Into the dark woods

The entire orphanage had soon gone calm and silent. Everyone quietly paid full attention to the principal as he passed out the announcements regarding Alex Humphrey's case.

Oliver, meanwhile, was presumably the only orphan not present in the dining hall to listen to Father Moses. He was in the process of a very risky mission that evening, a mission he had made his mind up to accomplish, after realizing the handwriting on the wall, that there was a conspiracy perpetrated against him, and that soon enough his past would be exposed, and everyone would be forced to believe a false accusation that he was responsible for the demise of his parents.

At this point, Oliver was still on the staircase, yet to know who the unknown advancer was. As he came around the bend, his heart leaped when he saw who it was that was coming down the stairs. It was the hostel master; Mr Garret. For a moment, they both stood there face to face. The hostel master seemed a bit startled, as it was clearly unexpected to meet an orphan outside the dining hall at that time of the evening.

"Hay you!" he called out to Oliver in a rather strident tone, "What's the big idea? What you skulking about for?"

"Uh… n… nothing sir, I just… um… Sister Abigail," Oliver stuttered nervously, "She asked me to fetch you," he couldn't think of anything, quick.

Mr Garret stared down at him with narrow suspicious eyes.

"Hmm… what are you playing at, eh?!" He sounded quite impatient.

"No no, I'm serious," Oliver said, sounding in a more convincing tone, "She said you should come quick, that it's urgent, and… she also seemed really worried."

At last, Oliver was able to maneuver his way past the hostel master. Finally, he got to the room. He quickly grabbed his bag and brought Ugly out of the closet where he was.

"Ugly," he called out to the young elf, "hurry, we're leaving now."

"Ugly doesn't understand what Oliver means, Ugly is confused," replied Ugly in his small gruff tone.

"Ugly, we're leaving the orphanage this night," Oliver told him, "and we've talked about this. Come on, we don't have much time."

While he walked towards the door, he looked back and saw Ugly still standing where he was, nervously biting his little fingers, with large round bulging eyes, clicking from side to side.

"What are you waiting for?" he sounded impatient.

"B… but, Ugly must not leave the orphanage, Ugly is not safe out there," answered Ugly.

"Ugly, the orphanage is no longer safe for the both of us," Oliver explained, "There's been a plot lay false accusations on me. If that happens and they eventually take me, I won't be here to protect you, and that scares me. So are you coming or not?"

Ugly, at this point, had a quick think over what Oliver said, then came to the realization that Oliver was right, and he barely had a chance of surviving all by himself. With this, he didn't quite have a choice.

Oliver paused as he reached the front of the door. A thought had suddenly come to his mind.

"If someone sees me with this bag they might suspect I'm up to something," he thought.

He immediately came up with an idea. Instead of taking the bag with him, he decided to drop it down the window, then simply pick it up when he gets outside. Having done that, he proceeded out of the room, with Ugly pressing close behind him.

He took a quick glance at his wristwatch, he had roughly fifty-five minutes to exit the dormitory building before the lights out, and thirty till the announcement was over.

"Oh no, we're running out of time," he muttered, "Come on."

There was no sign of any other person on the stairs. Oliver saw this as a big relief, as there was no way he could hide Ugly if someone passes. They were both taking a high risk. If someone sees them, Ugly would no doubt be taken to the Russian alien penitentiary to be used as a lab rat.

They both walked down the stairs, slowly and steadily, with Oliver making sure they made little to no sounds with their feet. Ugly who was aware of the height of the risk they were taking, trembled with panic as he was behind Oliver, trying desperately not to keep even an inch distance from him.

As they got to the bend, Oliver heard the sounds of approaching footsteps.

"Someone's coming," he whispered, as he quickly leaned against the wall.

He began to hear a conversation going on, followed by footsteps climbing up the stairs.

Oliver gasped out in fear.

"Oh no," he muttered, as his heart pounded so hard and fast, threatening to pop out of his chest.

The person kept climbing up and advancing more closer to where Oliver and Ugly were. Oliver's heartbeat increased further. There was nothing they could do at this point but wait for whatever fate awaited them.

Just three steps away was the approaching person when all of a sudden a voice called from below the steps. Hopefully, the approaching person was the one being called. And just like that, he halted that instant and went back all the way down the stairs. Oliver carefully through the edge of the wall.

