Chapter2

#Chapter2

Iris-

Iris- I didn’t really know my name but this is what the orphanage named me because of my eyes, the different colour iris I had, they fascinated everyone. I had been in this orphanage from ever since I could remember, from the moment I opened my eyes, things were strange here we were only a girls orphanage and though the staff members were sickly sweet, they were also awfully secretive. There were certain rooms we could never enter, there were certain women and men that would come and watch us- quite literally, they’d watch us and once we were 18, there were rumours that orphans would go missing once they came of age.

/"Guess what today is girls?!/"

Julie- one of the staff members said enthusiastically as she walked into the auditorium, a few of us were turning 18, some of us had already turned 18 within the last few days and as our goodbye ritual, the orphanage celebrated our 18th birthday with a coming of age/goodbye party as we could no longer stay at the orphanage after turning 18.

/"It’s our coming age party!/"

Some of the girls squealed in excitement while the others seemed rather emotionless and numb and the odd few, they were afraid because of the rumours about this specific day.

/"That’s right! We have got you all a gift which we have placed in your rooms so go open up your presents, get ready and return back to the auditorium for your big night!/"

Julie clapped her hands and off the girls went, running to their rooms to open their presents, it was rare to get anything new here, only on our birthdays we’d get a present, it would normally be a new item of clothing so that we didn’t have to wear the same clothes for our entire stay here.

/"Hey Iris?/"

Julie called me over to her and so I paused my steps, turning around to look at her as I waited for her to give me her speech, each year on my birthday, she gave me a new speech, I was what you would call a troubled child and Julie found it in her to always put more effort into trying to fix me. What she didn’t know was that- I was gone beyond fixing.

/"Try to enjoy your day ok? You never know when you get to throw a celebration like this again. You’ve been so strong and I’m so proud of you, I’m sure once the day is over and you find your own life outside of here, you’ll continue to make me proud. Don’t give up./"

She smiled a gentle smile that made my insides shudder, she was like a mother to me, I had known her my entire life and as I studied her wrinkled smile, I noticed just how much she had aged with us, just as we grew, she too became old.

/"Of course Julie./"

I forced a fake smile, it was my last day here and I had no intentions of worrying her before I left, after-all, she was the one who had did the most for me my entire life.

/"Hey Julie?/"

I quoted her as I turned to her with a smile on my face.

/"Thank you./"

I mumbled, I wasn’t so good at thanking anyone for anything, to be honest, I didn’t feel grateful for a lot in my life but I knew that if I was to ever be thankful to someone, it had to be Julie.

Opening gift wrapped box on my bed in my room, I opened it to find a beautiful long white dress, it looked like it belonged to a princess, though it was pretty, it wasn’t something I’d wear ever again except this day, I wasn’t the one to wear dresses, nor did I care to look like a princess, I was more into shorts and jumpers, anything that was comfortable and maybe a hint of sexy. Nothing like this though I was going to wear this dress today for Julie.

Slipping out of my clothes and wearing the white dress, I looked myself over in the mirror, the white of the dress made my eyes standout and the more I looked at myself, the more nervous I became. I had tried not to think about my life outside of this orphanage because really, I had no idea where to go or where to start. The orphanage would help us find a college or a place to stay out, a job, anything to keep us going but that’s as far as they’d help, I was worried that, I wouldn’t survive in the outside world, the world beyond the walls of the orphanage that I had grew up in. I had no idea what that world consisted of.

Pushing back my nagging thoughts, I made my way back to the auditorium and as the night grew cold, the orphanage became more distant, the girls were all dancing and singing, running around celebrating their freedom outside of the orphanage as I watched from the sidelines, sipping on my drink.

This was the first time they offered alcohol to us, of course, because we were younger before, though, it wasn’t the first time I had drank, I had snuck out of the orphanage many times and found myself doing things I wasn’t supposed to do and from what I had learned about alcohol, it was that, it wasn’t supposed to make you feel like this…. Drowsy and…. Lost.

Just as my paranoid was setting in as I considered all of the rumours that had been going around the orphanage, I watched as multiple men and women walked into the auditorium while the staff lined us up, we all stood there confused, facing these strange people that had been watching us for a while as they studied us all.

/"Too fat./"

One of the women said as she walked towards the first girl in line.

/"Too pale./"

She pointed towards the next girl in line.

/"Her blood smells bitter./"

She said about the third girl which made us all look towards each other questioningly. Her blood smells bitter? What does that mean? How would she even know what the girls blood smells like? My eyes went from the woman assessing us to Julie who caught my gaze, there was a hint of sorrow behind her orbs as she silently apologised, I wasn’t sure what was going on but I knew whatever it was- it wasn’t right.

/"This one, take this one./"

The woman said about the fifth girl and as the men began to grab the girl, she fainted, along with some of the other girls, slowly, they were all fainting and just as the woman stopped before me, her eyes looking straight into my non-existent soul, she looked back to the other people as she said-

/"Her. She’s perfect./"

And with that- I too, drifted off into the darkness as I felt my body collapse to the ground and as I went down, I wondered…. Was this, what the rumours were about? Was I about to go…..

Missing?