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2024 July 25th
Chapter Five
Another One Leaving
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The day begins like every other day here at Glory Bell. The grandfather clock in the corner dings at six o'clock sharp along with the other clocks stationed around the house. Some children are so energetic after a good night's sleep. They jump out of their beds and shout good morning to everyone. If you're one of the children who likes to sneak in a few more minutes of sleep then my advice is to just give up on that dream. If it isn't the clocks that get you out of bed it'll be the dozens of children running around the bedroom getting ready for the day.
Though the day begins like most other days it will not end the same tonight and everyone here knows it.
It's Ty's adoption day.
And I am powerless to stop it.
"Shirley get up!" Rachel yells beside my bed.
Moaning, I rollover so my face is smashed against the mattress. I then plop my pillow over my head and pull down on it so my ears will be protected from all the noise.
"Shirley." Rachel grumbles, but I don't move. By this point all the other girls are probably out of their beds.
On adoption days, the children do their best to not waste time. Even the late risers make an effort to get out of the bedroom in record time.
They all want to spend as much time as possible with the orphan who's leaving for good.
All except me.
I'll admit I was a fool to be so optimistic just a few days ago. I was so focused on the fact that I could save the older children, I hadn't thought about young Ty.
His adoption date was announced at the beginning of the month. Because of the mind-shattering revolutions of the world I've went through the past two weeks, I had completely forgotten about Ty's death sentence.
But then again, if I were to be honest with myself, the reason I forgot about Ty leaving wasn't because of all I've remembered about the Promised Neverland. It's because I've never been close to Ty to begin with.
I've felt like the shittiest person since realizing I hadn't cared about Ty enough to remember he's scheduled to be slaughtered.
Though even if Ty and I were the best of friends, there will still be nothing I can do to save him.
Without Minerva's books or that device we would have less than a one percent chance of surviving out in the wild. There is also the trackers hidden in our bodies that I have no idea how to cut out without risk of infection. Not to mention the fact I have no way of proving the house's secret to the others. Ray had to trick his two best friends into seeing a little girl's dead body for them to learn the truth.
My plan is to use the hidden messages in the books to convince Frank that our home is a farm and then with his help we'll get other older children in on the secret. But no books means no proof and replicating what Ray did would be too risky.
I thought about using Ty as my Connie. Ty has an action figure he loves to bits. I could sneak it away while he is busy and pretend to find it later tonight when Mom and him have left for the gate. I would let Frank see Ty's death and then we could plan together to escape before the next child is killed.
But there is so much that could go wrong that it's not worth it. Not to mention the fact that Sister Susan would be in the house watching everyone. I have no idea how to sneak past her.
Maybe if I had thought about Ty's shipment date earlier then I could have planned something, but times almost up for him and the best thing to do now is play it safe. If I try to stop Ty's death on a hastily made plan, then I'll just get us both killed.
My stomach twists into knots thinking about Ty's lifeless body in the hands of a monster.
I knew I had to let children die so I can have enough time to prepare for the escape and life outside the farm, but now that it's time to see a child walk to their death all that I can think about is how I could have thought of something to save him.
"Shirley, you need to get up." Margaret says, tugging away my pillow.
I moan into the mattress, being stubborn.
"Ty is leaving tonight, we should make the most of the day." She coos while petting my hair. I want to scream and tell her to leave me alone. My hands clutch onto the mattress. She continues to pet my hair and seems to be waiting for me to say something. When I don't respond she tries something else.
She leans in closer to my ear as though she's about to tell me a secret "Mama is going to want you out of bed soon. You wouldn't want her to come in here and force you out of bed would you?"
The way she said it sounded like a veiled threat, or maybe a warning. Either way, the thought of that woman coming near me today was enough for me to sit up in my bed.
"I'm up." I mumble out, pretending to just be sleepy.
Rachel is smiling at Margaret.
"Yay! You got her up. How did'cha do that?" The little girl asks.
"You just need a gentle touch and the right words." Was the elder girl's answer.
I rub my eyes and notice both of them are dressed.
Must have been in bed longer than what I thought.
With growing embarrassment, I notice the other girls in the room have also gotten dressed and their hair done. I am the only one still not ready.
Damn.
Without needed to be told, I jump out of bed to get ready.
Seeing their work here done, both Rachel and Margaret leave the room to most likely go see Ty.
Adoption day is just as special as someone's birthday here. Everyone feels like they need to make this day special for the little boy.
So that means everyone will be talking about Ty and wanting to play his favorite games with him.
It's going to be a miserable day for me, but at least Ty will know how loved he is before his end.
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The clocks ring all throughout the house. Their hands show it being nine o'clock in the evening.
It's time to say goodbye to Ty for the last time.
All the children old enough to still be awake are gathered in the front foyer.
Ty is dressed up in his special adoption uniform. The rest of the children are dressed in our nightwear since we will be sent to bed right after this. Mother is standing right next to him. She has his one suitcase in her left hand while her other hand rests on Ty's shoulder.
