I was four when they brought me to this place. I made a lot of friends here. I felt accepted. No one has tried to hurt me here. I feel safe. This is my home, the orphanage.
My name is Charley. I never knew my mom and I can hardly remember my dad. All I can remember is a black figure that, I think, was the reason I was brought here. I never told anybody about that.
"Hey, Charley!" Amy called. "The bell already rang, aren't you coming down?"
"I'll just go to the bathroom." I replied. I blasted off towards the bathroom and washed my face. I looked in the mirror. A pair of green eyes was staring at me. I realized they were mine
Amy is my best friend. Although I am three years her senior, we still grew close, along with the other children here. See, I am already 16, close enough before I leave this place. Well, I'm not the only one. I can't even imagine how I am going to do that. I grew up here. This place means a lot to me, I can't let this go but I have to. I have to move on and find what's in for me. I have to find my family, whether some of them may be dead, they're still my family and I want to find them, ask them for questions. Questions only they can answer.
"Charley! Come on now!" Amy called.
"I'm coming!" I dried my face with a towel then ran towards her.
"What took you so long?" She asked me.
"Nothing, I'm just... tired."
"Tired, huh? You were sleeping for like ten hours. And now, you're still tired." She eyed me. I looked down.
"Come on, now. Don't start with me." She laughed at my face when I blurted that out.
"Okay." She was still laughing.
"What's the matter?" I asked her, curious.
"Nothing."
When we reached the hall, everyone was already there. We found our place and sat down. Maggie, Dustin and Jennifer were already here. Maggie was 13, Dustin also 16 and Jennifer, 15.
"Are you okay?" Jennifer asked me.
"Yeah, why?" I raised an eyebrow. I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline. Something's wrong here.
Jennifer shook her head. I was hungry for answers. Good thing, Dustin was aware of that and he answered.
"You remember Sarah and Ryan?" He asked me.
"Yeah, they were with me when that happened. Why?"
"They were found this morning, in the yard. No life."
I was startled. I felt a lump on my throat which made me mute. It wasn't their fault when that happened. It was all me. I felt guilty for them. It should never be that way.
"It was all my fault. It should have been me." I whispered.
"Shh, Charley. Don't say that." Amy said. "It's going to be okay. Trust me."
"Charley, I think someone is looking for you." Maggie said as she pointed Miss Farrow, the in-charge in the orphanage. She was walking towards our table, holding pieces of paper. 'Not adoption papers', I thought.
"Winchester, follow me."
I followed Miss Farrow to the foyer. There, an old man was sitting on the couch. He was wearing a dark shirt topped with a checkered polo, a denim jeans. His face was old and bearded. He was also wearing a bull cap.
"Charley, this is Bobby Singer." Miss Farrow introduced me to the man. He stood up and offered his hand. I shook it. Miss Farrow gestured for us to sit down.
"I... What does this mean?" I asked out of nowhere, which was pretty lame. 'You're being adopted, moron!' I thought.
"Charley, I know it's been a long time. Aren't you happy you're being adopted?" Miss Farrow sounded like she wanted me out of here. That was a bit offensive.
"Are we related?" I asked the man named 'Bobby'.
"No," He said. 'Damn, why me?' I thought again. "But I know your family." That sounded convincing.
"You do?" I know he's telling the truth. I can sense it.
"I think I'll leave you two." Miss Farrow felt a bit out-of-place so she decided to bail out. "Charley, if ever you're leaving now, have your bags packed and see me in the office." I nodded. Then she left.
"Charley, if you're ready now, I want you to come with me and meet your family." Bobby said.
"Can you give me a couple of minutes? I'll be back." I told him.
"Sure."
I left the room and tried to find my friends. I found Dustin running up the staircase. I ran after him trying to catch him up.
"Dustin!" I called but he didn't hear me. He was running fast until he turned left to a corner near the balcony. I tried to catch up then I saw a scene that would change my life.
Amy was standing on the rails of the balcony, suicidal. 'No, not Amy!' My mind was shouting. If I didn't let 'that' happen, she wouldn't be in this situation.
"Amy!" Dustin called. I stiffened. "Come down here. Don't do that."
"No! They will take Charley away from me." She shouted. Then she turned her head fully. Literally fully, like seeing Linda Blair in the movie 'The Exorcist'. Then she fixed her gazed on my, her eyes bloodshot.
"You've got to be kidding me." I mumbled. She was possessed. I realized that seeing this kind of thing in person is much scarier that in movies. 'Now how did I think of that? What do I know about those things?' My mind's making me freak out.
