Children on Scene of Bloodiest Serial Killings in a Decade

Chapter Seven

George gasped faintly when the bedroom door opened and Oscar walked in, looking weary.

'Oscar! How... how are you even still alive, let alone walking about without shackles?' Oscar threw himself onto his bed with his face sinking into the thin pillow. 

'I don't even know anymore' he said through the pillow. 

'You don't seem very happy about it...' Oscar sat up, his sunflower-coloured curls dishevelled. 

'Yeah, well, I'm not. Of course I'm not. I made him a promise, which was wrong to begin with, and then messed it all up big time so now I have absolutely zero chance of keeping it. And, you know what's worse? I should be totally happy right now. I mean, I just managed to escape The Orphanage for a whole afternoon, see actual real life corpses at a crime scene and be accepted into Chett's gang and somehow get away with it all. But I can't be happy because all I can think about it how I've probably just lost the only friend I'll ever have because I decided that I should try my luck and wander about the streets for longer. Stupid'. He put his head back onto his pillow so that George couldn't see that he had tears in his eyes.

'That's not completely true, Oscar, I mean, I'm your friend, I think... Like, sometimes you do freak me out with your weird obsessions- I don't meant to say weird! I mean, unique, or something like that... but you're also really smart, and that's cool to be around, I don't even think you realise how smart you are sometimes!'

'No! I don't want to be smart! I just want to be-'

'What?'

'It's nothing'

'Everyone makes mistakes, Oscar'

'I can't afford to. None of us can, look at us! Look at where we are! We could be trapped here for the rest of our lives! You realise that nobody actually adopts from here, that there's eighteen year olds in here who haven't been outside properly since before they can remember, not to mention adults who were forced into working here because they don't even know how to function in the real world. We have no chance on Earth of escaping if we put a single foot wrong, and even if we do everything right, we still probably won't!' Oscar didn't realise he had been shouting. George looked back at him with his mouth open. 

'Sorry, it just really pisses me off sometimes'. George almost jumped at the use of a cuss word. He was that sort of innocent. Oscar turned around to lie and face the wall. There was a knock on the door, but not just any old knock sound. It was the exact pattern that Chett has just taught him to recognise. Oscar bolted up and opened the door.

'Good, you remember'

'Of course I did'

'Come on kid, we've got some planning to do' George was peering over Oscar's shoulder as if to see if it were really the man himself. 'George is it?' He nodded enthusiastically.

'You know my name?'

'Certainly, I mean, we do live together' George laughed nervously. 'Come on, now'. Oscar followed him back through to the base which was located in Chett's large bedroom. It was the biggest room in The Orphanage by far, excluding the kitchen, dining room and the rooms that slept the people who worked there. It was also prime location for private discussions as it was situated up its own staircase on the fourth floor in the building. It had once been reserved for misbehaving children (and in some ways it still was) but Chett was granted special privileges for doing what he did.

To put it simply, Chett was no gang leader. In fact, he was a businessman. A freelance businessman who would find any and every way to make quick cash that he could. Whether it be something as simple and timeless as pick pocketing, or stealing and selling stuff on, or something more entreprenurial like organising a group to manufacture handmade jewellery and sell it on Byres Road. In fact, his business had become so successful that he was now granted more privileges than anyone had ever received at The Orphanage before. He managed a few shops on Byres Road himself, mainly "vintage" or "second-hand" stores that actually consisted of stolen goods. He was cunning and clever enough to bargain for good deals in every aspect of his business, and charming enough to convince people to work for him, buy more from him and sell more to him.