Short Stories

Prompt #19

You come to the realisation that the fence around the orphanage is to keep the public safe from the kids - not the other way around.

There is an orphanage in my town, an old bunker has been converted into the living space of children. It's dreary exterior had been painted by the children, replacing the greyness of the walls. It had a fence around it and always had a guard stood by the gate. At school, rumor has it that the children in the orphanage are kids with bad behavior and criminals, we all stay away from them at school, well usually.

I had been partnered with one of the kids from the home, a kid same height as me, looked a bit scrawny but healthy all the same. He had black hair and bright grey, almost white eyes. Everyone called him Morton, but his real name was Luke, Luke Morton. We had received a new teacher at school just recently and over the last few weeks, he'd apparently learned of our discrimination of the 'bad' children and his determination to stop this leads to where I was now. Our teacher Mr. Stanton had forced a project upon us all, not only that, but he had chosen our partners for us. I don't know who looked more terrified. Us or the children from the home.

When I came home I had to let my parents know of my predicament before going over to the home to discuss things with Morton. My father disapproved, but my mother, always the optimist, pushed me towards the idea of befriending the children, and with some encouragement and sidewards glances at my father, he too changed his mind, claiming that real men did the right thing. In this case, it was being friends with the kids that nobody dared to go near.

As I approached the guarded gate the guard eyed me cautiously before resting his shoulders and interrogating me.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm here to speak to Luke Morton, we were assigned a project together."

"What kind of project?"

"We were asked by our teacher to study historic buildings in our neighbourhood."

"Are you expected today?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at this, did we really need to make an appointment to meet the children inside. Did everyone have to? Another mysterious issue with the orphanage.

"I told Luke I'd be here today, I asked him to check if I was allowed to visit. We really need to do our project sir."

The guard turned away and spoke into a walkie talkie attached to his gear and I heard a voice crackle from it before the man turned back to me and allowed me inside. He stared at me as I passed him inside before he closed the gate tightly again. What a weird place this was. I admit I was nervous, I was walking into the den of supposed offenders and criminals who started young. I walked up to the door and knocked, using the heavy knocker attached to the door and pushing it hard against the door three times.

Luke Morton opened the door, a blank expression on his face. He quickly looked around him, before pulling me inside. "Quick come this way." He jolted forward and I chased after him. We reached a long corridor and he ducked inside a room and I followed. Once inside he locked his door behind me. "Sorry about that, this is my room."
I looked around and admired what I saw. A high bunk bed with a desk and work station below it, beanbags and a tv and games console in the corner of the room, a wardrobe full of clothes, the sliding doors having full-length mirrors. It was a modern and clean room, the only thing it lacked was colour as the curtains and all other features displayed a monochrome colour scheme. But most of all, it looked like a normal child's room.