Dark Friends (6 page)

              Over the next few days, she chose her mark: Counselor Vale, one of the younger male staff members, was perfect. He often filled in for Counselor King, the Ellis look-alike, at the outdoor patio during mealtimes. He was no more than thirty years old and he seemed out of his depth with so many girls under his direct authority. He had the dark, slender features of a Mediterranean man and he spoke with such a clear falsetto that Amelia thought he belonged in the opera. He never yelled, never cursed and didn't seem cruel. Counselor Ellis kept a cast-iron chain wrapped around the throat of the orphanage, Amelia decided, and Counselor Vale was the weakest link.

              Two days after Lily's disappearance, Amelia emboldened herself to speak out of line to Counselor Vale.  She waited until the morning assignments were being issued, then she made her move when he called her up,

              “Good morning, Counselor Vale” Amelia said in her sweetest, most deferential tone.

              “Hi Amelia. You'll be digging today, take Asa with you” Vale said, leafing through his roster. This is it, Amelia thought, now or never.

              “Counselor Vale, you seem awfully handsome to be a Counselor here. You could be a model or movie star” Amelia ventured. Though she hadn't spoken loudly, every girl in the area craned their neck to witness Amelia's brazenness. With so much instant attention on him, to Amelia's delight, Vale turned slightly red.

              “Uh, thank you” This breach of protocol was so unexpected that Vale had trouble forming words, “But there's no talking allowed” Vale said.

              “I'm sorry sir” Amelia replied, replacing her tone of admiration with one of complete submission, she hung her head and looked up at him with just her eyes, half-smiling.

              “It's OK. You're not in trouble. Now, off you go.”

              “Yes sir.” Amelia smiled to herself. The entire encounter had lasted only thirty seconds.

              She made her way to the work-shed to retrieve the shovels, with young Asa in tow.  He's vain, she thought. He's vain and indecisive. Any other male counselor would have, at the very least, slapped her. Others might have done worse. And if she had said
that
to Ellis, well, she didn't want to think about it. Still, she had formed a temporary rapport with the young man, she had shown him that he had the ability to decide
not
to punish, even when a rule was blatantly ignored. I can use this, Amelia thought. All I have to do is figure out his interests, build a confidence and Ta-da! She would have her mole.

              Vale watched Amelia walk away and he felt his heart slow down and his face return to it's normal color. He had loved her words. I'm so handsome that an orphan will risk a beating to ask me what I'm doing here, Vale thought. Her timing had been excellent, as well, she had made light of one of the worst parts of his day, delegating morning work, and he loved anything that broke up the monotony of work. For the first time since meeting Ellis, Vale thought he could start making real decisions around the place. After finishing the morning tasks, Vale decided that he should supervise the various girl groups, to make sure they were being good. He decided to go to Amelia's work-site first.

              Now it was Amelia's turn to be surprised. She had expected to have a quiet day of digging a trench, ostensibly to lay a pipe, on the western side of the orphanage, where the sun's rays had not yet warmed the earth. Next to Amelia, Asa grunted with the weight of the wheelbarrow that the dirt was dumped into, her face showing the strain of hard labor. Her hands will be bleeding soon, Amelia thought; her own hands were now strong and callused, the effect of countless hours of manual labor.

              “Take a break, both of you.” A voice spoke from behind the girls, the smoothness of Vale's tone was unmistakable. Both girls turned around, astonished;  they had only been working for two hours.

              “Yes sir.” They said in unison. As they set down their tools and started making their way to the patio, Vale spoke again,

              “Asa, go ahead. Amelia, I want to speak with you.”

              “Sir?”

              “Do you really think I could be a movie star,” the words sounded ludicrous to both of them, “Should I be pursuing a better career? I know you're smart, so tell me what you think.” The words were meant to sound casual, but they somehow came out sounding like an order.

              “Yes sir. I think if you practiced enough, you could be a movie star or a model. You seem so different from the other counselor's, you're so...
genuine.”
Amelia responded. Vale thought that he probably wouldn't get great career advice out of an adolescent orphan who had never been anywhere, but he enjoyed hearing compliments too much to care.

              “How about this, Amelia, we can talk and be friends, but if you tell any of the other girls or counselor's, I'll make sure you regret it.” Vale's threat was clear, if unnecessary; Amelia would never tell a soul.

              “Of course sir. I don't know if I'll be up for much talking, I've just been too worried lately.”

              “About what?”

              “My friend Lily, I haven't seen her in over two days.”

              “She's fine.”

              “What?”             

              “I'm not supposed to tell you, per Lisson policy, but I promise, she's fine.”

              “Thank you so much, Counselor
Handsome
” Amelia said in her most adoring voice.

              “OK,, OK, go take your break.” Vale said. He was not sexually attracted to Amelia in any way, but he was addicted to her adoration. She said what he wanted to hear, and in exchange, he would treat her like a human.              

                           
Chapter 10

              Ellis had spent half the morning doing paperwork: Employee evaluations, budget reports, adoption reports, staff meeting notes, his charges' conditions...the list was endless. He was familiar and even adept at this part of his job, though he despised it. He liked to be where the action was, making decisions and letting his underlings
feel
his presence. He knew that many of the orphan girls would describe him as a
hands-on
kind of boss. As Ellis finished his last to-do's, he turned his thoughts to
Amelia
, the smart girl. She reminded him of his mother.

