want?" I glare at him.

  What does he want to do now?