In the underground area of the Ztatzav Orphanage,
“Hey? Don’t you feel weird?” A young man shouted loudly enough that the other three friends sitting on the floor of their detention rooms were stunned as soon as possible.
“What happened, Frazto? Did you see or hear any strange sounds?” Another young guy replied to the interlocutor’s words, so the questioner was relieved and intended to continue the same conversation.
“Did you not hear Drena’s voice? I have been calling out to her, but there is no answer.” Frazto explained to his friend about his concerns, while the other three were silent, thinking about the young man’s words, which turned out to be true.
“Perhaps Drena is asleep? We have been here for hours and do not know what is going on up there. We really are like prisoners.” Another boy chimed in this time, and his tone sounded very annoyed. However, he realized that it was useless to complain because the five of them were going to stay there for a whole month.
“Drena can’t possibly sleep on the floor, Shul. She is most opposed to the cold that comes from the floor. She likes a warm bed and thick blankets, even in summer.” The blonde girl refuted the opinion of the opposite sex, so she fell silent.
I do not believe Shul’s statement that Drena could sleep in this place. She would have preferred not to sleep since there was no bed. Let me try to call her, thought Odessa, who was curious.
“Drena! Drena! What are you doing?” Odessa called out loudly to her friend, but there was no answer from the name’s owner. This left the three young men who were there but remained in their respective detention rooms, both confused and scared.
“Hey, Drena! Do not be kidding! What are you doing? Why won’t you answer my questions?” asked Odessa, exasperated. The girl repeated the same action three times, and nothing had changed: That young lady whose name was mentioned did not make a sound, which made Drutz, Shul, and Frazto even more anxious.
“How strange. Why is Drena so quiet? Did something happen to her?” said Drutz, who had been silent.
“I agree with you. Drena looks like she is asleep. She can’t be faking because that is not her habit.” Shul replied to her friend’s words. She tried to think positively, even though it was very difficult to do under the current circumstances.
“Let her rest, Odessa. I am sure that Drena was sleeping like a baby, so she could not answer you.” Frazto tried to comfort the opposite sex. He was sure that their second female friend must be fine.
“What if Drena gets sick? I can’t just leave her alone, Frazto!” The one-hundred-sixty-eight centimeter tall girl refuted the man’s advice, so Frazto sneered, but he said nothing, being lazy to argue with Odessa.
Odessa was really upset. She did not know what had happened to Drena, because their detention rooms were not the same, so the situation had been difficult for her. “I have an idea: what if we shout together? Surely someone will hear and come underground to help us?”
“By the Goddess Asiles! Are you still in your right mind? It is impossible, Odessa! No one will come here. Besides, if anyone did hear our voices, then they would have chosen to go to their destination anyway so as not to be scolded by Madame Aufrodine or Madame Loiston.” Drutz was exasperated that the girl was still insisting when things were bad for them.
“Of course, I am still sane! If you reject my idea, then how can we find out how Drena is? What if she is sick or something bad has happened to her, and we are not even aware of it?” Odessa almost screamed, feeling ignored by her three male friends. The virgin never expected that in the midst of difficulties like this, they would instead choose to think easy things, aka assuming their friend who had been called but did not answer was definitely free from problems.
“Then you want us to scream until we are thirsty? Before you ask me, Frazto, and Shul to do that, look at your room! Do you see a table or any glass of water there?” The crooked-nosed young guy asked Odessa again. He was still holding back his emotions as he prevented himself from getting into a fight with the opposite sex just because of fussing over small and meaningless things.
The twelve-year-old girl gave up the idea of fighting and chose to follow the advice of one of her good friends. Meanwhile, the three young guys in a separate room were relieved because they no longer heard the ramblings of the girl who liked to bully Alexa, which annoyed them. The atmosphere was quiet again because Drutz and Odessa’s debate had stopped.
Odessa glanced around. However, she could not find anything there. The beautiful girl was not about to give up so easily, so the teenage girl repeated the same action, but to no avail. This situation upset her, but Drutz’s words were true, so the young woman could only remain silent and chose to stay where she was.
