Free: Into The Woods

Chapter Six

I passed the cafeteria, following Ms. Jen towards what seemed like the front of the orphanage. I assumed we were going to her office so that we could talk in private, but for all I know she could be taking me to the headmistress. We neared the area where all of the administrators' offices were and like I had guessed, Ms. Jen opened the door to her office. Except she didn't offer for us to sit like she had the previous times I got in trouble and had to go to Ms. Jen's office, instead she kept walking until she was standing in front of the only space of bare brick wall in the room.

I practically had the whole office memorized; it had a desk with 2 chairs in the center of the room, and the walls were covered with bookshelves, except for that one piece of bare wall. I hadn't noticed how strange it looked until now, I also hadn't noticed how incredibly bleak the office is. Just a few main things, there aren't any little trinkets on the desk or even a plant in the room.

"This part will be a little strange," Ms. Jen said, searching for a particular book on the shelves, or I assumed that's what she's doing.

"Okay," I said, wondering what could be so strange that she had to warn me.

It only took a little bit of time before Ms. Jen grabbed a plain brown book and pulled it into a diagonal position and then set it back in, like in a movie with a secret passage. Excitedly, I anxiously waited for a wall to slide away, or a bookshelf to flip around, but none of that happened. I only heard a faint rumble, but it could have only been from my imagination.

My smile disappeared and was replaced by a confused look, "Umm, sooo what happened?" I said, referring to the still-the-same-looking room.

Ms. Jen smiled like she was having fun with this, and then she stepped towards the bare brick wall. No, stepped through the brick wall. I gasped, my eyes as wide as ever, "Ms. Jen?!" I screamed.

She poked her head through the wall, "Shhhhh! It's just an illusion now hurry up," she waved her hand forward, offering me to follow.

"No way! I'm not walking through a wall!" I said, whispering defiantly.

Ms. Jen poked her head out again and rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, there's someone you need to see."

My eyes narrowed together, "Some-one?" I asked.

"Yes, now hurry up!" Ms. Jen said from the other side of the wall.

I stepped towards the wall and put my hand through, testing it just to be sure. It felt fine so I stepped through the wall, it didn't feel any different than walking normally. I surveyed my new surroundings, it was a hallway with slick gray walls and a dirt floor- Wait?! Dirt floor?! I thought, Oh my goodness this is where the room is! Now I was super anxious, Is Ms. Jen going to give me another test?!

"Don't worry, it's not a test," Ms. Jen said, reading my thoughts, "Now we must hurry, she's waiting."

She? I thought slowly, Who could it be? I honestly don't know.

We hurriedly walked down the hall, turning bends and passing doors, there were too many for me to remember. We finally slowed to a walk as we neared a simple gray door, "Alright, this is it," Ms. Jen said.

She pulled the door open for me to walk in, the room was similar to the one that I was in before, except it was a little bigger and had a wooden table with 4 chairs and in one of the chairs was, "Indigo!!" I cried out, racing across the room and strangling Indigo with the tightest hug I could manage. I started to cry, "Indigo I am so sorry! I didn't mean to ignore you in that short time we had before you had to leave, I should have been there for you. I should have got to know your new family and spend time with you. I'm so sorry!!"

She smiled at me and returned the tight hug, starting to cry too, "I'm sorry too!"

We cried on each other's shoulders for as long as Ms. Jen would let us, which wasn't very long before she told us to sit down so we could have the conversation that I've been dreading.

"Nyla you're probably wondering why Indigo is here," Ms. Jen said calmly. I nodded my head slightly in agreement. "Well, Indigo was adopted by- you know Indigo you should tell the story."

Indigo sighed, "The family that wanted to adopt me weren't a family of four, they- well-" she took a deep breath, "The parents don't have 'kids,' they adopt a bunch of children to use them as test subjects for an experiment they're doing, and that's all I know. All of the kids there were beat up and sad... scared for their lives," she paused as if remembering it, then shivered and continued, "I couldn't stay there any longer, and I tried to get others to come with me but... they were just too scared," She hung her head sadly.

"It's not your fault that they're still there," I said calmly, "How did you get out?"

She clenched her fists, "By doing something I shouldn't have done," she took a long pause, her eyes watery, "It was my turn to make dinner... I found some sedatives that I assumed were used for the experiment, and I-"

I didn't expect her to finish that sentence, so instead, I put my hand on her shoulder and hugged her. Even though I didn't say anything to her, we know each other well enough to read each other's body language and expressions.

Ms. Jen gave us a moment of silence before she told us that she had a lot to explain, "This is going to get complicated," she said, sighing, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

I nodded, my eyes wide, "Ohh yeah. First things first, you told me that I was 'Finally Ready' but ready for what?"

She sighed again, "I can't tell you everything, I need you to know that, there's only so much I know, so much I can explain, and so much you should know."

I furrowed my brow, confused at how vague Ms. Jen was being, "I don't understand, why can't you just tell me."

She looked at the ceiling, staying silent long enough to make me want to punch her. Except I didn't get the chance because she finally told me, "There are things you don't understand... about you... and your parents. You're finally ready to know the truth."

A/N: I am so sorry, this chapter is SO bad. Please, please, please give me some advice for this one!!