On the other hand, in some detention rooms underground at the Ztatzav Orphanage, to be precise,
“Damn! This place is not a detention room but rather a prison!” A young man’s voice was heard there. The surroundings were gloomy, poorly lit, and eerie. The light source was not from the sun but from torches placed on the wall, which made the five children shiver with fear.
“Calm down, Frazto. This situation definitely will not last long. I believe that we will be able to get out of the detention centre soon.” A young lady replied to his words, and her voice sounded confident. Inwardly, she was unsure of what she was saying. However, that girl was too proud to admit it.
“Why did you brutally attack Alexa like that, Odessa? Look at what you did: we were all forced here, so we have to endure severe punishment!” Suddenly, the same man snapped at the opposite sex, having had enough of the wench’s arbitrary behaviour.
The blonde teenage girl’s guts were bruised, having been scolded by her friend, even though the young boy rarely nagged her. Meanwhile, the other three teenagers were beginning to feel desperate, as it was rare for any of the children in the orphanage to go underground, let alone be made to stay in the detention room for some time.
“I do not like being here. Madame Aufrodine’s punishments are terrible, as she rarely does.” There was a girl’s voice this time, but it was definitely not from Odessa. Drena looked around and saw that there were no chairs, tables, or beds.
Because of Odessa, we had to sleep on the cold floor from one day to one month and couldn’t sleep in the warm bed as usual. She was annoying! If Odessa really wanted to bully Alexa like she always did, why not just mock her? That weird girl always kept quiet when teased, too. It is our loss when it comes to getting punished unnecessarily, the light brown-eyed girl complained to herself.
“It was not my fault that we came in here!” Odessa did not want to be blamed, so that statement aroused the anger of all the youths who were also in the same area, although they were placed in different rooms.
“Shut up, Bitch! It is a good thing we are in the detention centre. Otherwise, I would have beaten you up! What is so hard about keeping your mouth shut, huh?! You are such a useless girl! You are just a nuisance!” Drutz snapped at Odessa, which shocked the name owner into silence.
A strange chill began to set in slowly but surely, but the five teenagers inside their detention rooms had yet to notice it. They were now busy thinking about how to survive there, even though it was very unlikely to happen. Over time, the air had turned eerie, as if there was a supernatural presence, and the first to notice was Drena.
“Do you feel something strange here?” asked the red-haired girl while looking in all directions. The four sidekicks had yet to answer as they seemed busy with their own thoughts. Just as Drena was about to say something, she began to get goosebumps, but the girl had yet to discover why this was the case.
“Guys? Did you hear me?” Drena asked again, and she deliberately used a rather loud voice. Fear filled her mind, as there was no sign of the four sidekicks hearing her voice.
The atmosphere there became tense. The one-hundred-and-sixty-seven-centimetre-tall young girl could only look at every corner of the detention room with a sense of dread. The extreme silence had succeeded in stressing Drena out. She tried to remain calm, but each second was too stressful for her.
There was still no sound after waiting for a long time, so Drena shouted. “Odessa? Drutz? Shul? Frazto? Where are you?”
No one answered the virgin’s question at all. The four other teenagers in their detention rooms seemed to have vanished from the scene, even though their voices had been heard earlier. That situation Drena found herself in was both nerve-wracking and terrifying. “What should I do? Why are my friends silent? Has something happened to them?” she murmured, confused.
The young girl could not help but get scared and almost burst into tears, already having bad thoughts. The girl shook her head several times and was determined to stay strong despite feeling otherwise inside. “Hey! Do not play games with me! You guys must be deliberately keeping quiet to mess with me, right?!”
The atmosphere was still the same. Now, fear was one hundred per cent dominating the girl. She collapsed on the floor by herself, already weak. The various bad thoughts that were already present only frustrated Drena even more. “What was going on? I know them very well. No one likes to be nosy except to the target.”
“Who is the target you are referring to? Is the person you are referring to Alexa?” When she heard that, the mystical voice echoed in her room; the slender girl spontaneously burst into tears, as she had never experienced such a strange event before.
“Answer me, Drena. So, the target you and your friends are always hurting for fun is Alexa?” The same voice came back, but now much louder, making the name’s owner cover her eyes with both palms.
“Why are you crying? Isn’t it that every time the five of you bully Alexa, she already feels the pain of your actions?” What the voice had said was true. Drena seemed to be one of the defendants for all the crimes she and her friends committed. She could only cry and could not do anything else.
“It turns out that you are just a coward, but you even deliberately joined that evil group that has been bullying Alexa, and it has been going on for a dozen years. How many lives do you have that you dare to hurt another child in this orphanage?” The disembodied voice had succeeded in intimidating Odessa’s Genk members, as the young lady was increasingly frightened and unable to hold in all those feelings.
“Odessa, you, Drutz, Shul, and Frazto must pay for all the wrongs you have done. I will prosecute you directly. I will make you suffer. No one escapes punishment!”
Suddenly, the light coming from the torches died instantly, as if many people were doing so. Drena hysterically screamed because she was very afraid of the darkness, especially because she felt alone. After all, the four familiar friends just disappeared.
***
In the office of the Head of the Ztatzav Orphanage
“Why were you defending Alexa earlier, Lenny? It was uncharacteristic of you to do something like that.”
The fierce-faced woman remained silent while the interlocutor remained faithfully waiting for her answer. Madame Aufrodine turned to her left, and there was already someone she knew very well. “I just do not want… to get into trouble with Goddess Magia. Besides, Odessa’s behaviour earlier was too much, so I got the right moment to give her and her friends the punishment.”
A woman with freckles on her face was stunned as soon as possible, as she did not expect to get such an answer from her best friend. “You… do you think that way?”
“Why not? That immortal goddess warned us twelve years ago, and I almost died because I came up with a crazy idea. No. I did not want it to happen to me twice. One was enough as a lesson.” Madame Aufrodine still clearly remembered what had happened, and the moment was deeply imprinted in her memory.
“Then, are you going to let all the children not bully Alexa? We can’t be everywhere every day to prevent that, Lenny.” Madame Loiston regretted her best friend’s actions, but the principal seemed to stand firm as her expression remained unchanged.
“If I had not taken decisive action against Odessa and her friends earlier, then Goddess Magia would have killed us both. I did that because it was not just about bullying but also for our safety and possibly the entire orphanage.” The thirty-eight-year-old woman warned her colleague to think clearly so that they could avoid disaster.
The thick-browed woman could only exhale heavily, realizing the truth of those words. Madame Aufrodine was watching Loiston’s movements, and she was grateful for having done the right thing and for being firm with the bullies, even though the victim was still injured and had to be treated by Madame Ethnia in the medical room.
“Yeah, you were right. I was just annoyed that our lunchtime was interrupted by having to rush to Alexa’s defence. Odessa is always throwing tantrums. I wonder why you put them in detention. Couldn’t they have just been spanked with a rattan or a long wooden ruler?”
“I wish it could be as easy as you told me. But unfortunately, it was not. I put Odessa, Frazto, Drena, Drutz, and Shul all there on purpose, just to see if that place is still haunted or not.”
Loiston spontaneously laughed, but it did not last long, while the sharp-nosed woman began to smirk, seeing the other person’s response. “So you deliberately used those brats as guinea pigs? What a brilliant idea!”
“Thank you. Besides, I am also curious about something. I wonder if Odessa and her friends are experiencing-”
***