Whilst all patients were already gathered in their wards for extra good night sleep, as a result of temporarily closing the common room until the morning after, Odette was laying on her belly on her yet tattered, filthy bed by contemplating the wee battered wall as its moonlight lightly bathed her cell in mild light, illuminating it partly by barriering it against the pitch-black overlay.
Security guards were incessantly on the alert, keeping their wits about the inmates and their welfare.
The young woman drowned in her train of thoughts about her today's painful reunion with Serena, her childhood friend, besides her fortunate encounter with her parents, secondary family. She strongly believed Judy and Timothy will get her out of Briarcliff's sinister, morbid madness which tormented her for a few days since her arrival.
Her day was not only filled with happiness of seeing her parents and childhood friend, but also spending and socializing with the other falsely accused patient Kit. Fortunately, today she didn't have any confrontations with any of the patients, reckoning the aspiring journalist who's locked against her will, Lana.
The young singer's therapy was in a matter of handful of days with Dr. Azarova, in case if there's additional unsuspected leery signs of mental illness, spotted and inspected in the young patient as well.
On one hand, her therapy was agitating her by causing sandstorm of conflicting prejudices and premonitions behind its procedure. Whilst on other hand, she wasn't at all since the middle-aged doctor was midst the fewest people or even staff members in the mental hospital where she's being treated normally unlike the rest of the other lunatics. Perhaps because she seemed different, according to Velika? If yes, is that one of the reasons why Odette wasn't being treated as harsh as a criminal?
In the wee hours of the midnight, the young brunette always recalled the nightmare she had when she was in Florida's orphanage when she was 8 years old little girl. It haunted not only her memories for ages, moreover her weary body and mind in the middle of the night when the love child is implied to rest for a several hours until the morning after.
- Flashback -
- October 1951 -
It has been 2 years since the young girl has been conveyed in the Florida's orphanage, due to her rebellion against one of the vicious nuns, in order to defend herself against a menacing slap.
The nights in the recent unwelcoming orphanage were not only as hazily ebon as the sinister, grim memories which Odette had, but also she struggled to fall asleep unlike the other children approximately her age, who were already asleep safe and sound, whilst some of the nuns were incessantly in charge in the dim light hallways by securing the orphans' rooms, distributed by their ages from the youngest to the oldest ones who are about to turn 18 very soon and be released from the institution and its facility's responsibility at last.
The brunette was hearing any voices in the middle of the night especially the midnight hours, whereas her peers had drowned themselves in the profound, ever-lasting slumber of the nocturnal journey for extra relaxation. At first, the orphan thought one of the children, who are forsaken whether by their parents or they established there by another way even when they the least hankered for another possibility struggled to slumber until she came to the conclusion one night it wasn't just a mere child voice, floating in the sufficiently expansive room. It sounded rather hoarser and more adult-like though it was a cusp between an young adult and adolescent one. Apprehension and chills electroshocked her body as they swept her organs especially her spine, goosebumps overlaying her pale skin as she was dressed in an ordinary white cotton nightgown with long sleeves as its hem dropped down to her knees. She wore it every time to bed after having the privilege of taking regular showers by shielding her frail skeleton from the cold autumn climate.
"Odette, follow me!" The same voice which she heard in the wee hours of midnight jingled in her petite ears as if it was solely audible for her.
"W-Who are you?" The little girl mumbled in her slumber without daring to open her shut eyelids as she heaved an inward exhale from the top of her lungs. Prejudices whirled in her whirlpool of conflicting thoughts. On one hand, she wanted to open her eyes in daredevil way by checking if there's somebody else than herself and the sleeping orphans who resided the beyond peaceful, sinking in lethal hush room. Whilst on other hand, the young girl didn't want to open her eyelids, due to the fact the orphanage may appear damned with ghosts of pressumed victims especially children. Even more the Florida's orphanage chilled the love child to bones by tantalitizing her with unbelievable theories behind the dreary, recondite secrets of the institution.
"Don't be silly! Just follow whenever you hear my voice!" The whisper loomed again by snapping at the brunette as she opened her drowsy eyes, rubbing them with her fragile, creamy fists by setting free a casual, quiet yawn as she sat on the edge of her bed by preparing herself for her destination. Following the invisible steps of the voice which persuaded her to pursue it without any ado and disinclination as well.
Thereafter Odette stood from her compact bed by tiptoeing in the pitch-black bedroom as she should be quiet and considerate without rendering any further sound whether with her light footsteps or voice.
Once she walked away from the room, luckily, she set a foot in an empty dim light corridor as its corridor's light flickered as its light bulb verged to explode.
"Just follow me!"
The love child went in the east direction of the long, abysmal hall by following the young adult's voice by pursing her plump, dry rosy-coloured lips as her elvish hands trembled as shivers were sent down her spine since she heard the same voice tonight.
Her vague footsteps directed towards one old, nevertheless abraded wooden door. Door concealing abundance of secrets as the door leaded to the basement of the orphanage, where a several spectrals were housed and useless, besides outworn items and orphans' toys were stored even discarded like garbage. The basement was not only known for storing threadbare items and toys, moreover a prominent home for the phantoms especially of orphans who found their deaths at young, brittle age inside the institution whether starvation or other discreet reasons as well.
Little did Odette know what she would expect after opening the wooden door as her hand reached for the old, rusty doorknob by pressing it until the door creaked as she peered into the both directions as her hazelish-brown eyes glinted trepidation as the basement, itself, was literally varnished in pitch-dark darkness with lack of sources of any light. A couple of whispers especially infant and adolescents' voices interweaved as an ensemble of choirs, chattering in unknown language as the door opened, colliding faintly to the wall as the little girl's silhouette reflected onto the hallway's yellow wall.
