Clock Tower

Chapter One: It Happened in September

The halls of the Granite Orphanage were unsettlingly quiet as Samantha Taylor walked down the hallway to where her office was at. On any given day, the young girls who crowded the halls would be laughing and playing, skipping past her as they played their games of tag. It amused her when they played. The interest of the girls were always an integral part that kept the orphanage running, so she was delighted whenever they were seen enjoying themselves, despite the tragedies most of them had gone through upon their arrival.

Now.

The halls were empty.

It was well past the scheduled playtime on the grounds for them, so she should have expected as much.

At the end of the hall, her office door stood open.

That was odd.

It hadn't been open when she'd begun her daily rounds earlier or at least, that's what Samantha had thought. Leaving her wondering why exactly it was standing open, the possibility of someone having entered her office was likely, but also improbable.

Upon reaching the door, she slowly opened it and carefully looked around the room. The small, ordinate office that was where she spent most of her time during the day was empty. The ordinary furniture: a small desk, two chairs and a fish tank appeared untouched. Several bookcases that lined one side of the wall, stocked mostly with child psychology and other random books. Nothing to fancy to spare herself the lack of an office, she didn't like accepting funds to improve her personal life, she'd rather spend what little funds she received from the government to help improve the lives of the many girls.

Walking over to her desk, Samantha sat down in her chair and began looking over the paperwork that she'd been carrying in her hands. Four of the girls that lived on the second floor of the orphanage had been chosen for adoption by a rich senator early yesterday. She was going over all the files one last time to make sure that everything was in order before they were to be picked up by their new families. There hadn't even been time to tell the girls, this puzzled her and for some reason, Samantha couldn't shake a feeling of dread that rested on her shoulders.

She found it strange that a senator would want to out of the blue adopt four girls. Usually a person in a position such as that would be far to busy with their everyday duties to their country to be worried about children. Of course, it wasn't her place to question why a person wanted to adopt, but, it did make her wonder as to what had compelled them to do such a thing.

Sighing, she sat leaned back and closed her eyes while trying to go over everything.

Okay, so the Barrows sent someone to come pick the girls up in a few hours. I have all the signed paperwork, they look like they will provide a great home for the girls with the income they get every month. This will be a very good start for them.

Looking up from her desk, there was a soft knock on the door, followed by the knob turning and the door swung open.

It was revealed to be one of the other social workers at the orphanage, standing behind her were two of the older girls that Samantha helped look after. Their clothes were filthy and torn, both of their faces were bruised as if they'd been fighting.

"What happened?" She asked. It was nothing out of the ordinary that these two girls would be fighting while outside. Coming from different backgrounds that labeled each other as natural born enemies, when they'd first come to the orphanage three years ago, she'd known from the start they would be trouble.

"I found these two fighting behind the tool shed," She barked, holding the two girls by the sleeves of their jackets and pulling them into her office. "They just won't stop fighting and frankly, I am becoming annoyed that you shelter these two. We have kept them long enough, no one wants to adopt them so why do we even keep them?"

Standing up, she walked around her desk and over to where the two girls stood at. They both looked away from her, not wanting to meet her gaze which told her that they weren't planning on talking after all. This was going to make it more difficult for her to speak with them than it usually was.

"All right, I will talk with both of them," Samantha told the social worker before ushering the two girls to sit down and returning to her desk. "If you'll excuse us, I'll have a chat with them."

When the door shut, she glanced from one girl to the other and tried to determine the best way to speak with them. In her experience with these two girls, it was wise to choose your words carefully or else you would get nowhere with them. That wasn't something that she wanted to have happen either. She particularly liked these two girls, thought of them as well rounded individuals who were strong-willed and could take care of themselves. You could imagine how she felt about having to be the one to talk to them about this.

"So," She said with a smile as she laid her hands palm down on the top of her desk. "What was it this time, girls?"

"This bitch here said I was talking about her behind her back," The one on the right was looking out the window, not even sparing a moments glance to look at her.

"I told you!" The other girl shouted as she glared daggers at her opposite. "I wasn't the one talking about you! It was Michelle. She's so manipulative, that you believe whatever she tells you just because you think she's your friend. When in reality all she cares about is getting a reaction from you."

Of course!

Samantha should have known that there was a reason behind why the two girls were fighting with each other. Michelle Harlin was what she liked to refer to as an Alpha Female, always thinking that she controlled what went on behind closed doors at the orphanage. She had no idea though, that Samantha knew everything a girl like her could put on the table. Hell. Before she'd sought out a profession of being a social worker, in high school she'd been in that girls very shoes.

