17 Const Orphanage 13
In the dimly lit corridor, the faint lights flickered on and off, the buzzing of electricity constant in the background.
A girl was running through the endless hallway, holding another girl's hand.
"Francesca?" Blair looked ahead at her friend in a daze, unsure how she had arrived here.
The hand holding hers belonged to a familiar figure who suddenly appeared beside her, her hair a shade of brown.
"Blair, we need to run, we can't stay here any longer." Francesca's voice was urgent and frantic, but despite being so close, Blair felt her voice seemed oddly distant.
Francesca's hair was loose, and Blair hadn't seen her face clearly.
"Where are we going?" Blair was getting anxious. It was growing dark, and they needed to return to their dormitory instead of running wildly through the corridors.
Francesca didn't respond; her hair floated in front of her face and behind her. It was then that Blair realized she hadn't seen Francesca's face since they started running.
"What's wrong? Why is your hair covering your face?" Blair cautiously observed, reaching out to help tie back her hair.
Francesca abruptly veered off, continuing to run ahead without stopping.
"Stop, stop, Francesca, what's wrong? We need to get back to the dormitory." Francesca finally halted and let go of Blair's hand. Blair wanted to talk to her seriously.
Fog crept into the corridor.
Suddenly, Blair felt an inexplicable surge of panic. She reached out to grab Francesca but grasped at nothing.
In an instant, Francesca disappeared.
"Francesca! Where are you?" Blair looked around frantically, the fog enveloping the corridor, rendering the world silent and still.
The fog slowly churned, altering the scene. Suddenly, Blair found herself at the entrance of the Orphanage, shrouded in fog, the details obscured. Surrounding her were urgent voices echoing:
"Blair, run!"
"Blair, run!"
"Blair, run!"
Then the voices ceased, leaving silence.
"Francesca! Francesca! Where are you?" Blair shouted loudly.
A wailing cry of a child in immense pain and despair came from not too far away.
It was Francesca's cry!
Driven by urgency, Blair ran towards the source of the crying.
She found a house from which Francesca's voice emanated!
Circling the house, she found no windows, only a thick stone door.
The crying turned into soft sobs and whimpers, sounding more like feeble gasps for air.
"Francesca! Don't be afraid, I'm here to save you! I will save you!" Blair banged on the stone door with force, her hands bleeding from the rough stone, but she didn't care.
Francesca's voice vanished.
The stone door creaked open slowly, creating a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Inside was pitch-black, a thick smell of blood rushing out, like the gaping maw of a monster hiding countless unknown dangers.
Trembling with fear, Blair mustered her courage to step inside when—
"Bang———Bang—Bang—Bang———"
Loud knocking sounds came from within, their secret code for danger, urging her to escape.
"Bang———Bang—Bang—Bang———"
"Francesca! Francesca! Francesca!"
Blair woke up with a start, sitting up abruptly in her bed. She patted her chest, taking deep breaths of air.
It was just a dream.
She leaned back helplessly, her ear against the wall, her fingers idly tapping.
"Dang———Dang—Dang—Dang———"
This morning she had asked all the adults in the Orphanage if they had seen Francesca. Some walked away indifferently shaking their heads, others scoffed, suggesting she must have been adopted.
"Dang———Dang—Dang—Dang———"
They said Francesca left in a hurry, so there was no time for goodbyes.
How could that be?
Blair and Francesca were best friends! Francesca wouldn't just leave like that!
"Dang———Dang—Dang—Dang———"
Ignoring the rules, she caused trouble all over the Orphanage until the Dean showed up.
He patted her head kindly, promising that Francesca would call her in a few days and send a postcard.
Could it really be?
Blair eyed the Dean suspiciously, half-believing, half-doubting. Was Francesca really adopted?
"Bang———Bang—Bang—Bang———"
What did she hear?
Blair pressed her ear firmly against the wall, having just heard a sound from within it, like the clanging of water pipes.
"Bang———Bang—Bang—Bang———"
It was as if the knocking sounds from a dream had pierced into reality, and she truly heard the noises made by the water pipes inside the wall.
It was Francesca!
"Bang———Bang—Bang—Bang———"
Two long, two short, it was their specific signal:Danger! Run!
Blair's eyes widened, a chill crawling up her spine. Everything around her seemed as if it was watching her.
No one can leave this Orphanage! Everyone is deceiving them!
...
"The day she disappeared, I heard someone knocking on the pipes through the wall," Blair said, looking down with a serene expression.
"Two long, two short, that was our secret code."
"Two long, two short? The sound of knocking on pipes?" Elvira repeated the keywords, his brow furrowed, lost in thought.
He remembered the nursery rhyme he heard in the expanded section, the rhythm of the knocking water pipe, and the fragmented images he saw.
The rhyme was being sung as, "Friends flutter away, like specters they swoon. Water pipes knock, a peculiar tune."
So, was the girl in those visions Francesca?
Was it her singing and knocking on the pipes to signal danger? Was she the one who, in Blair's moment of peril, told him which button would open the door?
Was Francesca silently protecting Blair, in the form of a spirit? How could that be?
Was she alive or not? And why could he hear and see these things?
Elvira's gaze was lost, his mind filled with confusion. The world before him felt unreal, as if the reality he had known for the first twenty years was just a small fraction of the whole.
He slowly stood up.
"Where are you going?" Blair tugged at his sleeve, looking up.
"To the expanded section, I left something important there." He said."Then, to find a place to sleep."
"Do you have any suggestions?" Elvira's gaze turned serious, fixing on Blair's blue-green eyes.
"Go to Teacher Ginger's dormitory," Blair let go of Elvira's sleeve and murmured softly.
Speaking so softly and indistinctly, even Elvira couldn't catch it clearly.
"So, where is Teacher Ginger?" Elvira finally voiced the question.
Blair rolled out of bed without answering him. She pulled a biscuit tin from under the bed, bowed her head, and ate quietly, her cheeks puffed out like a little squirrel.
Knowing Blair didn't want to answer, Elvira decided to leave.
Just as his hand touched the doorknob, Blair's voice suddenly came from behind, "You have already met her."
Startled, Elvira turned around to see Blair quietly eating her biscuits, not even glancing at him.
Why would she say that?
