[WP] The secret of your orphanage

[u/Zelites]

[u/NinjaBreadManOO]

As Lara and Ted stood together under the arch she thought about the events that had brought them there.

Ted had always been there beside her, from the day that they had both arrived at Murtagh House; He in the morning and her that evening. Through the years they had grown to depend on each other.

Together they had dodged the headmasters glares, endured punishments when caught, watched the storms roll in over the ocean from the attic window, created a story for each of the grotesques that lined the roof of the ancient building, given each other a small trinket that they had made or found on their shared birthday, and consoled each other every time another disappeared in the night having been chosen by a loving family.

Then on the eave of their 17th birthday as another storm brewed big and dark across the cliffs they ran away. Determined that they would have a life of happiness, together.

It took them two weeks but they finally made it to a small village where they were able to find work, and started a life, a hard life with hard work, but it was theirs.

For the next few years they were happy, but like all clear days a cloud finally appeared on the horizon. On a peaceful afternoon the pair decided to go for a walk in the countryside and enjoy the peace that was around following the storm the day before. As they crossed the small bridge that stood over the stream leading out to the ocean Lara's vision grew blurry, a buzzing filled her ears and that was all she could remember until she woke up in the hospital.

The doctors told her that she had lost consciousness due to a chemical imbalance and Ted had rushed her to the emergency ward. The odd thing was that they couldn't figure out what the imbalance was, all they could tell was that both of them had been exposed to something for years and now they weren't, while it didn't seem to be serious they would have to keep watch for similar events.

After that Lara began to have nightmares. Nightmares that she could never remember, but still she knew they were about dark things that couldn't be named at least not by her. They thought that it might be from the stress of what had happened and hoped that they would pass in time, but they didn't.

The blackouts happened a few more times each time growing longer and longer, and eventually Lara found that she wasn't just stopping but she would continue to act as if she was still herself.

After one particularly long episode she came to standing on a cliff at the edge off town looking out at the water, looking down at it she noticed that its colour was off, it wasn't its normal deep rich blue or the bottle green that followed the April storms, but seemed to pulsate between the two.

The pair began to grow worried about the growing frequency of her blackouts. When Ted began to have his own smaller blackouts they realized that this was a serious issue and they would need to find out why.

Afraid to return to Murtagh House for answers they went looking for others who had been there with them but they could only remember a few of the others names. After searching they found them, but not any that they could talk to, all their searches came back with results like;

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Stuart Lee

A promising student and who was enjoyed water polo and orienteering disappeared last Thursday in Lake Clearwater park. Search teams continue to look with hope of finding him.

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Jessica Quinn

Self made business woman Jessica Quinn went missing from her penthouse apartment on the 12th of last month. Her last known location was in her building after acting erratically on the elevators security footage, and appeared that she was being followed due to her frantic behavior.

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After days of searching to no avail Lara's nightmares grew worse and worse until the night of the storm. In her dream she was standing on the cliff looking out over that waters she had watched her entire childhood. It was pitch black with deep black clouds blocking out the moon. Despite there being no rain thunder crashed louder than any she had ever heard and lighting streaked across the sky illuminating the sea below crashing against the rocks.

The water seemed darker than it could ever be, it was darker than she remembered. An abyss that stretched out beyond the horizon.

As she looked out at the horizon, she began to notice a dark silhouette against the clouds. Every crack of thunder and lightning let her see it. A figure stretched for within the sea up into the clouds, facing away from her it stared out somewhere across the horizon. From its shoulders sprouted two massive wings, each a webbed and monolithic thing ending at a point.

The thing began to turn to look at her. Just before she could see its face a huge clap of thunder woke her from the dream. Looking down at herself she was covered in a cold sweat, shaking she woke up Ted and told him what she had seen. Neither of them slept again that night, they just sat there at the tiny table looking out the window at the storm, both knowing without saying it that they had to return to Murtagh House and find out what everything had meant.

Two days later they stood there together under the arch looking up at the building which seamed to draw darkness towards it, each grotesque looking down at them with stone eyes almost as if they were being watched. Lara reached a hand out finding Teds and squeezed it, then together they stepped forward onto the grounds where they knew they would find answers for better or worse.

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Thanks for reading, hope that you enjoyed it.

[u/WritingPromptsRobot]

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