"Mercedes, will you please pay attention when I'm talking to you." She told the girl staring out the window. Lotte turned to look at her, a look of malice plastered to her face that slowly resigned itself to calmness. "Why would you fight Lotte, knowing that Michelle could have been lying to you."

"But Ms. Taylor, I—" Lotte stopped for a moment and then stared down at her lap. Obviously, it had dawned on her of the mistake that she'd made and realized that what she'd done was foolish and misguided.

Satisfied with how she'd gotten through to Lotte, she turned her attention to Mercedes. It had been so easy getting through to Lotte, Samantha was hoping to have the same luck with her. Of course, she knew that it was best to not expect satisfying results from the beginning, but, to work towards them in the long run. Especially when it came to some of the girls that came to this orphanage.

"Michelle told me that Lotte was telling all the girls about me sleeping with that forty-three year old guy for a place to live just before I came here three years ago." Mercedes told her, her arms folded across her dirty shirt as she began to tear up. "I did what I had to do in order to shelter myself. It's not my fault that I had to use my body as payment for this guy to allow me to stay with him in his filthy one bedroom apartment."

It left her speechless that one of the girls would actually spread a rumor around the orphanage like this. What had happened to Mercedes was something that no girl at her age should have to go through. Just thinking of the atrocious things that man had forced her to do with him, anger swelled up inside her at knowing that there were several girls around the world that were still going through this very thing. She'd been one of the lucky ones and had been rescued from that hell hole. The other ones? They weren't so lucky.

"Listen, girls. The two of you are smarter than this, I'm sure that you can get along nicely and not have to worry about what Michelle Harlin will be saying." She hoped that they would be smarter than this in the future. That Ms. Harlin was smart when it came to pulling the strings on the puppets that she controlled—not that either one of the two girls were puppets of hers—so it was easy for her to get away with what she did.

"Yes, Ms. Taylor." They both said in unison.

"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I have some paperwork to finish. Good day, girls."

Overhead, dark clouds could be seen on the horizon and were coming in fast, the news forecasters had been calling for heavy rain in the evening. A gust of chilling air blew through the courtyard, scattering leaves across the ground. Colors ranging from yellow, to red and even brown. Signs of fall were making themselves known, like the rise and fall of the sun.

Sitting on the stairs that led from the courtyard to the backdoor of the orphanage, Jennifer Simpson watched as the other girls played with one another. They ran back and forth, throwing up the leaves in the air and forming piles of them just to jump in them. You know, the typical things that kids their ages loved to do when playing outside.

Jennifer however, refrained to sit by herself and not interact with any of the girls. It was nothing against them of course, she just felt more at peace with herself when she was alone.

Most of her days were spent alone in her room. It wasn't that she didn't like talking to the other girls at the orphanage, she preferred the company of others over being alone, but, that wasn't the case. A lot of the girls didn't like her because she was different from the rest of them. They often would come across her when she was going through one of her moods where she was staring off into space and crying to herself when she thought of her missing father. Often they'd tease her because of this, but Jennifer had learned to ignore them.

Girls would be girls, as Ms. Taylor had once told her.

She didn't know what that had meant at the time because of how young she was, but over the years that Jennifer had been here she was beginning to understand exactly what Ms. Taylor was talking about. It was in a girls nature to want to be the dominate one of their peers. Whether or not a girl had it in her was up to her. You either had it or you didn't. And then there were those who chose to follow, it was a choice to do that and Jennifer never really saw herself as either. Rather, she was the outsider of the group who they often would pick on for being different.

Living at the orphanage since she was very young, Jennifer had never known what it was like to have a family of her own.

Yes, she'd been born into a loving family. From what she'd been told, her father had disappeared when she was younger and then there was her mother, who she had been told died during child birth. She'd been put up for adoption and had been at the Granite Orphanage since then. Being five years old, there wasn't much that she could remember about her parents. At such a young age, most kids wouldn't remember what their lives had been like and for Jennifer, she wasn't sure if she wanted to remember. What had happened to her parents was a tragedy, but she needed to move on with her life.

People always told her how she resembled her mother so much, but Jennifer sometimes assumed they were just trying to be polite. She'd gotten her raven black hair and bright green eyes from her mother, but her naturally pale skin had come from her father. Other than a photo of the two from the day they'd gotten married, her looks was all Jennifer had to remember her parents by.

