The Bad.

I made to follow but mother Essyher said, "Not you, Elliam,"

My heart nearly stopped.

'oh no! She's onto me,'

I felt so nervous and afraid that I felt if I raised a foot I would float away into the air.

•

She moved behind her desk and sat on the hulking medieval chair behind.

Literally everything in this room was medieval.

"Sit, miss Elliam,"

I managed to move towards the chair and sit down.

The table was bare except for a dark exquisite glass bottle and a glass.

Mother Essyher poured out a drink from the bottle.

While she poured out the drink, I continued my look around, this time at the paintings, there was one, weirder than all the rest and it of course caught my attention.

It hung high, near the ceiling and had a tall creature with ugly rotten flesh and large horns, the moon above it was bright and full, and the creature was just some steps beyond the the forest.

For some reason the painting seemed to draw me in, and it looked so real, that I couldn't tell if it was indeed a painting or a photograph.

"I reckon you don't drink scotch,"

The voice suddenly bright me back to the present.

"What?"

She stopped.

"You don't drink scotch, do you?"

Did this woman just ask me if I drink scotch?!

I straightened my expression to hide how I felt a about this.

"Of course," she said as she kept the bottle in the drink cabinet.

While she got another bottle, I looked at the portraits. They all looked aristocratic and important with their stern and despicable faces and sterner countenances.

'almost like the statues in the hallway,'

However the more I stared, the more my mind seemed to relax like I was falling asleep or being hypnotized.

The loud 'tik tok' of the ancient clock like a trance music heard from a dreary dream and as I stared at the pictures and as they seemed to stare back.

The pictures in the darkness all seemed to be moving, their skins appeared to be becoming more and more transparent as their bones and skulls became more patent under their disappearing skins.

Their eyes vanishing into deep black abyss with each passing seconds in the darkness of the room.

'Dun'

The sound of glass being placed on the table snapped me out of my trance. I shook my head trying to shake the feeling away then looked at the portraits, they'd reverted back to normalcy.

The nun placed another glass in front of me and poured from the bottle a clear liquid. Afterwards she dropped two large orange tablets into the liquid.

I watched as the tablets let out their orange color into the liquid as they fizzed and expelled bubbles speedily while slowly disintegrating, fading away into the water. I narrowed my eyes at the drink, skeptical and suspicious of drinking it.

The nun calmly took a sip of her drink, while I stared at mine.

"Moriah tells me you've been unhappy here,"

I looked at her.

" Unhappy? No I've....."

"And you've been associating with a bunch of misfits,"

I raised my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

" 'What do I mean?' What I mean miss Elliam is, you are forgetting who your sponsor is, you're a child of vast inheritance, and your associates should be with children alike,"

I frowned.

'like Betty?' I thought.

That guy was the most snotty boy I've ever met, pun cause his nose was always runny.

"When your sponsor brought you here, he entrusted us with the duty of refining you, because we and him hope for you to be adopted by a worthy family and with the way you're behaving and the people you're with, it's not going to make a good impression on them,"

She spoke slowly, emphasizing on each of her words.

While she spoke, her head bent low so I could see her face from her forehead, her face was turned to the side, her obviously weren't focused.

Like a human-like toy and like she was possessed.

She was silent and still in that position and was creeping me out.

My chest was beating fast as I pressed against my chair, the room was silent and the clock ticked incessantly giving the already creepy room an unearthly atmosphere.

Suddenly I noticed just then another sound and my heart skipped a beat as I realized the cassette player which was not turned on earlier was now playing a slow sepulchral sonata, which added to my fears.

I looked at the bent figure of Mother Essyher and hoped with every fiber in me that this was one of those crazy dreams I normally had, but the pain of pinching myself found my hope was let down. I had a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and I wished I could just disappear into the chair.

Suddenly without any preceding movements, I saw that mother Essyher was in a normal position and was staring straight at me.

The tick tock of the clock had stopped, the music continued.

" Are our child help services not enough, child?"

" What?...." I asked, feeling out of my mind.

" Are Our Services Not Enough?" She asked

" They're enough, they're enough," I said, wide eyed and still out of my mind.

The old nun cocked her head slowly while keeping steady eyes on me.

"Elliam, for you to be okay here, you have to understand that you're not well," Her voice was a dull sing-song and she still held back her words, picking them slowly, emphasizing them.

" Have you realized how different you are from the other children? It's not a good kind of different, the others are happy, and do what they're told, you are not,"

With every sentence she made, her head cocked a little degree sideways.

" Yes, miss Elliam, though you might be ok physically, mentally you're not, you're sick, indisposed and ailing,"

I only listened, feeling exposed and weak and scared, I swallowed whatever she told me as fact, I only wanted to get out of here.

" And my prescription..." She started tapping the wooden floor with her heel slowly and accompanying it the 'tik tok' of the clock, the spine chillingly sounding sonata on the old cassette player that had been playing for a while now, each resounding across the room and amplifying loudly in my ears.

"Is simple,

" Participate in all activities we have you do, follow our every rule, do not do anything of your own accord, unless we say so and do not want with anyone we do not want you to,"

All noises combined with the shrill thrills of the crickets outside, the creakings of the woods and floor boards, all seemed to lull her into a deep trance.

The nun drew her every word out slowly.

"They might seem difficult, but they're actually simple and you have to do every of it because you have to be alright, you must be okay,"

The nun's words now echoed in my ears, repeating itself in my dreams and converting it into wild nightmares.

....

That night Elliam went to bed with a dulled mind and woke with paranoia like hot lava through her veins.

•••••••

The next day, the door banged open as usual, the nun and the two servants found Elliam sat up on her bed, her eyes wild and bloodshot and her heart beating so fast she felt it would burst.

Today was different though.

The nun said for the maid to help bathe Elliam.

She followed Elliam to the bathroom after the nun was gone and asked for her to pull off her clothes expecting an annoyed glare or an 'I said I don't need help here!'

But was surprised when she nodded and did as she asked.

Today, her eyes were inactive and there were dark rings around it's cavities. Today she walked with a slouching stoop, and only nodded to everything said to her.

••••••

The girl held a plate of food with both hands and walked with a stoop and a drag to her posture.

Ramone walked beside her with a confused expression.

"Elliam are you okay? You haven't come to the playground in three days, are you sick? Why the heck are you walking like that?"

Ramone asked questions after questions worriedly. But Elliam gave no answer but continued on to her seat.

Ramone stopped then and asked incredulously, "What is wrong with you?"

Ramone asked questions after questions worriedly. But Elliam gave no answer but continued on to her seat.

Ramone stopped then and asked incredulously, "What is wrong with you?"

Elliam stopped and turned to look at her.

Ramone gasped when she saw her face. It was

pale and dusty and Ramone almost couldn't recognize her.

Could this be the same girl she saw just yesterday?

"Elliam.... What's wrong with you?"

The girl stopped and looked at her feet, "What is.... Wrong with.... Me?"

Then looked up at Ramone.

" Leave me alone, I don't want to hang out with a bunch of riffraff anymore, so leave alone, I have better people to hang out with, " She said curtly, then left, leaving Ramone dumbfounded and aghast.