              Ellis' mother had been a brilliant woman in her prime, and a wise one in her later years, always quick with her thoughts and words. Ellis had never been able to hide anything from her. Once, after he was promoted to Head Counselor, his mother asked him how he planned to turn the orphanage into a, “high-functioning safe haven for God's forgotten children.” She thought he had finally found his calling in life, and she couldn't have been more right. Ellis never told her he was a pedophile, but one day, out of nowhere, she simply asked, “Are you molesting the kids in your care? What have you become?” Her questions had surprised him and Ellis had vehemently denied her accusations. In response, she had simply stared at his eyes and seen through his weakness. It was her eyes, Ellis finally settled on, that had always scared him. They were too damn bright blue, too insightful, too...
aware.
After several minutes of intense retrospect Ellis couldn't take it anymore, he hated his mother for her perspicacity. He needed to vent. Leaving his office, he went to find his newest employee, what was his name? Vale? That pretty little man would know where his mother...no.. where
Amelia
was at.

              Vale's vanity and superiority complex were no match for Ellis' raw nature. It wasn't just that Ellis was a hulking beast of a man, it was his relentless pursuit of his desires. When Ellis wanted something, he got it. When he had walked up to Vale and demanded to where Amelia was, Vale had felt irrational fear seize his whole being, like he was a helpless rabbit in the cross-hairs of a hungry lion. Vale had started sweating and his pulse raced, his pupils dilated. He had to force his hand to stop quivering to point in the direction of Amelia and Asa. As Ellis walked away, Vale knew that his fear had been obvious to an experienced predator like Ellis, but he didn't care. He had been ignored by the hungry lion and relief flooded his whole body, creating temporary euphoria.

             
Working with Asa, Amelia felt...bored. Due to no fault on Asa's part, of course, but her submissive toiling reminded Amelia of her own station in life.  She couldn't stay like this forever. Sure, now she had Vale on her side, and she didn't doubt that he would prove useful somehow, but with that task already complete, Amelia was at a loss. What could she do with him? She could use him to contact the outside world, or maybe help her just run away, to alleviate the drudgery of her life. These random phases of boredom were not new for Amelia, whose mind needed constant subsistence. Her brain was like a starving bear, quickly consuming anything it could find, then after a moment feeling hungry again. She considered Vale's words earlier, that Lily was “just fine.” What did he mean? Was she somewhere that she could no longer feel pain? Was she dead? Or perhaps she was moved to the kitchens, though Amelia couldn't understand why Ellis would put her there. Maybe he hurt her. There was one other possibility; that she had been
adopted
. It was unthinkable. In Amelia's entire life, she had seen and met hundreds of other orphans, and only six of them had ever been adopted. Six. If Lily was number seven, then she was the first adoption from Lisson that Amelia had heard of. Amelia's mind began working at a frantic pace, trying to imagine all the circumstances necessary for a child to be adopted. They had to be the right age, at the right place and at the right time. The parents had to have immaculate personal histories and money. They had to choose a child, and even then, they could return their purchase if they were dissatisfied with the child's behavior. Amelia's mind tried to calculate the odds of herself getting adopted, and they were astronomically slim. Maybe one in ten thousand.
Maybe.

              After years of practice, Ellis could approach nearly anyone from behind and take them unawares. He liked the mixture of a great surprise with a huge disappointment. He could take a child and have them in his chambers before they knew what was happening. Ellis wore no shoes, and his feet caressed the blades of grass as he stalked Amelia. He felt like a lion on the hunt, sneaking up on it's prey from behind, then snatching its life away without any resistance. He felt the wind on the stubble of his face. The air was humid and the he welcomed the breeze, though it kicked up dust into the air. Taking a deep breath, Ellis moved towards Amelia. He didn't bother to crouch down, there was nothing that could conceal his over-sized body, anyway. When he reached her, she still hadn't turned. He bent over and put his nose close to her neck, smelling her sweat. Ellis took another deep breath, filling his lungs completely, then he screamed inches away from Amelia's ear.

              “Turn around, bitch!” Amelia fell to the ground grasping her ears and rolling to face him. Her eyes turned huge when she saw him and she curled up in a ball, trying to protect herself. Ellis couldn't feel it himself, but he knew that she was paralyzed with fear.

              With the fun and games over, Ellis picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She tried to keep her muscles tensed, but the bouncing of Ellis' stride caused his shoulder to ram into her gut, making her limbs splay out. Powerless to resist a grown man's strength, Amelia gritted her teeth for the torture she was about to endure. She tried to keep her mind distracted during the rape, but she kept finding her thoughts return to the same, slim possibility: Adoption.

                                                                                                                             
Chapter 11

Three years later...

              By the age of fifteen, Amelia was a completely different girl. Gone was the innocent, harmless child who had entered Lisson Orphanage nearly five years ago. Now she was angry at the world. Her face was fixed into a perpetual sneer, with her eyes slanted and lips bunched up. She rarely smiled. She walked with her shoulders squared and her chin high, daring anyone to speak to her. In her heart of hearts, Amelia knew that Lisson had changed her for the worse, primarily because of Ellis, but she didn't know how to recapture her youthful sweetness. The world was a hard, unforgiving place and she saw no benefit in being compassionate or tender.

              Amelia was on her way to see Ellis; She had been given a message at the patio to attend him in his office. Feeling almost nothing except a slight annoyance, Amelia made her way through the halls. Practically from the time she had started on the lawn crew, she had become Ellis' favorite victim. By far. She was with him multiple times every week, and sometimes he was rougher than others. Everyone knew that he preferred Amelia over the other girls, and she was not challenged as she walked the corridors of Lisson alone.  Once she had started feeling freedom of movement within the facility, Amelia had taken to wandering the halls, always ready with the excuse that she was going to see Ellis. She knew the entire orphanage, top to bottom, and it was the closest thing to a home that she had ever known. Amelia checked the cheap watch on her wrist that Ellis had given her; she could wander for a few more minutes before he would start getting impatient.