30 Years Orphan--Recording#1 (continue)

I stood still in front of the mansion, looking at it, still can’t believe my eyes. ‘It’s must be a dream, this can’t be real, it’s burned down 30 years ago’, I kept on telling myself until there’s something that caught my sight. There’s a boy, a little boy. He’s hiding behind a branch, looking at me. Weird. That boy just kept looking at me until I realized him. I tried to approach towards him, but I just started my first step, he ran away.

‘Hey! Wait up!’ the boy ran straight towards the backyard of the mansion. He’s my only chance, so I raced up without any hesitation. When I reached to the backyard, it was a kids playground, just like 30 years ago. Everything here didn’t change, I can still remember clearly, the blue and pink see-saw which I hated it last time and the other kids paintings that were drawn all around the fence. Everything just…. Same.

The boy was standing there, back-facing me, looking at a paper that he was holding. According to his height ,I guessed he was a 5 or 6 years ago boy. ‘Hey, little boy. How did you get here?’. The boy turned back slowly. Under the ray of the moon, his face was shown clearly. He looked familiar but I can’t remember who he is. He has blonde hair just like mine, but he looked sad.

‘What’s wrong? You look sad. Is there anything?’, slowly he took up his head. I can see tears in his eyes. I slowly squad down, so that we can see each other better.

‘(sniffing) There’s something bad, very bad’

‘What is it?’, ‘I…I….’

‘It’s okay if you don’t wanna tell me. How did you get here?’

The boy gave me a weird looking face when he heard my question.

‘I live here, but I’m scared.’

‘Why?’

The boy hand over the paper that he was holding, it was a map.

‘You’ll need it, they are playing hide and seek, you can find them through this. But I only have the 1st floor. I got to get back in’.

I took the map and the boy ran away heading back into the mansion through the back door. ‘Hey! Who are they? What are you talking about? And what is your name!?’.

The boy stopped and answered me with his back facing me,

‘My name is Ben, Ben Cooper’. Then he ran straight into the mansion.

The boy is….. me. But how? And who are the ‘they’ he was talking about? I needed answers, so I followed the way the ‘other’ me went. I slowly turned the door knob and entered the door. The ‘Ben’ wasn’t there anymore. I’m in a kitchen. It was silent, I looked at the map the boy gave me. Suddenly, I saw a shadow passing by in front, fast, very fast. I ran to where it went but saw nothing.

*Dreamer*

30 Years Orphan--Recording#1

Sarah, it’s me, Ben. Your beloving Ben Cooper. Please forgive for my disappearance, I believed you were worried about my disappearance, most possibly you are angry too, right? But please listen this, I’m now back at Stepperd’s Orphan House. Yes, the orphanage that I stayed 30 years ago. You must be wondering how. The orphanage was burned down 30 years ago after the case that everyone there was murdered and now I’m telling you that I’m back there. I know you will be thinking that “Ben are you out of your minds? It’s gone” But hey, it’s true. I’m at Stepperd’s Orphan House now. Even me myself is confused about how this can be true. Okay, listen I’m now gonna tell you what happened that day. If I’m not mistaken, it’s about seven days ago, right?

That day everything was normal in the morning, until when I was on my way home from the office. I was driving home at 5.04p.m. after work. When I reaches the T junction 2 miles away from the office, I had an urge to turn right, which I never go through that path before and had no idea where will it lead to. But there’s something weird, there was like something guiding me from no where. I’m able to drive through the road all the way long, it’s like I knew where am I going. But the problem is, I don’t.

I tried to find a junction or a way that I’m able to make u turn back. But the road was starting to get narrow, only one car was able to go through the way. And it’s just exactly for one car all the way, can u believe that? When I was driving, I was wondering where am I and where am I supposed to reach. I was being squeeze between two forests with big, tall trees. I kept on felt that there was something or someone watching me from nowhere, goose bumps starting to rise all over my hands. Creepy. But after 20 minutes of no-idea-where-am-I-going journey, I thought I saw hope. I reached at a split road, both roads look alike and I have no idea which to take. Suddenly, I heard a voice came from my back telling, “take east”. I was shocked and turned around to see who or what told me that. You must be thinking that I maybe just too tired and got some illustration. But I swear, that’s not an illustration, I heard it loudly and clearly.