Things weren't so bad though, she did have a few friends. Anne Wooten and Laura Harrington were nice girls, they always kept her company on nights when she could be heard crying in her room when her parents crossed her mind. They helped her cope. Telling her that everything would be okay, Jennifer knew they were just trying to cheer her up, but, it had helped her get by when ever she was feeling down.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Jennifer glanced up the stairs as Anne Wooten came jogging down the set of stairs from the orphanage and down to where she was sitting at. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, bangs plastered to her face with sweat from the apparent running she'd been doing and her green windbreaker was zipped up to her chin.

"J-Jennifer," She was saying while trying to get her breath back. Anne had her hands on her jeans, bent over and letting out huffs of air. "Thank god, I was hoping that I'd find you out here."

"What is it?" Jennifer asked. She was curious as to why her friend would be looking for her so frantically and be out of breath.

"I have wonderful news!"

"Tell me!" She said, the suspense of it was killing her.

"We're going to be sisters!"

"Really!?" Jennifer was shocked.

Anne nodded.

"Yep. You and I are being adopted by some rich senator, I'm not sure about what his name was. Simon Barlow or something like that, I think."

"You mean Simon Barrows." Laura Harrington said from behind them as she joined where the two girls were sitting at on the stairs. Her blue long-sleeved jacket was covered in fallen leaves."And you're not the only ones, I'm being adopted as well. So is Lotte from what I've heard."

"So, we're all going to be sisters?"

"It seems that way, I think its pretty cool that the four of us are all being adopted by the same family." Laura told the two of them, brushing a strand of golden blonde hair out of her face and tucking it gently behind one ear.

Jennifer couldn't believe it. They were all being adopted by the same family, that meant that for the next five years of their lives before they set out on their own as grown women, they would be living in the same house. It excited her to know that she was finally going to be part of a family. She'd always dreamed of living in a big house up on the hill in the countryside, just knowing that she was going to be getting this and also have siblings that she'd practically grown up with, it made her feel elated.

All of a sudden, she felt a bit self conscious about herself as she thought of who her new parents were going to be. What were they like? Would they like her? It was a stupid thing to think about considering she hadn't even met them yet. However, Jennifer found herself wondering this and many other things as she sat here with Anne and Laura.

"What do you think, Jennifer?" Laura asked.

"Hmm?" She hadn't really been paying attention to their conversation, she had no idea what they had been talking about. It made her red with embarrassment because of not paying attention, knowing that it was going to be another opportunity for someone to laugh at her.

Thankfully Anne and Laura weren't like that.

"What do you think of Mr. Barrows?" Anne asked. They were both putting her on the spot, which made Jennifer feel uneasy.

"I think he sounds like a nice man," She told her two friends. Truthfully, Jennifer didn't know that much about Mr. Barrows to make a decision, but, she felt that she should answer her friends question anyways. "Hopefully we won't have to come back to the orphanage like Marianne did last month."

Getting to her feet, Jennifer brushed the dirt from her pants and her purple sweater, then began to ascend the stairs to go back inside. It was getting to cold outside for her, she didn't want to catch a cold and it gave her an excuse to spend some time by herself in her room. All of this talking about them being sisters was making Jennifer think about her parents and she didn't want to start crying in front of her friends.

I'm sure they get tired of my crying, they're just being nice to me by not saying anything.

It made her feel like a burden to her friends and that was the last thing she wanted.

When she entered the orphanage, Jennifer traveled through the winding halls and up the flight of stairs to where her room was at on the second floor. She passed by several kids who had been stuck with chores because of misbehaving, but they didn't say anything to her as she tip-toed around them to avoid causing any trouble for them. It was quiet out in the hall, Jennifer supposed it came from usually seeing the halls so lit up with life. When she came to her room, she opened the door and walked inside, closing the door behind her.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, she sat there as tears began to spill down her cheeks. A photo of her parents was all she had left of to remember them by, it sat on the nightstand next to her bed and every night Jennifer stared at it as she tried to sleep. Mostly, she was kept up all night staring at the picture. Lately however, things had changed and now she was slowly beginning to get past the tragedies of her past.

Suddenly, there was a soft knock at the door, followed by a head poking in through the open door.

"Jennifer, are you in here?" It was Ms. Taylor, she must have been looking for her outside for something or else she wouldn't have come to her room. "I thought I might find you here, I was just talking to Laura and Anne. They told me you'd excused yourself from their conversation before I talked with them."