All of a sudden once the young girl took her first steps inside the basement as she stepped on wooden, howsoever, squeaky stairway, the door shut by slamming vigorously within seconds by causing Odette to flinch, abiding paralyzed on one place in the hollow.
"Phew!" The orphan whispered to herself by wiping her pale forehead with the back of her hand as the basement's lights flickered suddenly as her honey brown eyes were darted down to the stairs, warily imposing them as her lips popped up.
The cellar, itself, was furnished rather with readily antique furnitures such as an old, shabby wooden swinging chair in the middle of the room as collection of senescent, tatty toys such as rabbit plushies, rag dolls and so forth encircled the bewildered little girl as the walls were painted in cantaloupe orange paint as its daub commenced to peel off the wall, incarnating its poor condition. Tall, old bookshelf with opulent antique, tattered books adorned its bookshelf. There was no window to illuminate partly the cellar at least.
"Hello?" The brunette roamed sluggishly around the basement, inspecting it as her hazel eyes traveled to one direction to another as she was scanning the room as her voice was the sole echo which collided in the walls. "Is anybody there?" She furthered by wondering why the basement wasn't crowded with any living soul at all.
Suddenly she can feel a hand on the top of her narrow shoulder which sent shivers down her spine and body. Once she turned to her back, nobody was there. Afterwards something as an spectral loomed by blending with the wall's colors until it stepped on the creaky wooden planked floor as its phantom figure was an young adult one.
She just stood without moving a single muscle and even uttering a single syllable as she observed everything what might lead to, regardless how she might react or respond in this moment.
"W-who are you? Aren't ya the voice that," As the orphan peeled a word, the ghost of the young adult curtly cut her off in her mid-sentence, incapable of carrying on with her utterance.
"Shu, shu, shu, Odette! I'm the voice which called you just moments ago." The young woman strolled up to Odette as she was taking a couple of steps backward without supervising what she may stumble in the least predictable moment. It was her second nature once she was located in danger to take steps backward without thinking to interract to suspicious people at all.
The young woman's spectral was approximately 17 year old as her mane of unkempt ebon tresses cascaded down her mid-back, framing her porcelain, sleeved in freckles white as cream complexion as a plain, blood-stained white rigid, shapeless nightgown with ruffled short sleeves hugged her slender body as its hem flared her round, bony knees. Her hands were baptized in sable blood especially her fingers as if she had murdered somebody. Her deep light green pools were transfixed on the little girl by offering her a benevolent, soothing smile, hugging her thin lips.
"Please, don't hurt me! What do you want from me?" The brunette refrained from weeping as her eyelids were pooled with dew, evoking in mildly tearful voice.
"I don't want to hurt you. I've a message for you, Odette!" In the meanwhile, the older girl crouched down forward by cupping Odette's cheeks in the palms of her amusingly warm hands as Odette abided paralyzed, without running away from the phantom.
"W-what message? I don't even know yar name." The young girl's heart raced as if it peaked to spring up of her frail chest.
"Don't be too fearful, dear! I'm Daphne McCloudy! I used to be a mortal just like you until the destiny befell me at such young age." Without even sniffling, the brunette was touched by Daphne's speech as the thumbs of her hands wiped of the tears which tumbled down her cheeks, without averting her stare. "This orphanage isn't safe for ya at all. I hated it there just like you."
"A-Are you real?"
"I was real. One of the nuns murdered me and threw my corpse like piece of trash and human waste there." A wry chuckle escaped her berry-coloured, lukewarm lips. "I assure ya, this place is one of the worst ones in this cold, cruel world. The life is too short for so much sorrow and tears, Odette!"
"Is that your message to me?" The young girl's borderless inquisitiveness resurfaced by lowering her head as the tears ebbed of her eyelids as they used to well in like jet water of a fountain.
"Not only that. I was treated harshly and harassed by other kids and nuns there. I was like an uninvited guest there. My parents died in a car accident when I was scarcely 12 years old only." Daphne furthered with her monologue as one of her hands which cupped her cheek, tilted the other orphan's head to meet her linked eyes. "At least, they loved me until they passed away and I'm in the heaven with them. What about your parents? Why are you still there?"
"It wasn't my parents' fault why I'm there. All I know about them is they loved me but I was deprived from them when I was a baby. I used to be in other orphanage where's in Boston until I bit one of the nuns' wrists who was about to slap me for believing the bullies' baloney." In the interim, Odette chewed her bottom lip at the thought of her parents as her heart severely ached and the former orphanage where she resided it for straight 6 years. The young lady listened attentively without interrupting the much younger one. "They're a nun and a priest."
"Ah! Ha! A priest and a nun?" The black-haired girl arched an eyebrow as soon as the brunette emphasized her parents' professions as well as her stare transformed into a leery one. "I hate nuns."
"She was a great nun and Mommy! I don't know anything about her life as much as my Daddy's either."
"Oh!" Daphne exhaled sharply by pulling her in a tight and warm hug by attempting to alleviate the orphan. "Everything is going to be alright! Leave this hellhole when you grow up because one of the nuns who murdered me was fated with a restitution shortly after the cops came invaded this orphanage's walls. She killed herself in front of the cops though the suicide is a sin." The love child couldn't repress an instictive motion of snaking her small arms around the young woman's upper back, relishing its warmness of the embrace.
To be continued...
Author's Note: I'm so sorry for this sloppy and boring chapter. Nonetheless, at least it's something than dissatisfying you with lacking update for days, making you wait.
Alex xoxo?￢ﾜﾝ