"Phew…" he exclaimed in relief, "It's clear."

Now there was no one in sight, they quickly came down the stairs and headed for the small door under the step. Oliver tried the knob, but it didn't open.

"No," he muttered under his voice, as a shill of panic and confusion ran down his spine.

"Come on… open up you goddamned door," he mumbled as he furiously jabbed on the knob.

Oliver tried all he could, but the door still wouldn't open. He quickly glanced at his wristwatch, they had about forty minutes remaining now. He slowly put his arms over his head in despair, as sweats of frustration began to dampen his forehead.

"No no no, this can't be happening," he muttered to himself.

"What about another door?" Ugly suggested.

"We'd get caught if we take the front door," Oliver answered, "this was our only shot, there's no other way out…"

He suddenly raised his head in an alert.

"Do you hear that?" he muttered in a silent and rather tremulous tone.

Ugly was staring at him now in a very humorous but totally puzzled manner. Oliver could hear indistinct voices of discussions in low tones coming from nearby.

"Quick, hide behind the boxes," Oliver whispered, "someone's coming."

They both immediately took cover behind some large wooden crates that were stacked up on each other. Two female staff were having what seemed like a gossip conversation. Oliver couldn't see their faces, and he also didn't try to, as he might draw attention to himself and Ugly by doing so.

"…but he seems so caring. I never thought he'd let them take the boy to that boy," one of the staff said.

"Well, I'm not surprised at all, speaking of someone who sees covering up the truth as a means of securing his fake reputation, thereby endangering the lives of the orphans. He is both selfish and sentimental. I knew Sir Clifford was right, now it's clear that history is about to repeat itself," the second woman said.

Oliver didn't seem to care about anything they were saying. Now they were gone, he and Ugly came out of their hiding place. Still behind the boxes, Oliver saw something that got his attention and made him come up with a certain idea. He found a pair of crocheting needles in a small cane basket.

"Ugly, I guess there's a way out after all," he whispered to the elf, who just stood there staring at Oliver as if he just spoke an unintelligible language.

Oliver took the needles and quietly walked towards the small door. Ugly looked on from behind the boxes, his eyes wide with curiosity and anticipation, even though he had little to zero clue what Oliver was up to. He was planning on using the crocheting needles to pick the locks.

Stopping down before the door, Oliver held up the needles in both hands.

"Haven't picked a lock before, but I've seen Uncle Damian do it once," he muttered to himself, "I hope it works."

Carefully, he inserted the hooked part of the needles into the keyhole. He took his time and began to study the pattern of the inner mechanical parts, then with the picture he created in his mind, he rearranged the metal gears one at a time, like solving a puzzle. There came several metallic *twitches*, and then, at last, a reassuring *click*. Oliver's eyes widened a bit, in high suspense and curiosity. Having retrieved the needles from the keyhole, he slowly extended his arm toward the doorknob. The door immediately creaked open, slightly, before his hand reached the knob.

Oliver gasped.

"I did it," he muttered, with overwhelming astonishment, "God I'm good!"

Without wasting a second, they went through the door, making their way through the narrow passage leading to the backdoor. Oliver was convinced they wouldn't have any other trouble the rest of the way, having gone this far. The door was ajar, and there was no one in sight outside. They quickly passed through the door, then took the narrow route along the building, and behind the long line of shady potted plants. They stopped below Oliver and Max's window area and Oliver picked up his bag.

He glanced at his wristwatch. It remained two minutes and a few seconds before the lights out. Oliver decided that they waited there till after the lights out when, there wouldn't be enough lightning around the compound, so as to reduce the chances of them getting caught by the night watch.

After a brief wait, the shines of light coming from almost all the windows suddenly went off at an instant. Now there were several dark spots where the lights from the lampposts couldn't reach. While there was partial darkness in the areas close to the dormitory and school building, the areas beyond; which included the woods, were covered in thick darkness.

Now that Oliver was sure there was no one in sight, he and Ugly came out from behind the shady plants, and took the shadowy path, making it all the way to the pathway popularly referred to as the lonely path. Beyond the path was the outskirts of the woods. Here, there was no need to bother about being seen. The stage they were about to enter now was by far the most challenging. It required that they pass through the woods till they reached the wall. There was a part of the wall that was broken down but replaced with a metal wire net fence.

