The Red

Chapter 10

Thursday is pretty uneventful. Just the norm. Wake up (I, from a restless sleep), eat, lessons, lunch, and just hanging around the orphanage. Neither Stephano nor Susan speak to me, which I am just fine with. But, they do silently appear in the same room as me whenever I move around. Just...watching me. But what for?

Part of me fears I'll never know. That they'll just leave and never return and I'll be stuck with no answers.

Another part of me worries about what happens if I do find out. Will I get in trouble? Or get someone else in trouble? What's the point in watching me? I'm certainly nothing special.

One thing I know for sure, sadly enough, is that I'll have to wait to see what happens.

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It's Friday night and I can't sleep. Nothing big happened today, either, but I'm worried that I'll get another flashback in my dreams. Last night I just plain couldn't sleep. This week has been a series of memories and confusion.

The clock tells me it's 1:47. So many hours of no sleep.

I yawn and stand up. I need something to do, and desperately. I decide on going downstairs to the bathroom. It'd be innocent enough if I got caught out of bed by a late-night Stephano. For all I know, he's writing emails about me every night.

I cross the Main Room and go down a hallway until I arrive at the bathroom. Once inside, I run my hands under the faucet. The warm water feels good on my chilly hands.

Spring comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb, I think, and then with a smirk: Also known as bipolar weather.

After organizing the cabinets, refolding the towels, and cleaning the counter, I've decided I don't have much more to do. I exit the bathroom, leaving the light off and the door open so no one on the first floor wakes up.

If Stephano and Susan even sleep.

My feet make no sound as they pad across the carpet.

Click click click.

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no!

I peer around the corner. There's Stephano, on his laptop. Only this time, he's sitting on a couch that's facing the stairs. He'll see me if I walk into the room, let alone go up the stairs!

I'm aware that I could just use the excuse that I was in the bathroom. But then he'd know that I have seen him emailing people at 2:00 in the morning! And I'm fairly sure he does it at this time so people don't know. What do I do?

I decide to sit it out. I'll check every so often, and when he's gone, I'll go back to bed.

I slump near the corner of the wall, across from the open bathroom door. He can't see me here.

I wait and wait. And wait some more. The clicking persues. I can feel the weight of secrecy bringing my shoulders down.

Just don't let him see you, I think. ...Out of sight, out of mind.

Time is a weird thing. It's there, but it's not. In fact, it controls you. It goes nowhere; it comes from nowhere. It supposedly doesn't change, but with my current situation, I swear it can change speed.

Someone in the world is thinking time goes by too fast. I'd like to feel that way at the moment, but time seems to works against us.

I recall Cathy showing us a video on the Big Bang theory when I was new. "There was no space, no time, no matter," it said. "Nothing. And then there was light, and with that light came time...." It then goes on to say that the light compacted and exploded, and eventually there was all of this.

I don't get it. So we all came from nothing. Time came from nothing. This light came from nowhere and made everything. I just don't get it. How can there be anything without time? Right now I'd be quite happy to be rid of time.

That's me, questioning the face of the universe because I'm hiding from a creepy man who remembers my dad by his eyes rather than his name.

Following this thought, the clicks die out and and I can hear the small thump of the laptop closing.

Yes! I think. Finally!

I peek around the corner.

Crap.

He's walking toward the hallway. Which I just so happen to be sitting in. Of course.

Stupid Natalie! Why were you so bent up in the theory that Stephano didn't sleep that it never occurred to you that this hallway leads to the guest rooms?!

Panic begins to set in, and my heart rate increases. I crawl across the hall and into the bathroom, sitting in plain sight, really. Not like I have an option; if I try to go behind the door, he'd see the whole thing move. So, I just hug my knees and hope he passes me by.

Wait.... What if he's coming to the bathroom? Then he'll find out by tripping over me!

Please, no.... Please no, please no, please no, I think uselessly.

He enters the hallway and keeps walking. He's almost past the bathroom when he suddenly looks down, meeting my anxious eyes.

So close.... I almost made it.

He stares back at me, with no expression whatsoever. His walking slows as he looks, but then he just continues down the hall, leaving me breathless.

He saw me. Oh, goodness, no....

He knows.

He saw me.