"Charley..." Amy said. Or not. Her voice wasn't the usual. It was more of a deep growl, like from deep under the ground. She jumped off the rail.
"Amy!" I tried to save her, but it was too late. Dustin then came to my side. He held me in his arms protectively. I started to sob softly, not to make him hear but he did.
"Shh, it's going to be okay. You're going to be fine," He held my face securely in his hands. He brushed the tears off my cheeks. "Let's just go down."
We went down to the lobby. 'Shit, Bobby' I realized Bobby had been there waiting for me. I looked for Bobby but he wasn't there.
"Bobby?" I called. "Dustin, help me find Bobby, we need to get out of here." I turned to face Dustin, he wasn't there.
"What the hell?" I exclaimed.
"Guess again." A voice said. 'No' I thought. It was the same voice that came out from Amy. I turned to face him. It was inside Dustin.
"Dustin, no." I tried to calm him down. Dustin attacked me. I tried to run but he caught me, He smashed me right to the floor and pinned me down. As I tried to strangle, he growled. Blood was streaming down my cheeks, and a pain jolted down my shoulder. My shoulder's broken.
"I have to kill you. I have to kill all of you!" He was drooling all over me, 'Gross' I tried to react but it was no time for that.
"Why?" I stuttered.
"It was all your fault why I became like this." His face was distorted, the black in his eyes were gone. Then all of a sudden he looked at me with pupils dilated. No, his eyes were pitch black.
'Demon?' My mind suggested. "No, no...n-nno" I chattered as I gathered up my strength and tried to shove him off me, but I failed.
"Do you honestly think you can get through me?" He laughed. I saw a gash of blood streaming from his forehead.
"Dustin, please." I pleaded softly. "Don't do this."
"NO! THIS WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"Yeah! But why bother killing my friends too? WHY DON'T YOU JUST KILL ME NOW?" I bellowed with rage. Then I heard a gunshot. I saw Bobby along with two other men. They were holding shotguns.
"Get off her." The shorter man pointed his gun at Dustin. Dustin didn't move.
"No, please. Don't kill him. He's possessed." I told them. Dustin was staring at me, smiling wide.
"Enjoy a little family reunion, Charley?" He told me. 'Family?'I thought. God! If they happen to be my brothers I'd be damned to have such handsome ones.
"Again, Get off her." The man was pissed now. "Or face your death." He aimed at Dustin.
"Dean, wait." The taller man told him. "There's human inside."
"Aren't you gonna do anything?" Bobby asked.
"It's just a ghost I think." The taller man held a bottle full of water and sprinkled some on Dustin.
"What the-" I started to blurt out but the man called Dean cut me off.
"Yeah. A ghost." Then he shot Dustin at the back. Dustin fell back.
"Dustin?" I moved towards him. He was not breathing. Then I turned to them, "You killed him! You... He was my friend!"
"He's still alive, Charley." Bobby told me but it made no difference.
"What? How? He's not breathing."
"Sam, we have to find the remains." Dean told the taller guy then he turned to me. "Charley, hey, we need your help."
"What about Dustin?"
"I'll bring him to the hospital." Bobby offered.
"The hospital's two miles from here." I told him.
"Don't worry. He can make it." Bobby assured me.
"Charley, come on." Sam took my hand and led me towards the hall. "Now, we need to ask you some questions."
"Have you been noticing some weird things lately?" Dean asked me.
"Look, let's just get straight to the point." I told them. "I think I know what you are looking for."
They shared the same curious expression.
"It was all my fault. She should have just killed me. It was my fault that she was dead."
"Charley, what are you talking about?" Sam asked me.
"Melissa." I sighed. "It was her. She was the ghost."
"What about her?" Dean asked.
"Will you stop asking questions and let me continue?" I almost yelled at him. "Sorry." I told back.
They both laughed. "Dude, he's little you." Sam told Dean. Dean gave him a look, which made Sam stop. Then they gestured for me to continue. God! These guys are crazy, but I kind of like them.
"So going back. I was telling you that it was Melissa. She was an orphan here." I told them. "She was young, 12 years old, I guess. But I warn you, she may be bitchy sometimes or most of the time. She beats the crap out of younger children, even me. I was 13 at the moment. She tried to pick on me. Well, she got on my nerves and shove her off. I think I broke her wrist.
"My other friends were also her victims. She burned Maggie's books; destroyed all the artworks of Jennifer and Dustin. Worst she did was to burn Amy's hair. God! She was so annoying." I rolled my eyes. Then I immediately blurted out, "Sorry, I was such a baby."
"No, just continue." Dean told me. Sam smiled.
