Welcome To Vad.

Sometimes, the ones we love the most end up hurting us the most.

The cool, soft wind blew high as the enticing fragrance of nature and flowers hit my nostrils. I firmly tugged my black jacket against my chest while my breath hitched when I saw the sign of Vad.

You know those bedtime stories in which mothers used to scare their children, saying that if they don’t sleep a witch will come and take them away? Well, the story of Vad is something like that for teenagers; if we do bad things, we will be sent to Vad.

Vad is a place for wild, untamed, unregulated, uncontrolled, and troubled teens like me. It is sort of like a jail, but you cannot go to jail until you are 21 according to the law of the prison.

A 25 feet large matte black steel gate came with ‘Vad’ written in classy cursive hand-writing in shimmering gold.

The entrance itself emitted power and darkness; what might lie within the thought itself made me shiver.

The driver stopped the car and muttered something on a type of mic which was handed to him by another man at the entrance.

The large doors opened wide, and the car drove inside. The doors closed behind us with a thud. My eyes grew wide when I looked outside the window.

I don’t know what I was expecting; but what I was really not expecting was a road between two mountains, where there were animals and birds playing around the colorful flowers and butterflies.

I imagined something dark, gloomy, and evil.

But the aura that surrounded me was beautiful and inviting.

I giggled when I saw a deer chasing after a butterfly, but hit the tree in between. The driver glanced at me through the rear-view mirror with a weird expression, making me squirm in my seat. The driver was an old man, who looked like he reached his early 60s recently. He was chubby and had some grey hairs on his soon-to-be bald head.

‘’Haven’t seen animals before?’’ he asked me, raising his eyebrows. It surprised me that, he was talking to me as he didn’t seem like the one to start a conversation. Despite that, I thought of replying to him as he didn’t speak to me rudely or arrogantly.

‘’Yeah kind of, I have only seen stray cats and dogs’’ I replied quietly.

‘’Hmm, never been to the zoo?’’ He inquired, looking back at the road.

‘’No’’ I replied.

Something inside me felt like tearing apart, but I ignored it; that was a feeling I was used to. It was nothing new.

He said nothing else and continued driving while I admired the view outside.

After about 20 minutes the car came to a halt and stood in front of a large two-story building which was designed with red brick tiles and a large board hung over it which displayed, ‘Block E’.

‘’Collect your room key, enter your name and fill the application. They will hand you your counseling session’s timings and date along with the room keys’’ the driver said looking at me after we got out of the car.

‘’Ok, thank you so much’’ I replied with a polite smile. For a moment I thought something again yet weird cross his facial expression, but he quickly hid it with a curt nod. Maybe I was imagining things.

I walked inside the building slowly while the breeze blew some of my blonde locks on my face.

‘’I will wait for you, I need to drop you at the hostel!’’ the driver shouted from his place.

I turned around with a grin, ‘’I’ll try to make it quick’’ I replied, while he nodded again.

I entered sliding through the glass doors. There were big boards hung on the ceiling which had the arrows directing towards the office. I followed them and knocked on the door that the arrows pointed.

The time I first knocked, no one answered. I knocked again, that’s when I heard a strong feminine voice shout, ‘’Come in!’’

I took a large breath, stepped back, and opened the door with a small smile.

The office smelled like jasmine and ink; sitting there behind the large wooden table with elegance emitting her body was a tall, slim lady, who wore a black shirt tugged under her black knee-length pencil skirt. She looked like she was in her 30s and she was undeniably beautiful. Her gorgeous golden-blonde hair was the perfect combination for her divine olive skin.

‘’Hello,’’ I greeted with a small smile.

‘’What’s your name?’’ She rudely asked ignoring my greeting, taking out a paper and a pen, she started writing something on that.

‘’Cordelia Clemente’’ I replied quietly, why didn’t she like me? Had I done something wrong?

For a moment, I thought she stopped writing, or maybe I was over-analyzing the situation.

‘’Repeat’’ She said looking at me, I was surprised and looked at her with a confused expression furrowing my eyebrows.

