Well I can die happy now, thedespisedfemaleantagonist likes my story.
Also I'm aware some people are potentially reading this for Rellie, which is essentially the reason I wrote it, but obviously that aspect has been pretty limited so far. Just want to say that'll be rectified here soon, so thanks for sticking with me.
17;
Riley was jostled awake when the bed was bumped into by another orphan while on his way out to lunch. The rays of the sun pierced through the windows and warmed her face in the cold room. It was well into the afternoon and with yesterday's events yet to resurface in her consciousness Riley was, for a moment, comfortable. She opened her eyes to see the back of Ellie's head, causing her momentary ignorance to vanish. Her heart sank realizing where she and what the day had in store for them.
She leaned up and pulled her trapped arm out from under Ellie. "Hey. We need to get up."
Ellie groaned and dug her head farther in the pillow trying to escape the light and unwanted noise.
"As much as it's going to suck, we've gotta get ready for today."
She kept shaking Ellie's shoulder until she eventually rolled over on her back with a groan and peered at her.
"Can't we just sleep for a little longer?"
"We need to talk about what the hell we're going to do today. Remember what I said last night?"
Ellie was still groggy but everything from the other night was fresh in her mind. She reluctantly nodded her head in agreement, even though she didn't like it. "We can't stay here."
"Unless you can think of something else."
She sat upright and tried to force even the simplest thoughts through her exhaustion-ridden head. "Can't we just go to another orphanage? Like the one you came from or something?"
Riley shook her head. "No."
"No? That's it?"
"It won't work, alright? Just… trust me on this."
Ellie looked at her in confusion but gave in. "Fine. Then I guess I don't have anything else."
"Then I think we should stock up on food and pack our clothes and get out of here by tonight. He can't get to us during the day."
"So soon?"
"Do you really want to spend another night in this place? With him?"
"No… of course not. But then where are we gonna sleep?"
Riley feared that question out of guilt from ignorance. "I don't know yet."
"So you're saying we're pretty much just going to be sleeping on the street until you figure it out."
"Until we figure it out. And you know we have no other option. Not right now at least. It's better than waiting around here until David decides that he needs to off us too, isn't it?"
"I know, I know, you're right. So we just stay here for the day and leave tonight?"
"After dinner, yeah." She heard herself making all the decisions for the two of them. "Is that okay? What do you think?"
"Like you said, I think it's the only thing we can do right now. We should also probably tell everyone here about David and what we saw before we leave. Though I doubt they'll listen to us."
"Maybe, but we should at least try. We'll have to do it right before we go though. Hell if I'm giving him a chance to retaliate."
Ellie was still in disbelief from yesterday, from their conversation now. It made her furious that they were ignored and that Tino and Sam are both gone, and nobody seemed to notice or, even if they did, didn't care, even the police.
"We're really gonna do this, huh?"
Riley shared the same reluctance, something she pushed hard to hide. "Yeah we are. We'll be good."
"What about David?"
"What about him?"
"He said last night that he's going to talk with us today. I don't want to go out there and deal with him."
"Yeah, he'll probably try. We'll just tell him that we'll talk with him after dinner or something. Be persistent."
Ellie simply nodded and scooted herself to the edge of the bed and swung her feet over the side. "We should start preparing."
"Yeah…"
They both crawled their way off the bed and headed out of the bedroom. They quickly passed by David's office and to dining area to grab themselves their last lunch at the orphanage. As soon as they entered the area they noticed that James was carefully watching them from behind the counter. They returned the glare, though more cautiously than observantly.
When they reached the front of the line and started being served their food, both parties ignored the other's presence. They grabbed a double serving of everything that was available and ate the food that couldn't be transported easily, stashing the rest that could be into napkins that they would temporarily store in their lockers.
They waited the day away purposely in the bedroom while sitting on the Sam's old bunk, becoming more nervous and more anxious with each passing hour. They occasionally spotted David through the doorway, but he never made an attempt to enter much to their relief.
Riley watched from the corner of her eye Ellie nervously fidgeting with her fingers. "It'll be okay."
"Will it?"
"Yeah. It will. You seemed like you were okay this morning."
"I was. When we woke up this morning we had the entire day in front of us. But now that it's an hour away… I just… I don't know. I mean, we can't stay here, I know that's not an option."
"But?"
"But… we have no idea what we're doing."
"Not entirely, no, but there are plenty of orphans out there like us in the same situation. If they can make it so can we."
"I doubt they're in the same situation."
"As in being homeless, or will be at least." She sighed. "If it makes you feel any better I've been reading about these places for a while now called refuges. They essentially give help to homeless kids, mainly shelter and supplies."
"Why have you been reading about them?"
"Because I might have been… possibly, thinking about leaving after David got here."
"What? Seriously?"
"It's not like my instincts were wrong."
"Well… no. But still."
"Look, there's one a ways from here a couple of cities over. I think we should try for it."
Ellie broke off their eye contact and started looking around the room randomly. Riley knew she wasn't succeeding in reassuring her, but couldn't dwell on that as they had to leave soon regardless.
"We should go ahead and grab dinner."
They remained waiting on Sam's bed after dinner was called so they could be last in line. After some time they hesitantly got off the bed and walked out, careful to watch for and avoid any interaction with David. The stepped straight up to the counter and took as much as the two cooks would give them, most of it coming from the assistant. They sat and ate what couldn't be taken with them.