"Oh, well, I just needed some time to myself." She wiped the tears away from her cheeks with her sweater sleeve, sitting the picture of her parents down on the nightstand.

"Are you sure?" She asked. Jennifer gave a nod, but Ms. Taylor felt that she was lying. "You know, I actually was friends with a man who went to the same college as your parents. He said they were a very happy couple, I'm sorry that you didn't get to spend much time with them before they were taken from you."

Walking over to where she was sitting at, Ms. Taylor sat down on the bed beside her and placed a consoling arm around her shoulder. It felt nice to actually have someone care about her. Jennifer spent most of her time thinking that everyone resented her because of the large sum of money that had been left to her by her parents, that she never really thought anyone gave a damn about her. She felt wanted. Ms. Taylor wasn't just someone feeling obligated to console her, but someone actually having a strong connection with her.

"You wanna' talk about it?" She asked.

"N-No, I'd rather just have some time alone." Jennifer didn't like talking about her parents, it just brought up conflicting feelings that usually left her crying.

"Well, I came to talk to you about something anyways." Ms. Taylor ran her hand up and down Jennifer's arm to console her before continuing. "As I'm sure Anne told you. You, along with her, Laura and Lotte have all been adopted by a man named Simon Barrows and his wife, Mary. I know this is a lot to take in at the moment, with how you're feeling and all, but, just think of how happy you'll be this time tomorrow."

Looking up at her, Jennifer smiled as best she could and nodded.

"Yes, I'm being adopted. I am excited, its just, you know, hard for me to move on."

"I understand that, Jennifer." Ms. Taylor sighed, turning to look out the window to the small lake that they went to during the summer. "You should give this a try though, I'm sure you'll find that you actually like living with the Barrows'."

"I suppose I can." Jennifer told her as she swung her legs back and forth.

"Good. Now, get packing." Ms. Taylor told her. "The Barrows sent someone to pick you four girls up and they should be here shortly."

With a smile, Ms. Taylor kissed her on the forehead and stood up then left Jennifer alone.

After she was left alone, Jennifer pulled out her suitcase from beneath her bed and began to pack her belongings into it. There wasn't much that she had to call her own. Aside from her clothing, a few educational books and other items which she'd acquired over the years, there wasn't much that Jennifer would be bringing with her. It wasn't anything to be proud of, but, she was glad that she at least had something to call her own with being at the orphanage most of her life.

It only took her twenty minutes, but when she was packed and ready to go she made her way downstairs to where the entrance of the house was at. Standing at the foot of the stairs were the other three girls, all carrying with them their belongings and waiting to be picked up by the person who was coming to get them.

They were all dressed nicely, even Lotte, who looked annoyed that she'd be living with them until she was of age to move out on her own. She kept to herself a lot unless she was being forced to interact with the other girls, so it was rare that she was around any of them. Despite this, Jennifer was glad that she would be living with them. Maybe she could take away something from living with Lotte. If not, then there was no big loss.

"God, I can't wait to see our rooms!" Anne said enthusiastically from where she sat at. From what she could tell, Anne had been waiting for this moment for quite some time. No one had ever adopted Anne before, so, she was eager to have people to call her family.

"Don't get your hopes up," Lotte told her. "Odds are we'll be brought back within the week because the old coot is consumed with his political crap."

"Don't say that!" She whined. A look of shock was plastered to her young face.

Lotte cut her eyes, a wicked smile perking at the corner of her mouth as she decided to toy with the naive girl. "What? Ain't like what I'm saying is a lie, we're probably just going to end up being molested by him anyways. I bet he just loves brunette white girls, eh?"

Laura started laughing, catching on to the joke that Lotte said just as Ms. Taylor told them to be quiet. There was a soft knock on the door, followed by an older woman stepping through the door. She was wearing her blonde hair tied up in a bun at the back of her head, wore a fashionable blue suit and smiled brightly as she glanced from girl to girl.

"Hi, my name is Mary Barrows. I'm here to pick up four of the girls and take them home with me."

I have taken a few liberties with this game, modernizing it to make it appeal to the more modern day fans and also to give it a more believable story. The ages of the girls have significantly increased, as I think that four fourteen year old girls being slaughtered by a murderer is a bit much and is not really something I would be comfortable with writing. I also plan to add a lot of new things to the story as well, incorporating some of my own ideas into this masterpiece of a game, while also holding onto what the game was meant to represent.