I remember it was cold. It was always cold, and it always snowed. It was an
endless stream of cold and snow. But it wasn't a natural cold, and it
wasn't natural snow. It was fixed. Fixed to the requirements of our own
little world. But, for some reason, the snow and the cold never stopped. It
was never warm. I'd continually wonder why it was necessary for us to be so
cold. Why was it necessary for us to have to treed through that snow every
day? But it wasn't my place to tell the Masters what we needed. That would
just bring trouble.
I also remember the sky. It was never blue. It always seemed to be white. It was just pale and ordinary. There were no funny shaped clouds up there, just white. There was never any Sun to be seen, just white. Everything was just so cold, including the Masters. The Masters were so cold to us. I remember trying to plan our escape, but the Masters and their closest followers thwarted that. Nothing ever worked against them, so we did what they said.
I can remember seeing my friends disappear behind the closed doors of the Masters quarters. But I can't remember ever seeing those friends come back. That world was terrible. But that world also gave us protection. No matter how much you didn't want to admit it, that world was needed. Without it, we wouldn't have anything. No matter how bad the Masters got, we knew it was all we had. We never got a chance to experience life anywhere else, so we took what we had. The rest of the world was fog to us. It was a fog that no one dared enter, and no one from the fog entered our world.
But then, just like that, someone entered our world. She was from the foggy world, the world without Masters. When she arrived, the cold seemed to lift. And then, after awhile, the snow vanished. And before I knew it, we could see clouds, and a blue sky. She was like a beam of light from Heaven, come to liberate us from the place we hated, yet loved. When she arrived, everyone was scared of her. She was so different then us, so we hid. But then we realized that she was a savior. She was our savior. I can remember the Masters expressions when she arrived. That cold in their hearts turned to something I can't describe. Perhaps the closest thing to what I saw would be envy. But I could tell from their expressions that they were also scared. They weren't scared like us, no; they were scared of her power. She was of the fog world, and they feared she'd take over.
It was good to see the Masters scared for once, but I also feared for the new girls life. The Masters were known to take care of ones who dared to threaten their power. However, I could see that the new girl was too strong for their torture. If put through it, she would hardly notice. She seemed so strong. She seemed stronger then all the boys, something I'd never seen in a girl. But to call her a girl would be foolish. She was a woman. She was more of a woman then any of the boys were men. She was certainly stronger then me.
On the morning she arrived, I was hiding under my bed. I watched the running feet of the Masters disciples as they looked for me. It was a morning like any other. Cold, snowy, and the sky was milk white. I didn't even have to look outside to know that, I could feel it inside me. Or maybe that was my fear. It was the kind of fear a mother gets when she loses her child. The kind of fear a man gets when he kills another man. It was that same fear that I felt. I knew they were looking for me, wanting to take me to the Masters. I hadn't even broken any of the rules. This was their game. They scared us, just for their own pleasure. They were animals, but we weren't man enough to stand up against them. I didn't understand what I had done to deserve this horror. When you're hiding under a bed, fourteen years old, and crying so hard that you don't even make a noise, you come to realize that you're not human. They mold you into what they want you to be. I can't seem to understand why they do it to us. When they find me, I'm tortured, and returned to the mess hall. That's standard procedure. No one seems to notice my screams while they work on me, but after a while, those constant screams don't seem to exist. They say that the torture they do on us is therapeutic, but we know its sole purpose is to make us fear them. I always find it odd that time is either always still, and moving to slow to notice. They bend the days for us, to make us seem like were getting closer to our release, but by days end you notice that you still have years to go just to get through the night. They tell me that I've been here for six years, but in my mind, only a day has passed. I wonder if the new girl notices the way time works here. If so, it doesn't seem to concern her. I wonder why she's so strong, and why she doesn't coward up like the rest of us.
That first day she's here, she breaks all sorts of rules. For starters, she comes in laughing. That's the first laughing I've heard in six years. Next, she's yelling and running all over the place. First time someone has ever dared act like that.
Later she goes around and meets everyone. She's friendly and spunky, and her name is Sarah, fourteen years old.
When I was first brought here, I was eight years old. I remember seeing the Masters smiling faces as they welcomed me. They seemed so nice, but when my parents left, that courtesy turned to something else. From that day forward, I experienced just what people called the devil, or as they call themselves, the Undertakers. Our world was an old, isolated prison. It had been used in the Civil War for criminals convicted of War Crimes, and then later turned into a basic prison. They told us one time that the prison was closed in the early nineteen thirties because the criminals went on a rampage and tortured all the guards. But one guard was able to lock the criminals in a secluded room, and burn them. After that, the government decided to close the prison down. But then, about fifteen years later, the original Master decided to resurrect the prison up and turn it into what he called; A Correctional Institute for Troubled Children, or a CITC Center.