Oliver felt a little bit scared going into the woods, though he was convinced that the werewolf wasn't there this night. Oliver took a deep breath. He was solely determined to escape the orphanage this night, and only if he was confident enough, will he accomplish that.

He switched on his watch side flashlight and took a step forward. He looked back and saw Ugly was still in the same position he was in. The poor elf was scared to death.

"Come on, we don't have all night," Oliver said, with a slight tremble in his voice.

The little elf fearfully muttered something in reply, followed by a low whimper.

"Don't start now," Oliver said, "Put yourself together, we're almost there. It's now or never."

They finally stepped into the woods, and from there they continued the journey in a higher level of dread and spine-shilling terror. Deeper and deeper they went, without stopping by or looking back. With their steps faster than the rhythm of their heartbeats, they set their gaze beyond the fog of darkness ahead, yet vigilant of the tiniest hisses of the wind, and the infinitesimal rustling of the leaves.

Oliver began to hear strange sounds both behind and around them.

"Don't look back," he warned, with his voice edging with terror.

Oliver increased his speed, but it wasn't long till he came to an abrupt and forceful halt, flinging him high and slamming him face-first to the leaf-covered ground. At first, he was totally confused at what just happened, but when he noticed the sharp crippling pain all over his right shin. He had accidentally swung his leg against a wooden obstacle. Oliver managed to endure the pain momentarily, struggling back to his feet. Right now he was functioning on survival instinct alone.

Almost on his feet, he spotted a shiny object on the floor. It was a silver chain necklace with a crucifix pendant. It seemed familiar, but he ignored it, however, as it wasn't important at this time. Finally getting himself to a vertical base, he proceeded to move, but his injured leg restricted him. But not minding the overwhelming pangs of excruciating pain, he dragged himself forward. They were almost near the fence, what was the point of giving up now, he thought?

At last, they were at the fence. Hopefully, the metal wire-linked fence was already cut open underneath it. They simply crawled over to the other side.

"We did it!" exclaimed Oliver, breathlessly.

Finally, he was free from the orphanage. As he looked back, memories of his past experiences ran through his mind. He knew he wasn't going to miss the orphanage, but it felt like a part of him was left in there.

"What now?" Ugly asked him.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Now we move on," Oliver said hesitatingly.

"Ugly is worried about Oliver," Ugly said.

"Huh?" Oliver muttered.

"Oliver misses the orphanage, Oliver misses his friends," answered Ugly.

Oliver was surprised.

"What makes you think that? First of all, I have no friends, and second of all, I miss no one in the orphanage. Every experience I had in the orphanage was a mirage, a mirage set to hold me down," he told Ugly.

"Ugly knows Oliver don't mean that," replied the elf.

"What do you know?" Oliver said, "You know clearly nothing about me. I don't do sentiments. Emotions are weaknesses, you should learn to get over them."

"What about your she-friend?" Ugly asked timidly.

Oliver was instantly frozen in silence now as if he got struck by something.

"Will Oliver leave his she-friend to be killed by the beast, or will Oliver take responsibility for his gifts of visions? Ugly knows Oliver cares about she-friend," Ugly said.

Right now Oliver remembered the vision where he saw Felicity being attacked by the werewolf. He realized that while he was planning on escaping, it had skipped his mind just momentarily, that he had yet an unfinished business to settle. It was clear to him the essence of his having visions, was to warn him of future happenings so he can try to prevent their occurrence if they be bad.

"We much go back," Oliver finally said regretfully.

"I mean… maybe I might be able to survive a false accusation of parricide, but I doubt I'd be able to endure the endless pang of guilt, knowing bad was coming, but not preventing it. I can't live with that," he explained.

"I'm only going back to avoid living with the torture of regrets, don't get me mistaken. I'll be gone when this is over," he said to Ugly, who was smiling sheepishly.

Oliver turned back to the fence.

"I guess we're back in the lion's den. If something happens this time, I'm gonna blame you."

Back within the walls of the orphanage, it was the run of their lives, for Oliver and Ugly. Even with his bad leg, Oliver ran so fast that he didn't realize when he got close to the outside of the woods.

A few distances from reaching the boundary of the lonely path, Oliver was suddenly frozen still by a very bright beam of white light.

"Ugly, hide," he alarmed Ugly who was still a distance behind, "We're busted."