Your Lie Will Be Revealed

It rained heavily that night, the night when 6 of Mary-Ann’s students went missing from the Redland sacred orphanage. It wasn’t like them to up and disappear or even leave the orphanage at that hour of the night but on 5^th of July, Robby, Mindy, Saoirse, Jade, Eric and Taylor had

disappeared from their beds. Even after countless search parties and numerous

alerts on TV and radio there was no sign of them and then they were presumed

dead.

Weeks after their disappearance Marry-Ann was called into

different news channels to talk about the missing kids. In these TV shows

Marry-Ann would talk about the kids, their good behavior and how they were

always treated kindly, and given the best possible education available in her

orphanage.

Once, just 2 or 3 week after the disappearance Marry-Ann said on

live TV “Those children were the light of my life, I would play with them, make

them food, teach them, we would talk about their future and they would run to

me calling teacher Marry. I treated them with love and kindness as if they were

my own and I would just want to say if you can hear me kids please come back.”

It had moved the hearts of everyone until the trail went cold and the case

closed.  Marry-Ann had closed down the orphanage after the last of kids

were adopted or transferred to foster homes.

21 YEARS LATER

Iris stands at the threshold of the main building taking in the

old wild trees, and the green freshly trimmed lawns and

the older buildings she walked past just a few minutes ago. She walks in and is

guided to the director’s office by a woman dressed in a fashionable plaid suit.

The woman looks almost the same age as Iris.

Inside of the office is different from the rest of the building;

with a darker colour palette, expensive paintings and the Victorian style

furniture it feels as if one is pulled into the Victorian era. But the rest of

the rooms Iris passed had a décor that gives a bit of a modern touch to the old

building. Iris stares at the woman by the window sipping tea, her silhouette

and posture of the woman present years of discipline.

“You must be Miss Iris Luritzen, you must excuse me if I

mispronounce your name it is a bit hard” the woman gestures to her to take a

seat opposite to her.

“I understand my parents were Danish you see and I would prefer if

you could call me Iris, Ma’am” Iris politely asks to take her.

“Call me Marry-Ann, Iris. Would you like some tea” Marry-Ann fills

another cup of tea and offers it, “Well I have gone through your resume and the

interview details and I must say you are an excellent candidate. Have you gone

through the details of your employment?”

“Yes I have and I’m satisfied with it and I was wondering if I

could take a tour of the campus before I start with classes”

“That is absolutely alright, Katharine will take you on the tour.

Just tell her I asked her too. Alright. May you have a wonderful time here

Iris.”

Iris walks out as soon as Marry-Ann, who she had noticed looked in

her sixties with grey hair and aging skin, had returned to her tea and

paperwork on her desk. Katherine, the plaid suit woman she had met earlier, had

given her the campus tour showing all the new buildings and the old ones as

well.

“What about that one?” Iris had pointed to a red brick building

which was furthest from the rest.

“That used to be the orphanage residence building; teachers as

well as the younger orphans lived there. But after the incident 21 years ago

the director refused to renovate it for any use. She still harbors those

painful memories. Let’s move on shall we.”

After the tour Iris began teaching her classes and like that

months went by and summer turned to winter. With the winter break most of the

students left school and returned home but a few stayed. Iris decides to remain

as well since she has no one to return to, with no parents or siblings she felt

right to stay.

A WEEK INTO THE WINTER BREAK

Marry-Ann and Katherine walk up to Iris who had just left her room

and was heading to the mess hall.

“Iris, may we have a moment” Marry-Ann dressed in all black

stopped Iris at the door, “Since all the teachers have done home and there are

only a few students here we thought we might take them shopping for new-year

eve. Would you like to come along?”

“Thank you for the offer but I would have to decline and it’s not

because I don’t want to. I’m not feeling well and want to rest”

“You should have said so before. Hurry up and take your breakfast

and rest ok.”

An hour later Marry-Ann and Katherine had escorted the remaining

student out of campus leaving Iris alone. After breakfast when everyone had

left Iris bored out of her mind, decided to look around. She had ventured to

the closed building as if it was calling her. Inside was colder than outside

but Iris kept walking deeper inside inspecting each and every room. The ground

floor had a lobby and staircase that led upstairs and to the basement. Iris

walked upstairs, on the first floor left and right there were doors, each room

fitted for two individuals. The first Iris walks into is simple, there is

nothing special to show that says anyone once lived here. All other rooms were

the same, same décor giving out abandonment vibes. The last room on this floor

is by the window which has the view of the director’s building. Iris with shaking

hands opens the door and finds it different. This room had been ransacked,

papers were spread on the floor, and drawers were pulled out of the dresser.

Iris had reached down to grab one of the papers and found it was a child’s

drawing.

“COME ON” Iris turned to face the door, a shadow passed by

it and Iris knew something was wrong. The voice she heard wasn’t above a

whisper which made her think one of the kids was playing a prank.