The center built itself from there as the foremost Juvenal Hall in the state of Vermont, outside the city of Burlington near Lake Champlain. Parents brought their mischief stricken kids to the center for correction, and the Masters decide just how long the child would stay. In my case, I was sentenced for ten years, because of my habit to have quite a temper, which usually led to violence. When I got to the Center, the original Master had just retired (this was around 1979), and his children, the current Head Masters, took over. His son, Master Paul, is only twenty-five, but he's in charge of everything. His sister, Master Florence, is second in command and the head discipliner. They have at least twenty minions who look over the one hundred and forty inmates. I've been here the third longest of anyone, but I'm nowhere near the oldest. The oldest, and one who's been here the longest, is our sort of leader. Jake Pierce is eighteen years old and has been here for twelve years, scheduled to be released in one year. Everyone looks up to him, and his buddy Peter Moore (who's been here second longest), like he's in charge. Even though I've been here for such a long time, no one respects me. I normally keep to myself and I don't talk to many people. I guess that's just how I am, shy and scared of everything. I never like the cold, and I never got used to the snow, but I can bear it. We get freedom here, but not much of it. Relationships between girls and boys are prohibited, but friendships are encouraged. My district consists of ten boys, and twelve girls with ages ranging from seven to eighteen years old. Jake and Peter are on my district.
Then, on that cold Monday, Sarah comes to my district. I can tell right away that Jake and Peter both have got their eyes on her. She's only fourteen, yet they're fixated on her. I must admit myself; she's the first real pretty girl I've seen in a long time. Her brunette hair is cut short and hangs around the sides and back of head like a bowl. She's wearing a long sleeve Star Wars shirt, and a pair of tight blue jeans. She's tall too, taller then any girl I know, but she isn't too tall. She's just right. All the other guys are staring at her just like me, and I can tell they're very happy to know she's going to be on our district.
One of the good things about our district is that it's one of the few mixed districts in the center. Boys and girls converse freely, but relationships between them are still not allowed. That's punishable by a transfer of both parties involved to different districts. Even Jake and Peter don't try anything with any of the girls. That's just how much the Masters have scared us.
We don't get visitors. The Masters believe that visitors are disruptive to the therapeutic environment. I know they don't allow this because they don't want a lawsuit for the way they treat us. It always seems that the kids who make it through their sentence always tend to end up going into a real prison. By the time you get out of here, you're still scared of the Masters. This fear causes all who get out to either commit suicide, or commit a crime. That's the Masters power.
But the new girl is different then us. She doesn't seem to fear anyone, not even the Masters. I wonder how she does it. She seems so confident that no one can touch her, but in my mind I know that in a week, she'll be scared out of her wits.
I also remember the sky. It was never blue. It always seemed to be white. It was just pale and ordinary. There were no funny shaped clouds up there, just white. There was never any Sun to be seen, just white. Everything was just so cold, including the Masters. The Masters were so cold to us. I remember trying to plan our escape, but the Masters and their closest followers thwarted that. Nothing ever worked against them, so we did what they said.
I can remember seeing my friends disappear behind the closed doors of the Masters quarters. But I can't remember ever seeing those friends come back. That world was terrible. But that world also gave us protection. No matter how much you didn't want to admit it, that world was needed. Without it, we wouldn't have anything. No matter how bad the Masters got, we knew it was all we had. We never got a chance to experience life anywhere else, so we took what we had. The rest of the world was fog to us. It was a fog that no one dared enter, and no one from the fog entered our world.
But then, just like that, someone entered our world. She was from the foggy world, the world without Masters. When she arrived, the cold seemed to lift. And then, after awhile, the snow vanished. And before I knew it, we could see clouds, and a blue sky. She was like a beam of light from Heaven, come to liberate us from the place we hated, yet loved. When she arrived, everyone was scared of her. She was so different then us, so we hid. But then we realized that she was a savior. She was our savior. I can remember the Masters expressions when she arrived. That cold in their hearts turned to something I can't describe. Perhaps the closest thing to what I saw would be envy. But I could tell from their expressions that they were also scared. They weren't scared like us, no; they were scared of her power. She was of the fog world, and they feared she'd take over.
It was good to see the Masters scared for once, but I also feared for the new girls life. The Masters were known to take care of ones who dared to threaten their power. However, I could see that the new girl was too strong for their torture. If put through it, she would hardly notice. She seemed so strong. She seemed stronger then all the boys, something I'd never seen in a girl. But to call her a girl would be foolish. She was a woman. She was more of a woman then any of the boys were men. She was certainly stronger then me.
