The Orb

Chapter 9

Nightmares

Karla stood separate from the throng of people milling around in the cold train station. All were excitedly greeting each other as they recalled their respective Easter breaks. Karla was not included but she was not the least upset, she preferred it this way.

Karla looked at her watch again for the umpteenth time, it had only been 5 minutes since the conductor had announced that the train they were all waiting for was running 10 minutes late which meant she still had another 30 minutes to wait, for Karla it seemed that time had become still dragging on forever and sighed bored!

She had left alone in her prize purple Mini, (another apologetic gift given by her parents for missing another one of her Birthdays,) from her parent's small holiday cottage near a small seaside town called Largs on the West coast of Scotland. Her journey had begun even before the day's sun rise in order to make a train leaving from Queen's Street Station in the heart of Glasgow at 5:00 am. From there she had taken a train to Edinburgh's main train station that was over looked by the ancient Castle, that tourists from all over the world came to gawk at as they were laughably trying to discover their own ancestor's roots!

From Edinburgh another train had carried her and some of her fellow students to the most northern city in Scotland, Aberdeen, which was where she now stood awaiting another train along with the rest of her fellow pupils. Thankfully this was the last part of her journey but it was slightly different as this train only one had one stop to make and was not available to the general public. Their final destination was the small isolated village of Traglane, which was situated in a bleak area valley that was located in the Highlands. The village's existence had been wiped from every known map and database; even satellite imagery came up blank as only those permitted knew that it was there. Traglane had existed for over 300 years, its creation was purely to act as a home for all the staff whose sole purpose was the smooth running of a private teaching establishment known simply as 'The School' catering to the children of the world's elite.

During those 300 years the school had churned out the future leaders of the world shaping it into a predestined image that 'The School's creators had foreseen. Every child sent there had parents' who had attended it before them and their grand-parents before that with their blood lines all linked back directly to the original families that had first attended.

At the school the pupils were moulded to become the next generation of leaders of industry, Commanders of Armies', Presidents' of countries and even pioneers in various fields, each stepping into their parents' shoes, none of the pupils had any say in the matter. Each child that attended had to meet criteria of being extremely intelligent and gifted which was to be expected after years of designed breeding, those who fell by the way side were used as breeders. Occasionally children were accepted in from outside the designed lineage as they were recognised as future players in the world, (protégées). So not to upset their grand scheme, those children were then prepared to become the servants of those Elites! Karla's own parents' and elder sister had walked the hallowed halls of the establishment before her and a heavy weight of responsibility sat upon her shoulders for she was expected to continue their esteemed legacy.

"Hey Karla!" A friendly voice called out to her startling her as everyone else around her had made a deliberate effort to keep their distance from her as she was viewed as a pariah, one who refused to follow the rules laid down by The School which gave her plenty of time to contemplate her depressing thoughts.

"Joyce!" Karla greeted her one and only true friend hugging her warmly returning the greeting given to her. The girl was older than everyone present, as she had been forced to repeat her final year after she had missed the previous one due to illness. "So what did the doctors say?"