Everyone takes turns saying their well wishes. Many are crying bitter-sweet tears.
I'm standing in the back of the crowd feeling numb.
"We need to be leaving now Ty." Mother says, grabbing his hand to lead him outside.
"Goodbye!"
"We'll miss you."
"Don't forget about us!"
The children shout out as Sister Susan closes the front door behind Mom and Ty. She then locks it with the key she keeps around her neck. Mom has a key too so Susan doesn't have to leave it unlocked for her.
"Goodbye Ty." I whisper under my breath. It's all that I can say. Anything more and I might start crying. I take slow breaths in and out to keep calm. This isn't the first time I've seen a child leave and know they wouldn't be going to a better place. But in the past, there was always a possibility that I was wrong in my assumptions of child traffickers so I had hope they might be okay. Now I know for a fact they weren't.
"Now children, I know you're all excited for Ty but it's time for you to be in bed." Sister Susan says, looking at the group of children still standing around and talking about Ty.
Some children ask to stay up a little longer, just until Mama gets back, but Susan is firm and sends us to bed.
The boys and girls split up as we head to our respective bedrooms.
Everyone is talking, but my emotions are too high to be paying any attention to their words.
Eventually we all get settled in our beds and one by one everyone falls asleep.
Mother is probably back by now. I'm not sure what she does at night, but I do know she and Susan stay awake until eleven or so.
I wait until midnight and sneak out of bed.
I don't leave the room though.
I slowly get on my hands and knees and slip under my bed. The only light I have is starlight coming through the windows. It's enough to see in the room but it does not reach under the beds so I have to feel around to find what I need.
My fingers soon find the edges of the lose board.
Carefully, I pry it up as much as it will allow. It could break if I take it out completely. It makes a cracking sound that seems loud enough to wake the whole house, but they've never caught me before. Could just be my fear making every noise louder in my head.
There is just enough room for my hand to slip underneath the board and grab my most guarded treasure.
I put the board back in its place and slowly peek my head out from under the bed just to make sure no one is watching me.
My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat.
I've done this dozens of times before but now it feels so much more dangerous.
Everyone is still asleep from what I can tell.
I can't see my treasure with no light, so I move it from under the bed to where the starlight is shining. Even though I checked to make sure there are no eyes on me, I keep most of my body hidden under the bed, only my arms are exposed so I can see what I'm doing.
As soon as the cover becomes visible, I flip the journal open to the last entry.
There's a pen I keep tucked in the binder. I slip it loose and begin writing.
Dear Diary,
It's July the 25th. Ty got adopted today. No idea where his new home will be, but I'm sure it's somewhere nice. He's seven like me, but he is older by a month and six days so I can't get mad at him for leaving before me. It's unfair when the younger ones get adopted sooner! Mama says my day will come but I want to get adopted now!
I write down other somewhat notable events from the past few days just to make my journal look like a legit secret diary. In truth, it's a logbook to write down all the details of the children who leave.
I started it over two years ago. For my fifth birthday, I asked for a notebook and pen. I even told Mom I wanted it to start a diary, but I asked her not to tell anyone else because I didn't want them to read it. So she knows it exists but hopefully not where I keep it. About twice a month, I write in a few pages. I sprinkle in small details of the children like their hair, skin, height, and anything that could be used later to identify them. I make sure to add the date they left the house, which isn't a hard thing to add since it looks like something an orphan from an orphanage would write about.
This logbook was made with the thought the children could still be alive somewhere. If my theory of traffickers were true then the plan was to escape and give the logbook to law enforcement so they would have a record of the children. The more information they have the better their chances would be for finding the victims. Or at least that's what I was hoping to accomplish.
Now I'm not sure why I've decided to add Ty to this logbook and take the unnecessary risk. It seems foolish. They're dead and I'm trying to save the ones still living. Even though I try to make this notebook read like a real diary, Mom may still notice the odd amount of detail I write about the children's appearance.
At least this way, I won't forget about him or any of the others. So many children come and go every year. I'm sure their memories would have faded away by now if I hadn't written about them here.
I finish the entry talking about playing pirates with Ty and how the whole house got involved. It was his favorite game. He got to be the king of the pirates.
I flip through all the pages, marveling at how many I've written. Since I started writing them down, thirty-two children have been shipped out. I'll need to go back and read about the older girls. Some of them may still be alive, competing to become Sisters.
The notebook is running out of room. If I want to continue, then I'll need to ask for a fresh one come my next birthday.
With that done, I slip the book back underneath the floorboards and crawl into bed.
Notes: Okay so in the last chapter's notes I said I would write some changes to the prologue. I'm still planning on changing it, but I haven't gotten motivated to do it yet. I'm planning on updating this story one more time this year and when I do that I'll also go over all the chapters and edit them more to fit with the plot I have in mind. When I first posted this story my plans were different, but now I think I have a more solid idea of where to take this story.
Originally posted on June 15th, 2022
Edited on November 13, 2022