On the morning she arrived, I was hiding under my bed. I watched the running feet of the Masters disciples as they looked for me. It was a morning like any other. Cold, snowy, and the sky was milk white. I didn't even have to look outside to know that, I could feel it inside me. Or maybe that was my fear. It was the kind of fear a mother gets when she loses her child. The kind of fear a man gets when he kills another man. It was that same fear that I felt. I knew they were looking for me, wanting to take me to the Masters. I hadn't even broken any of the rules. This was their game. They scared us, just for their own pleasure. They were animals, but we weren't man enough to stand up against them. I didn't understand what I had done to deserve this horror. When you're hiding under a bed, fourteen years old, and crying so hard that you don't even make a noise, you come to realize that you're not human. They mold you into what they want you to be. I can't seem to understand why they do it to us. When they find me, I'm tortured, and returned to the mess hall. That's standard procedure. No one seems to notice my screams while they work on me, but after a while, those constant screams don't seem to exist. They say that the torture they do on us is therapeutic, but we know its sole purpose is to make us fear them. I always find it odd that time is either always still, and moving to slow to notice. They bend the days for us, to make us seem like were getting closer to our release, but by days end you notice that you still have years to go just to get through the night. They tell me that I've been here for six years, but in my mind, only a day has passed. I wonder if the new girl notices the way time works here. If so, it doesn't seem to concern her. I wonder why she's so strong, and why she doesn't coward up like the rest of us.
That first day she's here, she breaks all sorts of rules. For starters, she comes in laughing. That's the first laughing I've heard in six years. Next, she's yelling and running all over the place. First time someone has ever dared act like that.
Later she goes around and meets everyone. She's friendly and spunky, and her name is Sarah, fourteen years old.
When I was first brought here, I was eight years old. I remember seeing the Masters smiling faces as they welcomed me. They seemed so nice, but when my parents left, that courtesy turned to something else. From that day forward, I experienced just what people called the devil, or as they call themselves, the Undertakers. Our world was an old, isolated prison. It had been used in the Civil War for criminals convicted of War Crimes, and then later turned into a basic prison. They told us one time that the prison was closed in the early nineteen thirties because the criminals went on a rampage and tortured all the guards. But one guard was able to lock the criminals in a secluded room, and burn them. After that, the government decided to close the prison down. But then, about fifteen years later, the original Master decided to resurrect the prison up and turn it into what he called; A Correctional Institute for Troubled Children, or a CITC Center.
The center built itself from there as the foremost Juvenal Hall in the state of Vermont, outside the city of Burlington near Lake Champlain. Parents brought their mischief stricken kids to the center for correction, and the Masters decide just how long the child would stay. In my case, I was sentenced for ten years, because of my habit to have quite a temper, which usually led to violence. When I got to the Center, the original Master had just retired (this was around 1979), and his children, the current Head Masters, took over. His son, Master Paul, is only twenty-five, but he's in charge of everything. His sister, Master Florence, is second in command and the head discipliner. They have at least twenty minions who look over the one hundred and forty inmates. I've been here the third longest of anyone, but I'm nowhere near the oldest. The oldest, and one who's been here the longest, is our sort of leader. Jake Pierce is eighteen years old and has been here for twelve years, scheduled to be released in one year. Everyone looks up to him, and his buddy Peter Moore (who's been here second longest), like he's in charge. Even though I've been here for such a long time, no one respects me. I normally keep to myself and I don't talk to many people. I guess that's just how I am, shy and scared of everything. I never like the cold, and I never got used to the snow, but I can bear it. We get freedom here, but not much of it. Relationships between girls and boys are prohibited, but friendships are encouraged. My district consists of ten boys, and twelve girls with ages ranging from seven to eighteen years old. Jake and Peter are on my district.
Then, on that cold Monday, Sarah comes to my district. I can tell right away that Jake and Peter both have got their eyes on her. She's only fourteen, yet they're fixated on her. I must admit myself; she's the first real pretty girl I've seen in a long time. Her brunette hair is cut short and hangs around the sides and back of head like a bowl. She's wearing a long sleeve Star Wars shirt, and a pair of tight blue jeans. She's tall too, taller then any girl I know, but she isn't too tall. She's just right. All the other guys are staring at her just like me, and I can tell they're very happy to know she's going to be on our district.
One of the good things about our district is that it's one of the few mixed districts in the center. Boys and girls converse freely, but relationships between them are still not allowed. That's punishable by a transfer of both parties involved to different districts. Even Jake and Peter don't try anything with any of the girls. That's just how much the Masters have scared us.
We don't get visitors. The Masters believe that visitors are disruptive to the therapeutic environment. I know they don't allow this because they don't want a lawsuit for the way they treat us. It always seems that the kids who make it through their sentence always tend to end up going into a real prison. By the time you get out of here, you're still scared of the Masters. This fear causes all who get out to either commit suicide, or commit a crime. That's the Masters power.
But the new girl is different then us. She doesn't seem to fear anyone, not even the Masters. I wonder how she does it. She seems so confident that no one can touch her, but in my mind I know that in a week, she'll be scared out of her wits.
