Chapter 38

In the orphanage, we were beaten, shot, starved, everything and anything you could imagine. There was one particular punishment that I remember. It was the White Room torture. We would be put into a white padded room, we would wear a white robe and eat rice on a white plate with only our hands. If we needed to go toilet we would be given a white tissue and have to do our business on it and slide it through the door. We wouldn't have any human contact until we passed out, which could take from a day or to a month. Most people leave the room not remembering anything. They had been through so much torture that they don't remember their families or even their names. Personally, I found this the worst type of torture out of all of them.

I and David stuck as close as we could in the orphanage. We were there for each other no matter what. That was until one year, David and two others were picked to join the even darker end of the deal.

I was coming back from my shift at cleaning the bathroom with a few others who were older than me. That day wasn't the worst of days but still not exactly the best. All I wanted to do was come back to my dorm and tell David a story that the other mentors had told me earlier. Although, upon opening up the door to our dorm, I was met with silence. No one was there. It was very unusual as he would normally greet me happily with a huge smile on his face or moan that I had woken him up from his sleep. But I didn't get any of that. Instead, the next day, while I was helping one of the mentors with our task, I explain what had happened the previous night. She simply sighed and said, ' Look Cam, I'm not sure what to say, but your friend is....well, he's gone. t....to somewhere else. I can't say where because I don't want to lie to you and give you the wrong information. All you need to know is that, from now on, you must show that you are strong and that you are not scared of anything. That's your only chance of meeting him again.' At the time I wasn't quite sure of what she meant, but I still did what she suggested. It took a while of getting used to it. But it got to the point where I felt numb to all the pain and any pain I did feel, I didn't show. After about fourteen months, I and eight others were picked to join the rest in training.

During those fourteen months, I got close to two people. Sofia and her brother Milan. Sofia was one of my mentors when I had to move to a different section of the orphanage. She was a stunning person. Her brown hair would be worn down during daylight hours and she would tie it up during the night. Her dark, rich, emerald green eyes would sparkle every time I sneaked a piece of chocolate from the kid's dinner table. She was tall and had a slim, model-like figure. Sofia was one of those goody-two-shoes and rarely got in trouble. While her brother wasn't as great. Milan was around my age. Maybe even older but he was quite young. He was a troublesome child and got in trouble with the littlest things. His features weren't much different from Sofias except that he had shorter hair and eyelashes and his lips were thinner. His chin was more of a 'u' shape than a 'v' and his body physic was a lot smaller. Nevertheless, I stayed with these two for the year until they got adopted.

A middle-aged, Russian businesswoman came and took them in. She said that she had been looking for Russian-born children to adopt but couldn't find any. She also mentioned that this orphanage was her last resort and if she couldn't find any children there, all hope of having a family would be lost. Sofia promised me that she would beg the woman to come to take me out of 'this shit hole', but the woman never came back. I was back to the same old routine but this time, I really didn't have anyone. I was all alone.

About 3 weeks later, I was woken up in the middle of the night and dragged out of my dorm with a bag over my head. The person who held me, handled me with somewhat caution. I couldn't see where I was going or where I had been, so I had to put whatever trust I had left, into a pair of unknown hands. The journey to the van was in silence. No one spoke. I'm not sure who was around me but I could hear more than four footsteps around me. The sound of raincoats moving also gave that away.

I was thrown into the back of a van along with many others. Each of us was given a sandwich bag and one bottle of spring water with no label. In the sandwich bag, there were two pieces of bread with a scrape of butter in between them, a packet of takis, and two twinkies. This was very unusual. The whole thing was unusual. The person who handed out our food sat with us in the back. I couldn't see who they were or what they even looked like because of how dark it was at the time. Even if it was light, I'm sure that they would have worn a hat and a mask to cover their identity. "I want no sound out of any of you, no questions, and no backchat if I ask you a question." They ordered. The van started to move forward causing all of us to slide to the back of the van, as none of us were prepared or strapped to anything. "The food is for the journey. You won't get any more until we get to the place we're going, so take it wisely, " and that was it. We weren't told anything else for the remainder of the journey.

It was clear that all of us were confused. Eyes were darting everywhere, looking for answers to the million questions crammed into their heads. The type of questions that people that young should have never had to worry about. Regardless, we did as we were told and sat in the van for the journey, just anticipating what was going to happen to us next.

>>> to be continued