‘’Are you deaf?’’ She asked, raising her right eyebrow.

‘’Sorry?’’ I asked, scrunching my eyebrows.

‘’ I asked you to repeat your name!” She exclaimed, raising her hands in the air making me flinch backward. Her eyes narrowed at the reaction but she didn't say anything.

‘’Sorry, it’s-it’s’’ I stuttered.

‘

’it’s-it’s what?’’ she exclaimed, mocking me.

‘’It’s Cordelia Clemente’’ I replied, straightening my back. For a second, I felt like something swirled in those dark-brown eyes of hers but she soon recovered it with a fake smile.

‘’Now, that was not hard, was it?’’ she asked with her fake smile.

I hesitantly shook my head.

‘’Take a seat and fill your information over here,’’ she said, handing me a form, ‘’I will be eight back with your room keys and the timetable of your counseling sessions, oh yeah and take this form and mark the subjects you want to attend’’ she added in her professional tone handing me another form.

‘’Thank you’’ I replied quietly, I was going to send her a smile but refrained from doing so, she might not like my smile.

Maybe, they just need to be strict with their students, after all, this is a place for the filtration of ruthless teens.

‘’I will be back’’ with that she left the room

The office room was large and on the other end of the room was a wall with many photo frames, if I was my usual self, curiosity would have perked up inside me and I would have looked into every corner of the room but I was different now.

Now, I was the broken and ‘ruthless’ Cordelia.

How the tables have turned just last week in this time I was spending time with my family filled with laughter and love.

Family, is that what they really are? If they were, why was it so hard to choose me? If they were, why did they not choose me? Because if they were, they would have never let me go.

A few drops of tears fell from my eyes, I closed my eyes just as the stinging ache in my chest began.

‘’Stop’’ I whispered to myself. Shaking my head, I harshly wiped away my tears and started filling the form.

It had been nearly 45 minutes when the lady re-entered the room. Until she returned, I chose the subjects I wanted to attend; I was always good in science and mathematics, for which I chose all three science subjects as well as additional mathematics and secondary math; I chose Health and nursing along with Psychology classes. The moral values class was a must class for every student in Vad, cause it was already ticked in the form.

‘’Sorry for being late’’ the lady said monotonously as she entered the room.

‘’No problem’’ I replied quietly. She took my forms in her hand and raised an eyebrow, looking at my subject list.

‘’That many?’’ she inquired.

‘’I had more at my old school’’ I replied lowly, looking away, I felt her scrutinizing gaze studying me but I didn’t dare to meet her eyes.

‘’Hmm, here are your room keys and counseling sessions' timetable. Collect your routine tomorrow in the morning’’ she instructed, dismissing me with her hands.

‘’But tomorrow I don’t have cl-‘’

‘’tomorrow is Saturday, you have your counseling sessions on Saturday, Monday and Thursday.’’ She told me raising her right eyebrow.

I nodded, silently asking her to continue.

‘’So, it wouldn’t be a problem for you to collect the routine tomorrow’’ she replied with a sigh and kept staring at me, making me anxiously shift my on my legs,

‘’You are dismissed’’ She added clearing her throat and looked away.

‘’Thank you’’ I replied softly and stood up from my seat to leave.

‘’It’s late, do you think you can go alone?’’ she asked without raising her eyes from the file she was reviewing.

She didn't care, but somehow it still made me smile.

‘’Sure the driver who brought me here, told me he will drop me at the hostel’’ I replied with a small smile. She froze.

‘’You mean Joseph?’’ she asked, raising her eyes to meet mine.

‘’I don’t know his name, but he’s old and has less hair’’ I replied, picturing the driver who brought me here.

‘’Yeah, that’s him’’ she muttered.

I looked at her in confusion, furrowing my eyebrows. She stared at me longer than before and for a second I felt like she became stiff.

‘’Ok, you may leave’’ she told me, clearing her throat once again, looking away.

I nodded and left the room, not missing the soft sigh after closing the door.