The Bad Bye. O1

Mr Erringmore had donated a large and mouth watering amount of money to the School/orphanage, of course in honour of Elliam.

In the months between their last and next visit, the school had been undergoing some big renovations, the children's rooms had been painted and better beds had replaced their worn-out ones.

Their classes, playrooms and playgrounds now had new better learning materials, playing materials and so on.

When Nomen had said to completely renovate the boarding school, the admins had nervously suggested that he give them the money needed and not worry himself about that, claiming he'd done enough by donating that large of an amount of money to them.

But Nomen being the meticulous person he was refused and insisted to be continuously present as the renovation and construction went on.

It was finished a week before Elliam would be officially admitted into the orphanage.

A week after.

Nomen sat at the backseat with Elliam promptly pressed against the other side's door as she looked at the quickly passing houses.

Soon enough they reached their destination.

Of course they were all excited to meet the girl and most probably curry some favor from her 'uncle'.

Elliam and Nomen stepped out from the vehicle as the driver and some of the staffs helped to offload the car of her belongings.

"Welcome miss Elliam!"

They all chorused smilingly.

"We're very excited to meet you, Elliam," the children recited, almost robotically.

Elliam almost felt overwhelmed from all the eyes watching her.

"Moriah?" Mother Essyher croaked to the tallest girl amongst the children.

"Yes, mother Essyher?"

"Show miss Elliam her room and all other places so she can be comfortable,"

The girl walked towards Elliam stretch out a hand.

"Hello, I'm Moriah, it's nice to meet you," the girl said with a black smile.

Elliam nodded stiffly.

"Would you like me to show you around?"

Elliam nodded again and followed her into the building, before vanishing completely into it, stopped and turned to look at Nomen.

Before moving on into the interiors.

"Mr. Nomen, this way please," a priest said smilingly gesturing towards a door, where some others had entered were waiting.

But Nomen stared almost absent-mindedly at the door Elliam had closed behind her.

It seemed he'd been staring for a while.

He seemed entirely absorbed as the priest called to him twice before finally tapping him to arrest his attention.

Nomen snapped out of his reverie and followed him inside.

••••

Elliam followed the older girl down a brightly lot hallway with newly painted walls and cartoon posters; a typical attraction for children, before coming out in the green lush grass of the yard, behind it was a huge building, obviously newly built.

They entered the hostel into a large general room, which was currently a playroom now, as children of varying ages were playing together.

But they didn't play the careless and happy way most children do, they all moved, ran and tagged with swift mechanism.

As if they were robots which had been programmed and taught to play in a very specific and careful way and had done it so many times that they did it so smoothly that you felt you were looking at something from The Uncanny.

Their eyes were unfocused and greyed and deep inside it, a pained fear and a confused longing.

They neither moved too fast nor too slow, the voices which they screamed out in dull excitement were low and wasn't strong enough to fill the hall.

It was like looking at the television with the only sound being a white noise and the colors being just black and white.

It was an oddish scene to look at.

As they passed by, Elliam's skin crawled with goosebumps as their eyes followed the dyad through the hall.

The first room excepting the hall they walked through was Elliam's room, it was a large airy room with a medium sized walk-in closet filled with picturesque and eye catching dresses of all kinds and colors.

It had a large queen sized bed, covered with a royal purple counterpane which was engraved with artistic and delicate red whorls and designs, the curtain was of a similar color and texture.

The floor was made with a deep reddish-brown wood with eccentric yet elegant carvings.

On the other side of the room a little near the bed was a gigantic shelf filled with every introvert's temptation. Filled with books on science, arts, history, fantasy and so on. Next to it was a large desk and a chair. In a corner too was a mini fridge.

In the middle of the room, hanging from the ceiling was a decagon shaped ornate recherche chandelier.

The bathroom had a fancy yet simple decor, the only colors being white, silvern and a little aureate, it had a large tub which had it's edges lined with an exquisite silvern metal, the walls and floor tiled white.

And on the wall was a huge cabinet containing soaps, perfumes, deodorants, body washes, lotions, shampoos, and infact enough toiletries to open up a shop.

All these extravagant luxuries of course courtesy of Nomen.

He, very apparently was new at his job of caring for the disadvantaged children. After all what would a 9 years old do with all of these?

Elliam's eyes didn't seem to catch sight of all these as her eyes and hands were working on glazing over and checking out the books on the shelf.

The girl Moriah, wandered around the expansive room, feeling, touching and wowing, her eyes rounded as her open mouth as she looked over the room, the wardrobe, the shelf, the bathroom and the many bottles before Elliam pulled her out of the room.

"Come on! You haven't showed me the rest of the place yet!"

When they were done exploring the place, the both of them walked back to the front house.

While they walked back, Elliam couldn't help but feel something was wrong somewhere.

"But what about those shut doors?" She asked.

Moriah stared at her, silent for a period of time before answering.

"There's nothing interesting there, just some...Old rubbish we don't need all that much, alright?"

Elliam nodded slowly, although not convinced.