"So, one day I made up my mind to confront her. I found her in the balcony, bullying Sarah and Ryan. I went near to save their asses, sorry for my term I know it's rude", I looked at them and they smiled, "but Melissa was tough. She didn't want to be handpicked. So she shoved me off. I was a bit wimpy that time so I fell on the floor. The next she did surprised me. She was holding a knife and acted like she was going to stab Sarah in the neck. Ryan tried to steal the knife from her but she wounded him on the palm. I told Ryan to run but he didn't. He pushed Melissa away from me which made her fall down the floor. Ryan held Sarah tight and ran down."
"And then?" Dean asked. "What happened to Melissa?"
"I... um. I didn't mean to do that." My eyes welled with tears.
"It's okay. You need to tell us what happened." Sam said encouraging me.
"I pushed her off the stairs because she tried to kill me." I almost said the sentence gasping for air.
"It's fine now. All we need to do is to find the corpse." Dean said. "Do you know where the corpse is?" He asked me.
"I think she's buried in the cemetery nearby. I'm not sure."
"Let's go." Dean rushed to the door.
"Where to?" I asked Sam.
"To the cemetery." He held my shoulder. "Can you walk?"
"Of course."
We left the orphanage to find Melissa's grave. Dean was walking in front of my, Sam on my side, assisting me. They were carrying a duffel bags.
"What's in the bag?" I asked Sam.
"Our equipments." He looked at me. "We'll tell you all later, after we finish this."
We stopped in a corner. A small tombstone sticking out the ground covered with a lot of vines and shrubs.
"Check this out." Dean pointed at the grave. "I think this is it." He removed some of the vines covering the grave. "Melissa Reynolds." He read.
"That's her." I told them.
"Okay." Sam said. "Let's do this."
"You go first." Dean said. "You dig, I'll burn."
"Why me? You're the eldest." Sam told him.
"Yeah, and I'm giving out orders because I'm the eldest. Bitch."
"Shut up, Jerk."
I broke their conversation. "Guys, are you digging her up or not? Might as well have me to do it."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll dig." Sam said. He took a shovel out of the duffel bag. And started digging up the grave until he found the coffin and broke it. He got up and Dean took over. He took a can of salt, gasoline and a matchbox out of the bag. I didn't bother to take a peek for I might faint. The smell was making me sick.
"Let's finish this." He poured salt on Melissa's corpse, then gas. He lit a matchstick and threw it to the coffin.
"So it's over?" I asked them.
"Yes." Dean replied.
After cleaning up. We got back to the orphanage. I saw Miss Farrow standing outside her office. I stepped towards her.
"Miss Farrow?"
"It's over." She looked at me. "Thank you."
"Have you known all of this?" I asked her.
"It's been a long time. She was bugging me for years."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"You're young. Too young to know about them." She stared past me. I turned around to see Sam and Dean waiting for me.
"I have to go now." I told Miss Farrow. "Will you be okay?"
"Just go." She gestured me to go.
"Miss Farrow, thank you for taking care of me. I will never forget you. All of you." I gave her a hug. She was crying hard now. Sam and Dean walked towards us.
"Ma'am, thank you for looking after our sister." Sam said. Dean nodded.
"It's a pleasure. She's a sweet girl." Miss Farrow told them. She was smiling now. "I'm sorry though, dear, that you lost your friends."
I shook my head. "Thank you."
"We have to go now." Dean told us. "I'll leave a contact number if something like this happens again." He handed Ms. Farrow a piece of paper with his number written on it.
"Be careful." Miss Farrow told me. "A lot of things are out there for you."
As we made our way outside, I saw Maggie and Jennifer. I told Sam and Dean to go ahead as I made my way towards my friends.
"Amy has been brought to the hospital." Maggie told me.
"Is she okay?" I asked her.
"She's still unconscious when they brought her into the ambulance."
"Charley," Jen said. "Do you really have to leave?"
"Even if I don't want to leave, I think I have to." I told her. "I have to go with my brothers."
"You have some handsome brothers." Maggie said, trying to ease up the mood. "I'm just kidding."
"I was surprised too." I smiled at her. "Look, I really have to go now."
"Take care, Charley." Jen hugged me tight.
"Ring us sometime." Maggie joined us in our hug. We stayed like that for a minute and a half before they let go.
"Listen, girls. If something like that happens again, tell Ms. Farrow so that she could contact us. Maybe we could help." I told them. "Let's hope for Amy and Dustin's full recovery."
"Goodbye, Charley." They hugged me again.
"Goodbye." I bid my farewell.