I was scared and had no idea whether follow or not to follow what “it” told me to. And that’s when I was confused, I saw a weak glimp of light at the far side of the east road. I starting to feel that maybe that “thing” was trying to help me, there may be a house or a town at far side of the road. And so, I pushed down my handbrake and turned my car steering wheel to the left, accelerate. My heart was in a 50-50 condition that time, 50% scared 50% graceful. But that’s until I saw something that made me stopped and made a conclusion that I had reach the end of the road.

It was a mansion lying in front of my eyes, the surrounding was the same, all trees. I hopped down of the car and tried to see if there’s any life in that big house. What I saw was nothing, pitch dark in all the windows, not even a single shadow can be seen. But there’s one thing that made up my mind of where am I. standing beside me was sign board written “Welcome To The Home of Love, Stepperd’s Orphan House”. I can’t believe my eyes, I tried to rephrase back and realized that the mansion is the same as the big house I stayed in 30 years ago. This is impossible, but still it’s there in front of my eyes. I’m back to Stepperd’s Orphan House.

*Dreamer*

30 Years Orphan-Prologue

“My name is Ben, I have a secret. I don’t belong here, save me.”

* * *

“Ben, its me, Sarah. It has been week you are gone, where are you? Everyone is worried about you. Please at least give us a call. Love you, Sarah.”
Sarah put down the phone, “He’s never been like this before. Wonder what’s wrong with him?” “Maybe he just went for a trip or something. C’mon he’s old enough to take care of himself” answered David. Sarah spoke her words out with anger. “A trip!? Where would he go at this moment that made him so secret not to tell me !? I don’t know David, I’m scared. I have a bad feeling about this.” “Sarah, I think you are tired. Listen to me, go home, take a shower, and go to bed. Maybe, you’ll see him again tomorrow morning. What says you?” “But what if….” “Shh… I guess you are really tired. It’s late now, listen to me, ok?” “ (sigh) Maybe you are right. I think I’m going home then.”

* * *

The night wasn’t a good night for Sarah to sleep well. Ever since Ben’s disappearance, she was never able to sleep tight. Questions were all over her head. Where will her beloved Ben be? He never tried leaving house without telling Sarah, his beloved wife, why?
Was he in danger? Or did someone kidnapped him? These question kept floating in Sarah’s head. A week, this had made Sarah suffered, until the next morning…….

As usual, Sarah woke at 7a.m. The first thing she hoped to hear every morning for the pass seven days was that Ben’s “Morning, honey”. But this has never happened, even today. Sarah starting to felt disappointing and hopeless….. until she found something.

It was 7.05a.m., time for Sarah to ready up for her work. She changed into her usual working uniform and wanted to go to the dining room to have a breakfast. But when the door of her room was opened, there’s a recording tape lying on the floor in front of her. There’s an envelope beside the tape which was wriiten in blood, “To my beloved Sarah” on it. These words had made Sarah unable to move. After a few second of shocked, she quickly looked around to see who put these on that spot, who would be able to enter the house unless its…. Sarah’s thought stopped here, she quickly picked up the two items and opened the envelope. What she found was a piece of rotten paper that was written “listen to the tape”. These words were written in blood, fresh blood. Sarah felt weird for the writing but she didn’t care much. She quickly bring the recording tape that came along with the letter to the radio in the living room. Her heart was beating fast, what will she hear in the tape. Is it Ben telling her that all the way long it was just a joke to make her laugh? She quickly inserted the tape into the tape and pressed the button of an arrow pointing to the right. What she heard was this.

“Sarah, it’s me, Ben. Your beloving Ben Cooper……”

*Dreamer*