“Who’s there, you should know you are not allowed to be here” she

called out.

“Come” another whisper and Iris took the stairs up.

She stepped into the hallway similar to the previous one and out

of nowhere a book came flying at her.

“This is it show yourself this instant” no more whispers, no

answer, “Fine, then I’ll keep this” she picks up the book and walks out of the

building. Once back to her room she decides to rest until dinner time and lays

down on her bed.

Hours later when she wakes up due to the cold winds and

temperature drop she realizes she slept through dinner and while into the

night. She gets up to see her bedroom door ajar which was odd because she had

locked it.

“Come on before she

finds us” the whispers came

again, Iris had leaped out of bed and ran to her door. She stepped outside to

see and found an empty hallway. She took a few steps into the hallway and then slammed, the

door of her room shut. The noise didn’t wake anyone since no one was there.

Iris headed back to her room, went inside and locked it firmly.  She sat

on her bed visibly disturbed by the day’s events. While going over everything

that happened, her eyes shifted towards the book she brought back, it was open.

Out of curiosity she grabbed the book and turned to the first

page. The first page was unusual; rather than having the owners name it had names

of more than 15 people.  She turned to the next page and then the next and

then the next, by the time she finished it a tiny droplet left her eyes.

The next few days went without any interaction with Marry-Ann or

Katherine but Iris would sometimes witness Marry-Ann walk into the abandoned

building late at night. And afterwards when Iris did see Marry-Ann here or

there she would look over her shoulders and act jumpy which made Iris very

suspicious.

On the day of New Years Eve while everyone on campus were having

their feast Iris had snuck into Marry-Ann’s office. She looked into drawers and

cabinets but only found papers with nothing incrementing. It was well into the

night and Iris was still in the office, she had taken a few minutes to rest and

take a look outside at the abandoned building. Iris kept staring and was about

to turn and leave when she saw a small figure appear at the window. Then another

figure appeared until there were five figures in total, and they all waved at

her. She raised her hand to wave back, she felt like every cell in her body was

telling her to go there. The figures stopped waving suddenly, and pointed to

their left, Iris’s gaze left the figure and looked where they pointed and saw

someone walking towards the building, when she looked back the figures had

disappeared.

Iris rushed towards the door of the office but before she could

leave the phone in the office rang. Iris picked it up and answered.

Marry-Ann walked in and rushed to the floor above.

“I know you’re here, show yourself you little brats” she announces

to the empty floor, “I want that book back.”

“Murderer, Murderer,

Murderer” the whispers grew

louder and louder.

“Shut up!! I didn’t do anything, you made me do it. I didn’t

murder you, I just…”

“What are you doing, director?” Iris called from behind Marry-Ann,

“Who didn’t you murder?”   

“Ohh Iris, it’s nothing, I just come here sometimes…”

“How didn’t you murder Director?”

“Iris… I’m not obliged to answer any of your questions. Now if

you’ll excuse me…” Marry-Ann tries to walk past Iris and is almost at the stairs.

“You were always like that teacher Marry; never answering

questions instead you’d lock us in and starve us. So who did you not murder?”

Marry-Ann stopped in her tracks and said, “What did you say?” she

said with both anger and hesitation.

“I remember once you took us all out for a picnic…” Iris took tiny

steps towards Marry-Ann, “We were playing and you told us if we got dirty we

would be punished, and we were children we were going to get dirty. When we got

back you beat us up one at a time.”

“Stop…”

“Admit it, you kept us around when you needed us and got rid of us

when you didn’t”

“Stop it Iris”

“And this” Iris brought forward the book, “You only reopened so

you could find this, the evidence to your crimes, the evidence that you

tormented us and killed us right here in this building.”

“It was an accident” Marry-Ann took steps back, “I didn’t mean to

kill them; they brought in money from the government. Just give me the book and

we can pretend this never happened. Iris, please bring the book here.”  Suddenly

Mary-Ann went from scared to crazy, her face twitched, her eyes widened and she

leaped at Iris trying to claw off her face while snatching the

book.    

Once the book was in Marry-Ann’s hand she bolted out of the

building but didn’t run far. When she had existed the building she was

apprehended by police officers who had placed her under arrest for murder. Iris

exited the building next and with policy's permission went to Marry-Ann to say

the last few words.

“How did you know all this?” Marry-Ann asked in a voice barely

audible.

“That night you didn’t kill 6 kids, you killed 5. I, Jade,

survived and don’t worry I’ll find my friends who you killed and I’ll make sure

the world knows” after that Iris left and Marry-Ann was driven away in the

police car.

The night of the Murder 21 years ago

Jade was able to escape but the image of her dead friends drove

her to the point that she jumped in front of a car. Luckily the driver stopped

but Jade had fainted. When she woke up she was in the presence of a couple who

asked her who she was and her parents. Jade had told them everything through

her sobs; they took her in as their daughter and raised her with a new identity.

--THE END--