Five minutes had passed, but there was no sign of Odessa answering her question, so the young man with dark brown eyes was eager to ask the stubborn girl. “How is it, Odessa? Did you find what I asked for?” asked Drutz, as if he was mocking the opposite sex.
The name owner pursed her lips while the young man eagerly got his answer. Frazto and Shul were reluctant to do the same, so they preferred to ignore their friends’ conversation. “No, I did not,” Odessa replied, holding back the anger of having lost to the other person.
“Instead of fighting, save your energy. Try to sleep now, even though we are in a dirty and dull room. Who knows, when it is time for dinner, Madame Loiston or whoever will come here to deliver food and drinks.” Frazto said to his two friends, who were still harbouring resentment towards each other.
“You only think about food! Do you want to think about the fate of Drena and the rest of us underground?” Odessa snarled, half sarcastically. However, the stocky man seemed to ignore the words, as he was already starving.
“Anger will never solve problems, Odessa. It is better to save our energy. You do not want to suffocate yourself because there is no food and drink to replace your energy.” The young man replied so casually that she rolled her eyes in disgust.
“Yeah, up to you.”
Just as the witch finished saying that, suddenly, the light from the torches went out simultaneously, making the four teenagers scared to death. “What is going on? Did one of you get close to the torch and turn it off?” Odessa asked in a high tone.
“Do not be kidding! None of us are close to the torch because it is on the other side of the detention room, so it is impossible to reach here!” Shul replied in the same tone of voice as the other person.
“Why did the flame from the torch go out all of a sudden? I am getting scared.” Odessa could not hide her anxiety, as she could see nothing but darkness.
“We do not know. Is it possible that someone came here and intended to play a trick on us?” Frazto looked vigilant as he approached the door, but he also experienced the same thing as the opposite sex due to the darkness that dominated the underground area.
“It is not good. We are trapped here but can’t do anything about it. We should get out of this place as soon as possible.” Shul replied to his friend’s words. Meanwhile, Drutz and Odessa almost cried because the thick darkness had made them paranoid.
“Yes, so what do we do? We are still under sentence, so we will not be able to get out of here unless Madame Loiston drops the key by accident, and the chances of that happening are slim.” The young man, who had a height of one hundred and sixty-six centimetres tall, refuted what his friend had said. Shul groaned, unable to contain the feeling of anxiety that swept through his mind.
“Drena! Drena! Where are you? If you are sleeping, then wake up! Do not stay still!” Odessa shouted, feeling hopeless. However, the young girl did not respond at all.
“Who are you looking for?” The four teenagers who were still awake and in separate detention rooms heard the mystical voice, though not far apart. Odessa, Drutz, Shul, and Frazto did not dare to make a sound, let alone answer the disembodied voice, as it seemed to echo underground and made them extremely frightened.
The four teenagers spontaneously closed their eyes as if refusing to see what had happened in the area around them.
“Why are four of you so quiet? Were you not shouting earlier? Come on, do it again!” The same voice was heard again, and this time, the sound of laughter was heard, which made the atmosphere even more tense.
“Come on, shout louder! I want to hear it! If you refuse, I will make all four of you do it, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.” After she finished saying that, the woman’s voice disappeared. However, such an event aroused suspicion in Odessa.
They were silent for a long time, about twenty minutes, and Shul could not wait to check things out. Quietly, the young man opened both eyes and then he was very surprised when he saw the face of a woman covered in blood very close to him. Without hesitation, the teenage utra screamed very loudly, which made the other three friends even more frightened and even more reluctant to open their eyes.
Soon, there was a loud thud as if to indicate that one person had fainted. “Come on, who else wants to shout like Shul? Do you want to do it voluntarily, or must you be forced to do it first?”
Frazto, Drutz, and Odessa grew tense when they heard the threat. They already wanted to cry but did not dare to do so for fear of seeing the creepy woman who had made Shul faint.
***