After finishing their food they walked back to their beds and grabbed everything they stored in the locker and shoved them into a couple of backpacks they took from storage. In a second pocket in the bag they packed as much clothing and blankets as they could manage along with some sundries they took from the bathroom. They slung their backpacks over their shoulders and stood staring at the exit.
"This is it."
"…yeah."
"You okay?"
"No."
"Me neither." She gave her a strained smile. "Let's go."
They walked out in front of the dining room and stood in the same place David had done when he first arrived, and that Edgar had done before him when he announced his leaving. They had already begun to gather some attention even before speaking due to their out of place presence.
"Everyone, can you please listen? This is really important. Please." The voices of the scattered orphans started to dissipate enough to where Ellie felt she could be heard. Her voice was shaking, as were her hands. "Not really sure how to say this, but, last night, Riley and I saw one of the other orphans here get drugged, maybe even poisoned. He's not here today, nor is one of our other friends, and we're almost sure that they're… dead."
A handful of the orphans started grouping together to listen, their volume level raising rapidly after the accusation.
She raised her voice even higher to be heard. "I know this seems crazy, but it's true. And the person responsible for doing this was David." She kept straight but pointed towards his office. "He murdered them."
A voice sprouted up from the room. "That's crazy! How could you know that?"
"Because we hid in the basement last night. We saw it happen with our own eyes."
Riley jumped in to relieve Ellie. "We found a notebook of his with names and a list of drugs that he's used on people in it. There were some disgusting things in it. I only managed to remember a couple of the names on there, Jessica Turner and Daniel Summers, but there were more."
"Daniel?" Another voice questioned from somewhere in the room.
"Yeah."
"David told me that he was fostered out a few weeks ago."
"David told you, huh? Did Daniel ever say a word to you before he left? Or was he just suddenly not here one day?"
The voice remain quiet to the question.
"That's what I thought."
Ellie cut back in. "See? It's obvious what he's doing. Have you ever wondered why the basement is locked? Or why Evette was suddenly replaced after David got here?" Ellie quieted but kept her disposition. "I know most of you will probably ignore this, but you know something about this place is off. Something about David is off. And the longer you stay here, the more you put yourself at risk."
"That is enough." A booming voice appeared without warning and a pair of hands from behind rested themselves firmly on Ellie's shoulders.
Riley caught sight of them and spun around to observe David standing behind Ellie with a look of extreme annoyance. She instinctively shoved him, causing him to stumble backwards and let his grip on Ellie go.
"Don't fucking touch her!"
He recovered from the stagger and postured himself upright again, his voice uncharacteristic from his usual breathy way of speaking. "This is my orphanage and I will not allow such egregious allegations to be made against me."
"You know we're right. No caretaker would inject an orphan with something, let alone lock them in a room like a damn prisoner."
"I simply don't know what you're talking about girls."
"Bullshit."
"You two even sent the police after me to search the place. Do you know what they found?"
"A cover up?" Riley sneered at him.
"They found nothing. Certainly nothing to the extent to which you're proposing." He focused his gaze beyond the girls to a majority of the orphanage now gathered in one area. "Children please, don't listen to these two and their lies. This is undeniably ridiculous. To the boy I heard speak out earlier, Daniel is currently in a foster family some states over, as is Jessica for whoever concerned."
Riley and Ellie both stepped around to the side of him in preparation to leave without hindrance.
"I am doing my job here. And just because your friends are being transferred to new homes faster than you're accustomed to, doesn't mean something horribly immoral is happening."
Ellie continued where she left off, ignoring most of his arguments to the contrary. "Watch him closely. You'll see him for what he is soon enough."
"Enough of this. You need to stop this slandering. These children know better than to trust a couple of reprobates."
Riley wanted to retaliate, but Ellie felt they said what they needed to and stopped her from prolonging the argument. They backed up several feet while facing David before turning around and walking to the front door.
"And where do you think you're going?"
"We're leaving. Don't even think about stopping us."
He became quiet and just stared at them as they readjusted their backpacks and undid the locks on the door. Riley pushed it open and gave one last look at the man and the several dozen orphans behind him all watching closely to their every move. She shut the door and followed Ellie out into the front yard.
The world suddenly panned itself out in front of them, larger than it's ever felt before. The dawning sun was just above the horizon, not long until it disappeared out of sight, and the sky was a vibrant mix of dark blues and purples complimented with orange clouds. The wind had a chill in it and was blowing lightly, causing the trees to sway and its leaves to shiver.
It was physically no different the last time they stepped out from that door, but now their circumstance had drastically changed and the gravity of their situation pressed down heavily upon them. The door had acted as a threshold between their old lives at the orphanage and their new unknown ones.
Riley managed to shake the feeling and focused in on Ellie who was clearly going through the same revelation. She let her have a moment before pulling her back into reality.
"We should get moving, we've got a lot of walking in front of us."
Ellie, in her daze, searched for the source of the voice, calming down slightly and regaining her focus when she discovered it. "Okay."
They grabbed onto the straps of their backpacks and took their first steps away from the door, down the path, and past the white wooden sign. They reached the main street that ran alongside the building and paused a moment before Ellie spoke up.
"Where do we go?"
"The place is in a couple cities over in Bristol. We just head west along this road for quite a ways and then north when we hit Carver. It'll bring us straight there."
"How long is it gonna take?"
"Not sure. We've only got enough food and water to last us for a little less than a week, so we're gonna have to make it before we run out." Riley felt confident knowing that she knew where to go, but less so from the uncertainty about what would happen once they got there. "Ready?"
"No turning back now."